Sterling

Sterling, genuine; money; standard-rate, Derived from the Easterlins who came to England from Germany in the thirteenth century, and coined good money. See Skeat's Etymological Dictionary, where it is said that the term 'sterling was first applied to the English penny and then to standard current coin in general, and that Wedgewood cites from Ducange a Statute of Edward I., in which we met with 'denarius Angli', qui vocatur sterlingus.'' And see Co. Litt. 207 b, Harg. note (1).