268 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
and retaining traces of the heraldic blazonry
with which it was originally adorned. Two large
and handsome windows, above the archway leading
to Toddrick?s Wynd, give light to this once
magnificent hall, which is said to have formed
the council-room where the officers of the Mint
assembled to assay the metal, and to discuss the
general affairs of the establishment.?
It may surprise readers now to hear that much
of the gold coined in this establishment, and its
predecessors, was native produce.
The first historical notice we have of gold in
Scotland is the grant by David I. to the Abbey of
Dunfermline, in 1153, of all the gold accruing to
the crown from Fife and Fotherif. About a century
later Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness (afterwards canon-
THE OLD SCOTTISH MINT. (Affwa Drawingby James Drurnnaond, RSA )
Wilson wrote this in 1847, thirty years before the
old Scottish Mint was doomed to total destruction.
In the reign of Charles 11. other buildings were
added to the edifice of 1574, forming a stately
quadrangle, and there the national coin was produced
till the Union, when a separate coinage was
abandoned in both countries; but to gratify
prejudice, and the hope that many clung to, of
having the Union repealed, the offices were maintained
even though they were sinecures. This
court, with its buildings, was, like the royal mews
at the end of the Grassmarket-a sanctuary for
persons prosecuted for debt ; and a small den near
the top of the building OX 1574, lighted by a little
window looking westward up the Cowgate, was
used as a gaol for debtors and other delinquents,
condemned by the officers of the Mint.
ised as St. Gilbert), is credited with the discovery
of gold in Sutherlandshire; but it was not until
the 15th century that gold-mining in Scotland
became of sufficient importance to warrant its
regulation by the Legislature. Thus, in 1424, Parliament
granted to the Crown all the gold mines in
the realm, and also all the silver mines, that yielded
three halfpennies of silver to the pound of lead.
The disaster at Flodden prevented immediate
advantage being taken of the gold mines discovered
on Crawford Muir in the reign of James IV. ; but
in 1524 the famous Albany medal was made from
gold obtained there j and it is apparent that much
of the coin of James V. was minted of native
metal. Miners were brought from Germany,
Holland, and Lorraine, and they worked under the
care of John Mossman, goldsmith, who made a
High Street.] SCOTTISH COINAGE. 269
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crown for Mary of Guise, and inclosed with arches
the present crown of Scotland.
The early .gold coins of Mary?s reign were of
native ore, and, during the minority of James VI.,
Cornelius de Vos, a Dutchman, who had licence to
seek for gold and silver, obtained considerable
quantities, according to the records relating to
mines and mining in Scotland, published by Mr.
Cochran-Patrick.
The oldest gold coin found in Scotland bears
- ~~
under pain of death. The coins current in Scotland
in the reign of James 111. were named the
demi, the lion, the groat of the crown, the groat
of the fleur-de-lis, the penny, farthing, and plack.
English coins were also current, but their value
was regulated by the estates. From ?Miscelleanea
Scotica? we learn that in 1512 Sir Alexander
Napier of Merchiston found gold in the Pentland
Hills, and from the Balcarres MSS. (in the Advocates?
Library) he and his son figure conspicuously
3
2
RELICS OF THE OLD SCOTTISH MINT.
I, Delicate Set of Balances, 2, Dies ; 3, hnch : 4. Implements for Knarling the Coins : 5, Large Tiding-pin of the Great Door : 6, Roller for
Flattening the Silver; 7, Key of the Mint Door. (From Origiwlr am ia fhr ScottW Antiyuarzizn Musrum.)
the nameof Robert, but which of the three monarchs
so called is uncertain. Gold was not coined in
England till 1257. The first gold coins struck in
Scotland were of a broad surface and very thin.
There is some doubt about when copper coinage
was introduced, but in 1466, during the reign of
James III., an Act was passed to the effect that,
for the benefit 6f the poor, ?there be cuinyied
copper money, four to the (silver) penny, having on
the one part the cross of St. Andrew and the crown,
and on the other part the subscription of Edinburgh,?
together with JAMES R.
The same monarch issued a silver coin containing
an alloy of copper, which went under the name
of black money, and to ensure the circulation of
this depreciated coin the parliament ordained that
no counterfeits of it be taken in payment, or used,
in connection With the Mint, of which the latter was
general for some years after 1592.
In 1572 the Regent Morton coined base money
in his castle at Dalkeith, and by proclamation
made it pass current for thrice its real value ; and
having got rid of it all in 1575, by paying workmen
in the repair of Edinburgh Castle and other public
places, he issued a council order reducing it to its
intrinsic value, an act of oppression which won him
the hatred of the people. In the reign of James
VI., all the silver coin, extending to two hundred
and eleven stone ten pounds in weight, was called
in, and a coin was issued from the Mint in Gray?s
Close, ?in ten shilling pieces of eleven pennies
fine,? having on one side his effigywith the inscription,
JZZU~US YI., Da? Gratia Rex Scofomm,
on the other the royal arms, crowned. In hisreign
