What name of a currency refers to a gold coin that had been "weighed" and verified?

Arpeggionist

The British pound has its roots in sterling silver. The word "shekel", which was revived as the monetary unit of Israel, was originally a unit of dry weight which could refer to any precious metal, or even to human hair (though the "holy shekel" designated in the last chapter of Leviticus strictly refers to silver). Oct 26 09, 6:41 PM

flem-ish

If that is indeed the origin of shekel, then there must be a link with German Scheffel the equivalent of bushel or with Dutch schepel. http://www.sizes.com/indexes.htm However I was looking for a word that derives from a Spanish word for "weighing". Oct 26 09, 11:18 PM

queproblema

When you first put this up I was going to say "peso," but don't know what you mean by "verified." There's also the Spanish "real," but I'm not sure if that word means "real, actual," or, more likely, "royal." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peso "The earliest shekels were not money, but were a unit of weight, used as other units of weight such as grams and troy ounces for trading before the advent of coins." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel "Mark (from a merging of three Teutonic/Germanic languages words, Latinized in 9th century post-classical Latin as marca, marcha, marha, marcus)[1] was a measure of weight (see mark (mass)) mainly for gold and silver, commonly used throughout western Europe and often equivalent to 8 ounces." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_%28money%29 "Lira (Pound) is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City (replaced in 1999 with the euro). The term originates from the value of a Troy pound (Latin libra)..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lira "The pound, a unit of currency, originated in England as the value of a pound mass of silver." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_%28currency%29 Most metal currencies began as weights since the metal was weighed during transactions before the days of reliable minting. Oct 26 09, 11:44 PM

flem-ish

It looks as if more than one curency got its name from the idea of "weighing, and in this way, checking the gold content of a coin". Peso as well as peseta. In the case of shekel however I wonder if the etymology is not linked to a Low German equivalent of Dutch scheppen cp. English scoop.High German schöpfen. And also related to shovel High German schaufeln. http://faculty.uml.edu/jgarreau/50.315/Europ1.htm Oct 27 09, 6:24 AM