File:Medieval steelyard weight (FindID 537934).jpg

English: Part of the outer cast copper-alloy casing of a Medieval globular steelyard weight. It would originally have had a lead core held within the complete casing. About 35% of the casing survives. The remaining section suggest the body was spherical with a flattened area at the top . An integral D-shaped loop projects from this flattened area. The top of the loop is broken leaving two circular sectioned projections. It is corroded but there are traces of two incised lines with regularly spaced diagonal lines between them running around top, just below the edge of the flattened top. there is the remains of an integrally cast raised shield on the side. It is a straight topped shield with convex sides meeting at a point at the bottom with a raised design of a lion rampant on it. The fragment measures 51.9mm in height 57.6mm wide and the casing is 3.2mm thick and the attachment loop is 26.8mm in width at the base and and 8.1mm in thickness. It weighs 77.82g.

Such globular weights with raised shield designs on a copper alloy casing around an lead core are Medieval in date. Official examples were produced under a monopoly held by Richard Earl of Cornwall and Poitou, or of his son Edmund, the second Earl during the later 13th century. The lion rampart is part of their arms. More precise dating can be indicated by the combination of arms used on the weight, not clear in this example.
Brownsword and Pitt (1983) divide such weights into two groups based mainly on composition. They also suggest class A (latten) is very uniform with the incised band at the top containing a series of triangles. Class B (leaded bronze) in contrast is more variable in the incised decoration and possibly consists of local copies of the official types and continued in use, and possibly in production up until 1350 when steelyards were banned (Cherry 1991, p.47). This may be a class B.
SOM-FDCC33 on this database is a similar but complete example.