MINT. 



VoUih clared to be vested in the king, who, according to a 



Mint, 



1424, cap. 24. is to cause new money to be struck 

 when he considers it suitable and profitable for the 

 realm. Various places of coinage appear on the earlier 

 coins, but the principal mint was certainly at Edin- 

 burgh, at least from the time that this city became 

 usually the royal residence, and it continued there until 

 the union of the kingdoms. The other mints, if such 

 they can be called, were at St. Andrew's, Perth, Dun- 

 dee, Aberdeen, Stirling, Dunbarton, Linlithgow, Ber- 

 wick, Roxburgh, and Annan. The mint of Perth or Dun- 

 dee was worked before the accession of James VI. It is 

 not explained whether gold was struck elsewhere than in 

 Edinburgh ; and the name of the place of the mintage 

 billon, or copper washed with silver, first introduced in 

 the reign of James II. between 14*36 and 1460, is rare- 

 ly seen upon it : Cardonnel Numismata Scolice, p. H7- 

 Anciently the mint is denominated the cttnyie house or 

 coining house, and its apparatus, the irons. Therefore, 

 when the reformers in 1559 took possession of the mint, 

 they considered themselves as effectually interrupting 

 its operations, by carrying off the coining irons; and, 

 in a royal proclamation, it is declared, " they have ta- 

 ken, and yet withhold the irons of our cunyie house, 

 which is one of the chief points that concerneth our 

 crown." Keith's History, p. 94. Knox's History of 

 the Church, p. 301, 302. They defended their pro- 

 ceedings, because the government were impoverishing 

 the country, by issuing a quantity of base money, call- 

 ed hardheads. The same simplicity of apparatus was 

 continued with little deviation until the reign of Charles 

 II. when the coining press was introduced into the 

 Scottish mint ; but if the nature of the products be con- 

 sidered, it seems not unlikely that some better mechani- 

 cal method than merely hammering coins or medals 

 must have been adopted. On the event of the union, 

 Queen Anne issued a warrant in 1707, directing that 

 the officers of the mint should be instructed in the plan 

 pursued by v the English mint, and soon after the whole 

 currency was recalled by proclamation to be recoined. 



Some antiquaries conjecture that the earliest Scottish 



mintage belongs to Alexander I. But it is doubtful 



whether the silver penny ascribed to him is not of his 



successors of the same name. Many are seen of Wil- 



liam, who reigned 1189 1214, yet nothing is said of 



the mint until the time of David II. in 13291371. 



Then a statute ordains a new coinage, with a distin- 



guishing mark, signum notabile, that the chamberlain 



shall agree, on part of the king, with the coiner, (mone- 



tarius) and the workmen ; and the warden, (custos mone- 



<ee) and master of the money or master coiner, (magisler 



tnonelarius,) are also named : Statute, Dav. II. cap. 38. 



46. In this reign, the mint perhaps subsisted on a re- 



gular establishment, for certain privileges, such as ex- 



emption from taxes, sitting on juries, and other bur- 



dens, are conferred on Adam Tore, warden, James 



Milliken, mint-master, and their servants, by a charter 



dated in 1358. These privileges were renewed by 



James V. in 1542 and his successors, and so lately as 



the year 1 78 1 , the officers of the mint proposed to take 



advantage of them. The number of officers, and the 



nature of their duties, were different at different times. 



At length the establishment is described in an act of Privy 



Council in 1 567, as consisting of a general of the coin- 



ing house, master coiner, warden, assayer, and sinker, 



together with melters, forgers, and printers, and it is 



described nearly in the same terms in statute 1597, cup. 



249. with the addition of another officer, the counter 



warden. By the articles rifthe Union, 16. it is provided 



that the establishment shall be subsequently preserved 



on the same basis as before it, and now the officers, con. 



sist of general, master, counter-warden, assayer, and 

 smith. It is not evident, when the denominations of 

 the different officers was bestowed, from which alone a * 

 correct history of the establishment could be deduced. 

 In the records we find appointments to the office of ge- 

 neral in 1559, and afterwards of master of the coining- 

 house in 1538, warden in 1539, counter-warden 15*2, 

 master-coiner 1 565, sinker or hacker of the irons 1 546, 



keeper of the king's coining irons 1525, assayer 1329 



1370. This last office was then granted to John Gold-' v 

 smith, burgess of Edinburgh. Mr. Rudding observes, 

 that he has obtained the name of only two wardens of 

 the Scottish mint, but we have remarked so many, that 

 there seems to have been a regular succession from a 

 very early period. Indeed, the duties of this officer, 

 and those of the counter-warden, have been always 

 very important. By Slat. 1483, 93, it is enacted, 

 that the king shall appoint a wise man, that has know- 

 ledge in money, to be warden, who by Slat. 1551. S3, 

 58. is rendered responsible for the quality of the coin- 

 age. He is to furnish the master-coiner, who is made 

 responsible for the quantity of the coinage, with bullion, 

 and keep an account of the number of ounces struck 

 yearly, titat. 1488. It has been affirmed, that foreigners 

 were employed as engravers to the Scottish mint of old, 

 but we have been able to find very few, if any, such. 

 Briot, a French artist, was employed to engrave the 

 dies for the coronation medal of Charles I. in 1633, and 

 the successors of this sovereign commanded the cele- 

 brated Thomas Simon in 1662 to make 'puncheons for 

 gold and silver coinage in the Scottish mint : Pertue, 

 Works of Simon, Appendix, p. 7 1. The abilities of the ar- 

 tists were exceedingly various, and the erroneous legends 

 prove their ignorance of the language, regarding which 

 they were employed; thus, on the coins of James IV. 1488 

 1513, for Rex Scotorum, we see, Rex Cot, Cotto, or 

 Colru. The quality of the products of the Scottish mints, 

 however, was not inferior to what came from some of 

 the cotempnrary mints in Europe, and in the sixteenth 

 century, probably surpassed those of England. Many 

 of the dies are said to have been recently in preserva- 

 tion. A great quantity of base coin was continually 

 in circulation ; and, notwithstanding successive ordi- 

 nances that the national coinage should be of the same 

 weight and fineness as the English, there were many 

 complaints in England of its inferiority. Its circula- 

 tion there was prohibited, but it was allowed to be 

 brought to the mint as bullion. Rudding -Annals of the 

 Coinage, vol. i. p. 443, 484. The numerous forgeries in 

 Scotland led to a penal statute against " forging the 

 king's irons ;" and magistrates were enjoined to esta- 

 blish " sufficient clipping houses" where the " clipper" 

 was to have a certain remuneration for destroying false 

 money. Stat. 1540, cap. 124. 156'7, cap. 19. 



From the strict prohibitions against exporting the 

 precious metals, and the anxious enactments for their 

 import under inspection of the warden, the mint evi- 

 dently laboured, in general, under a deficiency of bullion. 

 However a very fine coinage from the native gold of 

 Scotland was issued by it in the year 1 539, in what are 

 called bonnet pieces. Nearly two centuries antecedent 

 to that period, a gold coin or medal was struck of Da- 

 vid, which has been supposed English workmanship ; 

 and in 1478 a gold medal of James IV. weighing two 

 ounces, was struck at Berwick, and sent by him to the 

 shrine of a saint in France. Pinkerion on Medals, vol. 

 ii. p. 113. At this latter period the native gold was 

 separated from the sand by washing ; and it is affirmed 

 that, in the subsequent reign, Germans repairing hither 

 in quest of that metal, had engaged 300 persons in their 

 service, and recovered as much as to afford large sum* 



