Draft of MINT00152 (Mint 19/3/2-3)
An Account of the money coyned in Scotland since the Restauration of King Cha. II.
The Scots in the reign of the three or four last Kings have coyned their silver monies of the same allay with the English vizt 11 ounces 2dwt fine & 18dwt allay, for which end they have indented trial pieces made here of the same piece with those made for the English mint. Their standard Troy weights by which they coyne are also made at our Mint at the same time with ours by common consent of both Mints, & our pound Troy is greater then theirs by 4 penny weight 9gr. And as we divide our pound into 62 parts which are our shillings & our ounce into sixty two parts which are our pence so they divide their ounce into sixty two parts which are their shillings excepting that to prevent the melting down of their money they make their money lighter by 4 shillings in sixty (as i am informed.) so that sixty shillings of their money is to their ounce Troy as 56 to 62 or 28 to 31, & by consequence ought to weight 425gr or 17dwt 17gr of our pound Troy, as I find by experience they be & to be worth 54 English pence & parts of a penny. The experiments we have made of the weight & fineness of their money are as follows
Pieces Coyned in the reign of King Cha. II | Reign | Date | Weight | Fineness | Value | ||
1 | A half mark piece | Cha. II | 1665 | 42gr | wors iiijdwt | 5d | |
2 | Cha II | ✱ | 86 | wors vij | 10d | ||
4 | Another Mark piece | Cha II | 1675 | 102 | wors ij | 13 | |
3 | A two mark piece | Cha II | 1673 | 175 | wors vij | 21 | |
5 | A three pound piece | Cha II | 1681 | 416 | wors iiij | 52d | 4. 4 |
6 | Another three pound piece | Cha II | 1682 | 425 | wors iij | 54d. 0 | 4. 6 |
Pieces coyned in the reigns of King James & King William
Year | weight | Fineness | Value | |
A three pound piece | 1691 | 425gr | standard | 4s. 6d |
A forty shillings piece | 1687 | 284 | not assayd | ✱ |
Another | 1688 | 283 | sta | 3. 0 |
Another | 1689 | 284 | sta | 3. 0 |
Another | 1695 | 284 | sta | 3. 0 |
Another | 1695 | 283 | wors iij | 3. 0 |
Another | 1696 | 284 | sta | 3. 0 |
Another | 1696 | 283 | wors ij | 3. 0 |
A twenty shilling piece | 1695 | 142 | sta | 1. 6 |
Another | 1695 | 142 | sta | 1. 6 |
Another | 1696 | 142 | sta | 1. 6 |
A tenn shilling piece | 1687 | 71 | sta | 0. 9 |
Another | ✱ | 71 | sta | 0. 9 |
Another | 1695 | 71 | not assayd | ✱ |
Another | 1695 | 72 | sta | 0. 0 |
Another | 1695 | 68 | sta | 0. 8 = 0. 8 |
A five shilling piece | ✱ | 35 | wors i | 0. 4 |
The mark, the two mark & the half marke pieces coyned in the reign of King Charles the II are bad work & considerably coarser & lighter then standard for which reason they were called in neare the end of that reign & are no longer currant in Scotland.
The sixty, 40, 20, 10 & five shillings pieces coyned since are better money in every respect, & make up the bulk of the money which now comes out of Scotland into England. Those coyned in the reigns of King James & King William are well sized except the ten shillings piece. The valuation of their money may be in the nearest round numbers by recconning their 10s piece worth nine pence of our money & their 5s piece worth 4d & so proportionally their 20, 40 & 60 shilling-pieces worth 1s 6d, 3s. 0d, & 4s 6d. ✱ < insertion from f 113r > ✱ At which rate their mark pieces (when ever they shall coyn any more of them) ought to pass for shillings & their half mark pieces for sixpences. These are round recconnings fit for use.
< text from f 112v resumes > In recconning exactly their ten-shillings-piece is worth 9 pence & about the seventh part of a penny of our money, yet considering that some pieces of their money are ijdwt iiijdwt & iiij penny weight wors then standard & that by continuall wearing their money grows dayly lighter & cannot be recoyned here without loss & that no country receives the money of another country unless at an undervalue, it may seem a reasonable enough that their 10s pieces should not pass in England for more then nine pences: For were all their money either worse then standard by iiij penny weight or lighter then standard by a grain in every eight shillings: their ten shillings piece would not be worth nine pence.
<113v>
these
An Account of the weight & fineness of the
Source
MINT 19/3/112-13, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK1697, c. 1,178 words.