Fact of the Month
Courtesy Peter JonesThe Origin of "Sterling" Silver
Some say the word sterling comes from the Old English word "steorling" meaning little star. Some British Norman silver pennies show stars.
Others say people called these coins Easterlings, referring to German speaking silver merchants, called the Easterlings. They had an excellent reputation for producing silver with reliable silver content.
British King Henry II formally mandated the sterling standard (92.5%) for British coinage in 1158.
Easterling referred not to a place, but to a group merchants and traders in eastern lands, especially from the Baltic and North Sea regions. They were often associated with the Hanseatic League, a trading partnership which lasted from around 1175 to 1669 CE. Their London headquarters was called "The Steelyard," a walled community on the north bank of the Thames River.
By the 1200s, Easterling silver in England meant a reliable 92.5% silver content. The word was later shortened to sterling. British silversmiths used the same standard. In 1544, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths mandated a lion passant mark as a symbol for sterling silver in England. This became part of the hallmarking system — a standardized set of symbols showing the purity and origin of silver items, still used to this day.
British silver pennies in the 1000s had 1.35 grams of silver, dropping to 1.08 grams in the 1300s, and 0.72 grams in the 1500s.
By contrast, French deniers' in the 1000s had 1.27 grams of silver, dropping to 0.16 grams in the 1300s, and 0.05 grams by the 1500s, just 6% of British penny silver content!
British silver coins maintained the sterling standard until 1920. Silver then became too expensive, so they reduced 1920 coins to 50% silver. In 1947, Britain abolished silver altogether for her circulating coins.
