In the Saxon times English money was made of silver only, but this was inconvenient both for very large and for very small payments. The best way is to use gold, silver, and bronze money according as each is convenient. #In the English system of money, gold is the standard money and the legal tender#, because no one can be obliged to receive a large sum of money in any other metal. If a person owes a hundred pounds, he cannot get rid of the debt without tendering or offering a hundred pieces of coined gold to his creditor. Silver coin is a legal tender only to the amount of forty shillings--that is, no creditor can be obliged to receive more than forty shillings in a single payment. Similarly, bronze coin is a legal tender only up to the amount of one shilling in all. #81. What is a Pound Sterling?# In England people are continually paying and receiving money in pounds, but few could say exactly what a pound sterling means. No doubt it is represented by a coin called a sovereign, but what is a sovereign? Strictly speaking, #a sovereign is a piece of gold coined, in accordance with an Act of Parliament, at a British mint, still bearing the proper stamp of that mint, and weighing not less than 122-1/2 grains#. On the average the sovereigns issued from the mint ought to weigh 123.274 grains, but it is impossible to make each coin of that exact weight, and if this were done, the coins would soon be lessened in weight by wear. A sovereign is legal tender for a pound as long as it weighs 122-1/2 grains or more, and is not defaced; but, in reality, people are in the habit of paying and receiving sovereigns which are several grains less in weight than the law requires. Twenty silver shillings are by law to be received as equal in value to a pound. This is necessary, in order that we may be able to pay a fraction of a pound, for a coin made of gold equal to the twentieth part of a pound would easily be lost, worn, or even blown away. But the silver in twenty shillings is not equal in value to the gold in a pound; its value varies with the gold price of silver, and, at present, twenty shillings are only worth about sixteen gold shillings and eightpence, that is, 5/6 of a pound. It is necessary to make the silver coin thus of less value than it is taken for, in order to render it unprofitable to melt the coin. In the same way, the metal in a bronze penny is worth only about the sixth part of a penny, so that people would lose a great deal by melting up or destroying pence.