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Post Union 1707- coins, etc.The Scottish coinage during the late 17th century had been stopped for periods of time because of fraud being committed within the mint in Edinburgh in 1682. Small coinages were released from thereafter until 1705 when the last 5 and 10 shilling coins were struck. The Darien debacle of the late 17th, early 18th century, in which many Scots lost fortunes invested in a scheme to colonise Panama in hopes of being at the apex of trade with the Orient, Scotland was left penniless and with huge unpaid debts. This also contributed to a new lack of need of a coinage. Unionist in Scotland's southern neighbour saw opportunity to inextricably link the two kingdoms which had in some sense been linked since James VI became the King of England in 1603 and fashioned himself the monarch of "Great Britain" The subsequent offer of a large chest of money, which would later be used to pay off Scotland's debts sweetened the deal. In 1707 the two kingdoms were unified as "The United Kingdom of Great Britain". Scottish coinage had been circulating within Britain at a rate of 12:1 against the English pound. At the time of the Union it was decided to unify the two monetary systems using the English pound as a basis. One part of the agreement, that apparently was shelved after 1709 was that Scotland was to retain it's mint in Edinburgh for the local coinage of money. Older Scottish coinage was called in and melted at the Edinburgh mint, and reminted into the new coinage with the addition of an "E" mintmark. This coinage continued through 1708 in earnest, and some rare pieces are extent dated 1709. Thereafter for some reason the mint was thence closed and would never re-open despite the above authorisation of it's existence. The lack of protest at this apparent injustice may be explained that several officials of said Mint retained incomes beyond the actual service to the Mint.
After the cessation of a unique coinage, there are only many different varieties of tokens which were issued all over Scotland to collect. The above piece is a communion token, which was given to a parishioner at the Dove Hill Relief Church in order that they might partake of communion at the time it was given. Most examples of these are in pewter or lead, and whilst some are rare, they are quite common and can be collected for nominal sums.
A few parishes issued communion tokens in copper or bronze and the above is an example of one of these.
In the late 18th and early 19th century Scotland as well as the rest of Britain, suffered a severe coin shortage. This was during the advent of the "Industrial Revolution" so a token coinage was initiated by private businesses, towns, cities etc. This growth, couple with the unusual policy of George III's government to not issue any but the most meager sums of coinage, necessitated tokens being issued from amounts varying from the farthing to even a few scarce pieces in gold. The scope of the tokens issued in Scotland is varied, and covers mostly the values of halfpennies and pennies. I personally do not collect these, due to my interest in the earlier coinage, but have included an example that was issued in Glasgow in 1791 with the city arms, and the "River God" on the reverse, symbolic of the river Clyde.
Though not uniquely a Scottish coin, but rather a British coin, in 1937 the Royal Mint began issuing shillings with a Scottish arms reverse. This tradition continued through the reign of Elizabeth II and still does in some sense as the current five pence coin has the Scottish thistle on the reverse. In addition, in honour of the Commonwealth Games held in Edinburgh in 1986 the Royal Mint issued a two pound commemorative coin with a Scottish thistle and wreath. |
Page last updated on 5th August 2011 Года All pages and images copyright © David Parrish 1999 - 2011 Года
