2-699-327 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Chapel of the Pyx', (1881). The Pyx Chamber, one of the oldest surviving parts of Westminster Abbey in London. It was built c1070 and made into a treasury in the 13th century. The word 'Pyx' comes from wooden boxes in which silver and gold pieces were kept secure before the 'Trial of the Pyx' - the melting down of measured silver content in order to show that the coinage was pure. From Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places. Westminster and the Western Suburbs, by Edward Walford, Vol. III. [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., London, Paris & New York, 1881]