MINT. 



'575 



-h' totheking. In the earlier years of James VI. Come 

 Mint. Hus Devosse, a German lapidary in London, obtained a 

 v "^"r~*' grant of the gold mines in Scotland, from the recom- 

 mendations of Queen Elizabeth, on condition that the 

 whole gold procured by him should be carried to the 

 mint. The subject continued to attract much attention 

 after the union of the crowns, more, perhaps, thn it 

 merited. A master of all mines and minerals was ap- 

 pointed in 1607, and the gold and silver mines of Le?- 

 ' mahago were bestowed on the Marquis of Hamilton in 

 1620. Recordt of the Privy Seal. In 30 days, eight 

 pounds of native gold were brought to the mint, 

 by the German lapidary, where it was coined into 

 L.S pieces, each an ounce in weight All of these, 

 which could not exceed 100 in number, have utterly 

 disappeared. The workmen also obtained gold, which 

 they sold for 20 shillings Sterling an ounce. Be- 

 tide* what was brought to the mint, it is said in the 

 Manuscripts of Atkinson on this subject, who was per- 

 sonally concerned, that a partner in the mining con- 

 cern got as much native gold as enabled an artist in 

 Edinburgh to make " a fair deep bason," capable of 

 holding an English gallon to the brim, which the Earl 

 of Morton presented full of gold unicorns to the king 

 of France, assuring him that both were from the na- 

 tive gold of Scotland. It is not recorded by any 

 other author, that the mint produced that coin, the 

 unicorn, of Scottish gold. Another contract seems to 

 have been made with a different foreigner, wherein pro- 

 vision wa made in like manner for supplying the mint. 

 Atkinson affirms that Mr. Buhner, afterwards Sir Bevis 

 Bulmer, presented a porringer, made of Scotish gold, 

 to Queen Elizabeth, and alludes to a coinage different 

 from the former. Somewhat later, namely in 163S, a 

 fine medal of Scotish gold, issued from the Edinburgh 

 mint, on the coronation of Charles I. inscribed around 

 the edge, EX AT no UT IN SCOTIA REFER ITI-R. There 

 was no gold coinage in the two reigns succeeding ; and 

 the last in Scotland was that <>r \Viil,,,, n III. in 1701, 

 struck from some gold sent home by the Scots Darien 

 Company. Native gold is still found in small quan- 

 tities in Scotland. But though silver has been frequent- 

 ly extracted from lead-ore, and though Atkinson gives 

 an account of the finding and losing of rich silver- 

 mine at Hilderstone, in the county of Linlithgow, we 

 have not heard of any coinage from it. 



Perhaps no documents we extant which shew the 

 total coinage in any of the metals issuing from the mint 

 during the reign of any of the Scotish sovereigns ; nor 

 is it probable that either bullion or money eve^could be 

 abundant in a country alike destitute ot domestic pro- 

 ducts and foreign commerce. William the Lyon hav- 

 ing been taken prisoner, was ransomed for 4O.OOO 

 merks, and David II. nearly two centuries after, was 

 ransomed for 100,000, which must have drained the na- 

 tion of a large portion of the currency, and led to the 

 employment of the mint for the special purpose of pro- 

 ducing it. Attempts have been made to prove that 

 great advantage was derived from monopoly of trade 

 with France. " Nay," says one author, " who would 

 brlieve it, were it not demonstrable from unquestionable 

 vtracners, the records of the mint, so immense were our 

 profits this way, that, in the reign of James VI. we 

 roined 119 stone-weight of gold, and 986 of silver, 

 within the space of one year." Preface of the Tram. 

 lotion of Beaqne't Campaign*, p. 88.' From a few au- 

 thentic details of the operations of the mint, which have 

 occurred to us, we incline to conclude that the quantity 

 of gold within the period apecified, is 8omcwh.it over, 

 rated, but that the computation of silver is not so. 

 Between November 153 end April 1585, inclusive, 



the mint coined 6 stone, 13 lib. 10 ox. of gold into lyon 

 nobles, the metal being computed at 16 pounds per 

 stone; and the coinage of the fineness of 214 carats. 

 From the 4th of November 1592 to the 18th of Janua- 

 ry 1594, the mint consumed IZ stone, 2 Ib. OH. in a 

 coinage of 4 pieces, which were struck at 35 different 

 times. Within the same period, there were likewise 

 struck in " Thistle nobles," of which we have never 

 seen either a specimen or a figure, five pounds six 

 ounces on the 10th of November 1593. The quantity 

 of gold daily used on these occasions varied from 19 

 ounces, to 1 1 pounds 4 ounces. Manuscript Accounts of 

 the Mini. From iCth December 1602, to 19th July 

 1606, and from 20th September 1 611, to 14th April 

 1613, the mint struck 51 stone lllb. 9 oz. of gold. 

 Ruddiman't Preface to Anderson' t Diplomata, p. 85. If 

 the quantity of 119 stones be actually overrated, it is 

 not inconsistent to believe that the author may have 

 made up his calculations from several portions of suc- 

 cessive years, and by combining them, he may have 

 conceived that 1 1 9 stone were coined in the space of one 

 yew. Gold was rated at a very high price. 



On certain occasions, the consumption of silver 

 was very considerable, and it is also probable that 

 the preceding computation of the whole during a 

 year of the reign of James VI. at 15,776 pounds 

 of bullion is within the truth. Regarding this 

 also, we find only a few detached notices pre- 

 served. Being rated at too high a value, the statute 

 1581, cap. 107, recals a late coinage which had been 

 struck from 211 stone, 10 Ib. of silver, and the mint 

 proceeded to strike 548 stone, in ten, twenty, thirty, 

 and forty shilling pieces, between 7th April 1582 and 

 1st February 1583. From the 1st of May of that year 

 until the 1st of October of the year following, 264 st. 

 12 Ib. of silver was consumed in pieces of the same de- 

 nomination. No less than 1 138 st. 10 Ib. seem to have 

 been converted into eight and four-penny groats of 

 three deniers fine, during the first nine months of 

 l.'M-, and 217 st. 7 Ib. into penny and two penny 

 pieces, in the first three months of 1590, though, 

 during the two preceding years, the mint was in great 

 activity. Kuddiinan observes, that, notwithstanding 

 596 st 7 Ib. 13 oz. of silver was used in the periods 

 above mentioned, between 1602 and 1612 ; the value of 

 the gold coinage within the same period, surpassed it 

 by '.1554 Sterling. The quantity of silver consumed 

 by the mint was therefore very considerable; and we 

 find it employed in a coinage during 1694 and 1&95, 

 when both the weight of silver, and the number of 

 pieces struck, were all distinctly enumerated in the 

 books of the counter warden. 



For the purpose of supplying the mint, in the 17th 

 century, a duty was imposed, first on exports, and then 

 on imports also, of a certain quantity of bullion, which 

 the trader had it in his option to pay in money, at the rate 

 of a shilling an ounce. Thus the exporter of 20 sheep 

 was taxed with two ounces of bullion, and the importer of 

 French wines, twelve ounces per ton. They did not 

 supply the bullion, however ; but the mint, during most 

 of the reign of Charles II. seems to have coined about 

 200 stone of silver yearly. 



During the same reign, it was authorised to employ 

 6OOO tons of copper in coinage. Many abuses prevailed, 

 nd the officers whose province it was to supply both that 

 metal and bullion, converted not less than 40,000 stone 

 to money, obtaining from every pound the value ot' 

 three shillings Sterling. 



At the date of the Union, the old silver currency be- 

 ing recalled for the purpose of a new coinage, there 

 came in 142,160 Sterling of hammered money, and 



Scottish 

 Mini. 



