ORA, in Antiquity, was a term equivalent to ounce; but it has been much debated amongst our antiquaries, whether the ora, the mention of which so often occurs,
was a coin, or only money of account. Dr. Hickee observes, that the mode of reckoning money by marcs and oras was never known in England until after the settlement of the Danes; and by examining the old nummular estimates amongst the principal Gothic states upon the Baltic, it appears that the ora and solidus were synonymous terms, and that the ora was the eighth part of the marc. From several of the Danish laws, it likewise appears that the Danish ora, derived by corruption from aurea, was the same as the Frank solidus of twelve pence. As a weight, the ora was regarded as the uncia or unit, by which the Danish marc was divided; and in Domsday-book the ora is used for the ounce, or the twelfth part of the nummular Saxon pound, and the fifteenth of the commercial. As a coin it was an aureus, or the Frank solidus of twelve pence; and from the accidental coincidence of the Frank aureus with the eighth part of the marc, the Danes probably took occasion to give it the new name of ora. Another ora is mentioned in the rolls of the 27th of Henry III. the value of which was sixteen pence; and this was probably derived from the half mancus of the Saxons, as there were no aurei of that period to which these two denominations of money of sixteen and twelve pence could possibly be ascribed. It may be further observed, that the name ora distinguishes the gold coins in several parts of Europe to this day. The Portuguese moidore is nothing else but moeda d'oro, from the Latin moneta de auro; the French louis d'or comes from the same use of the word, and owes its appellation to the ora.