British Silver Shillings

After the Act of Union in 1707 Scots coinage in gold and silver was called in and exchanged at 12:1 for sterling. So quite a bit of 17th century and very early 18th century Scots coinage met the smelter in Edinburgh and was recoined as E mintmarked sterling until 1709 when the mint stopped operating. But the Act of Union also specified that the mint must remain as an entity, and it did for well over 100 years - a mintmaster and everything. But nary a coin was struck after 1709 and finally someone came to their senses in the 1816 recoinage and closed the Edinburgh mint finally - some 107 years after it struck it's last coin.

The Act of Union ignored small change however, so bodles (2d) and bawbees (6d) were never really recalled - and the bodles and bawbees continued to circulate as a farthing(an upgrade in value since a bodle was 1/6th of a penny) and as a halfpenny until late in the 18th and perhaps the early 19th century - which is why really nice high grade coins are so fiendishly difficult to find. Oft times Dutch duits and French small bronze coins circulated in Scotland as bodles or farthings as they were a similar composition and size.

 

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