Draft of MINT00152 (Mint 19/3/2-3)

Diplomatic TextCatalogue Entry

<112r>

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 & 0 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 iiijdwt12 5d14
2 Cha II 86 wors vij 10d34
4 Another Mark piece Cha II 1675 102 wors ij 13
3 A two mark piece Cha II 1673 175 wors vij 2178
5 A three pound piece Cha II 1681 416 wors iiij 52d34 4. 434
6 Another three pound piece Cha II 1682 425 wors iij 54d. 016 4. 616
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Pieces coyned in the reigns of King James & King William

Year weight Fineness Value
A three pound piece 1691 425gr standard 4s. 6d 910
A forty shillings piece 1687 284 not assayd
Another 1688 283 sta 3. 012
Another 1689 284 sta 3. 023
Another 1695 284 sta 3. 023
Another 1695 283 wors iij 3. 0
Another 1696 284 sta 3. 023
Another 1696 283 wors ij 3. 016
A twenty shilling piece 1695 142 sta 1. 613
Another 1695 142 sta 1. 613
Another 1696 142 sta 1. 613
A tenn shilling piece 1687 71 sta 0. 916
Another 71 sta 0. 916
Another 1695 7112 not assayd
Another 1695 72 sta 0. 0 16
Another 1695 68 sta 0. 879 = 0. 834
A five shilling piece 35 wors i 0. 412

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 412d & 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.

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An Account of the weight & fineness of the