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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 3737946, member: 77639&quot;]On a recent trip to Scotland, my family and I were able to visit the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.&nbsp; It&#039;s a great museum with something for everyone.&nbsp; Admission is not too steep ... free for all.&nbsp; Of course, I had to look at some of the numismatic displays, especially those of Scottish coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Scotland has had a number of mints over the centuries.&nbsp; The earliest known were at Carlisle and Edinburgh, which opened in the 1130&#039;s.&nbsp; Once coining got going, it spread rapidly until under the reign of Alexander III (1249–1286), there were 16 mints in operation!&nbsp; The other mints closed one by one until the reign of James IV (1488–1513), only the Edinburgh mint remained.&nbsp;&nbsp; Much later, a mint was re-opened at Stirling.&nbsp; Both the Edinburgh and Stirling mints closed for good in 1709.</p><p><br /></p><p>Scottish coins were minted in denominations that paralleled those of England ... crowns, pounds, shillings, groats and pence.&nbsp; However, in the museum, I encountered a Scottish denomination I didn&#039;t expect ....&nbsp; dollars!&nbsp;&nbsp; Yes, for a short time under the reign of Charles II, ruler of the United Kingdom from1660-1685, the Edinburgh mint produced dollars.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was an alternate designation for the dollar coin: four merks.&nbsp; Just as &quot;dollar&quot; was derived from the German &quot;thaler&quot;,&nbsp; &quot;merk&quot; was derived from the German &quot;mark&quot;.&nbsp; The dual terminology probably arose because the coins did not have a denomination on them.&nbsp; Folks at the time had to differentiate denominations based on diameter, weight and design.&nbsp; This was not unusual in Europe and was also the case for early US gold coins.&nbsp; Even today, some sources describe the coins as merks and other sources describe them as dollars.&nbsp; For example, the Krause Catalog describes them as merks.&nbsp; Heritage Auctions refers to them as dollars as does the National Museum of Scotland.&nbsp; Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands by Spink, denominates Scottish coins of Charles II as merks before 1675 and dollars thereafter.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;So how did the Scottish dollar relate to the dominant UK denominations (pound, shilling, pence) of the time?&nbsp; Well, initially, a dollar was set at 53 shillings and 4 pence, and later at 56 shillings.&nbsp; I&#039;m sure you recall that there were 12 pence to a shilling, so 53s4d =&nbsp; 53*12 + 4 = 640 pence to the dollar.&nbsp; At the later value, there were 56*12 = 372 pence to the dollar.</p><p><br /></p><p>Silver coins were issued in 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8. 1/16 and 1/32 dollar denominations.&nbsp; The table below shows the equivalent&nbsp; values in merks as well as in shillings and pence for both conversion values.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1002492[/ATTACH]</p><p>If the above is not confusing enough for you, well ... there was an earlier Scottish denomination (well before Charles II) called the ryal that was worth 30s and sometimes called a dollar.</p><p><br /></p><p>Not only have some of the coins of that era been preserved, both in museums and by private collectors, but the National Museum of Scotland also has some dies and coining machinery as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin pictured below is an example of a Charles II Scottish dollar (i.e. four merks).</p><p>Sorry for the low resolution.&nbsp; For a higher resolution picture of a one merk coin, <a href="http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces17997.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces17997.html" rel="nofollow">click here</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1002540[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The grand gallery of the museum:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1002542[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A bit about the Edinburgh mint:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1002497[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Some equipment remnants from the Edinburgh mint are pictured below.&nbsp; The steel roller (on left) was part of a machine to adjust strips of silver to correct thickness prior to planchets being punched out.&nbsp;&nbsp; Device on the right is a planchet punch.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1002498[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Below are dies and coin examples for quarter, half and full dollars.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1002499[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Below are dies and coins for smaller fractional dollars, the bawbee (sixpence) and bodle (two pence).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1002500[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>If you&#039;re ever in the Edinburgh area, you won&#039;t regret visiting the National Museum of Scotland.&nbsp; Afterwards, there are plenty of pubs nearby whaur ye kin gilravage a wee dram.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cal[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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