III. NOTE ON IIUDDIMAN'S TABLE OF THE VALUE OF THE SILVER MONEY COINED IN SCOTLAND KY . B W.. COCHKAN PATRICK, ESQ., B.A., LL.R, F.S.A. SCOT. pais attentioy ha anciene studdan o o th th f Everyo o wh nt te coinyon a of Scotland must have felt the difficulty of reconciling the values and weights given by the writers on Scottish Numismatics with the coins themselves. These value foundede sar , with some unimportant alterations mid additions, on tho tables given by Ruddiman in his preface to Andcrson's "Diplomatum et Numismatum Thesaurus"1 (Edin. 1739). .Recent researc broughs hha ligho t t t some important information which was not available at the time when he wrote, and it is now proposed to conside effeco th r t which this will hav modifyinn ei e statementgth d an s calculations contained in these tables. o firsInth t placeconsideo w f i statemen,s hi r e variouth f o t s values monee oth f same yth coinef eo weight dou f silveo t t differena r t timest i , wil seee b l n that considerable alteration madee s b musreferencA w . no t e table th eo t will show that from 110 129o 7 t e autho6th r calculatef i s a s the pound weight was equal to the pound current, or, in other words, as if 240 Scottish pennies exactly balanced the standard of weight in the 1 Sec Anderson's Dip. Scot., 1'ref. p. 81. VALUE ONTH SILVli F EO K MONEY COINE SCOTLANDN DI 5 3 . early Scottis lais i hdt i assiz e mintsdowt th f DaviBu n eo ni . d I.1 that Scottise th h pound weighed fifteen ounce r twenty-fivo s e shillingsd an , was mad960f o p 0eu wheat grains r 720o , 0 grains Tower weight 675r o , 0 grains Troy weight. Consequently e pounth , d with which Buddiman commences his table was not the Scottish standard of weight, but the lighte ounce2 r 1 Englis f o se onlyhon . comparativa n I e statemen coie value th th t woul n i f f eo o t d have been of little moment what unit of weight was chosen, so long as the same amount was preserved throughout. The rate of deterioration could have been equally well shown either wit e Englishth h e pounScottisth r o d h pound. But it is evident that if one standard of weight is given at one time and a different one at another, the true proportion is not preserved. And this is what is done in the table now under consideration. For in 136 e fin7w d tha e pounth t d weigh f silve o s coinet wa r d into twenty- same ninth ef eo year, shillingt s i t Ac 2i foud n a san r n i pennies d An . ordained that libr"e d a ponderi fianm sja t viginti novem solid quatuot ee r denarii numerales,"—which is evidently Euddiman's authority for his statement. But the pound weight referred to in this act is the Scottish pound of fifteen ounces, and not the pound of twelve ounces, which was never the standard of weight in the Scottish mints in early times. Euddiman says, in a note on this section,8 " Dicendum ergo videtur Scotos eo tempore in nummis pendendis libra Anglica, non sua, fecisse usos." But this is entirely an assumption, not only unsupported by any evidence, but exactly opposed to the facts of the case. We know from original records tha Scottise th t h poun uses n weighindwa i d g monen yi the time of Eobert Bruce,4 and that the English pound was not in use recorr e timo th Jamet f eo dn i Ac anythiny s thers i II.;an r n ei no 5o g t prove tha t everecognisei ts wa r tlis da e standar weigh f Scottisde o th n i t h mint. And consequently the rate of deterioration is not truly shown by Euddiman e samth r e weighFo . metaf o t l whic 13Cn hcoinei s 7wa d into twenty-nine shillings and four pennies, produced in Eobert I.'s time twenty- threepence,d sixan id n an 6Davi d I.'s, twenty-five e shillingsth d An . pound which is given in the tables as producing twenty shillings in 1296 1 Scots Acts, i. p. 309. B Ibid., i. 144. 3 Dip. Scot. p. 71, note. 4 Jac. V., 2, 6, MSS. Advocates' Library. 5 Chamberlain Bolls, 1438. l! Scots Acts, i. 309. 36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, DECEMBER 9, 18T2. and twenty-one in 1329, produced in 1367, not twenty-nine and four- pence, but twenty-three shillings and fivepence and three-fifths. Again, in 1393 we find in the tables the value of the money coined out of the pound of silver set down as thirty-two shillings. But in the Act of 139 ordereds i t 3i 1 unceithax se t e "s d puri argenti'viginti unus solidi erunt fabricati." And if six ounces were made into 252 pennies, each ounce must contain 42 ; and, therefore, even the English pound of twelve ounces would valu poundo etw shillingso stw , instea poune on f ddo twelve; and the same weight of silver which in 1367 was coined into twenty-nine shilling foud san r pennies 139n i , 3 produced fifty-two shilling d sixan s- penc consequentld an e; e rat f deterioratioth yo e n e tablgiveth s ei n i n altogether different from what it really was. It will be noticed that the expressio e statutth s n "i ni e pur i argenti," here meaning fine silver. There is reason to Believe, as will be seen afterwards, that in David II.'s time the currency was baser than it had been before his reign, but as Euddiman give e samth s e purity e timdow th f Jame o eo t n s V., -this circumstance cannot have aifecte reasonings dhi . In 1424 we find the value of the pound of silver set down at thirty- seven shilling sixpenced s an t thaBu t .thi scorrect 'isno manifests i t t no , only from what has been stated above, but for other reasons. And., first, because if it were so, it would make the Scottish coinage of Jas. I. equal valun i o thaet f Englando t , whic knoe hw w froindenturee mth e th f so English mint varied from thirty shilling e Towesth r poun n 141i d3 (1 2 Hen. IV.) thirty-seveo t , d sixpencnan 141n ei Edwe 4 6( th .w IV.No ) groats of the fleur-de-lis, the only ones which are generally appropriated to James I., rarely exceed 35 grains Troy weight, or about one-half of what they should e pounweigth f i he dvalu th 'o ft ea silve gives y wa rb n Euddiman. And, second, that the Scottish coinage of this period was not e Englisequath o t ls plainl hi y apparent froe outcrmth y made by'the English Parliament agains e moneth t f Scotlando y n 1390I e . th 2 northern coinage was reduced to one-half in England, and this agrees with the values we have elsewhere indicated; for the pound of the Tower standard was coined in England up to the 13th year of Heury IV. (1412) int solidi5 o2 , whil n Scotlanei 139n di e sam3th e weigh f silveo s t wa r struck into 42 solidi. The remonstrances of the English Parliament were 1 Scots Acts, i. p. 209. z Ruding'g Annals, vol. i. pp. 244', 253, 207, 270. VA.LUE ON TH SILVE P HO R MONEY COINE SCOTLANDN DI 7 3 . repeated in 1411 and 1415, and in 1423 all manner of Scottish silver mone real e banishes th f England,—af ymwa o o t dou n extreme measure, which would never hav countrieo etw passe e monee d th th sha f f i dyo been equal ia weight and fineness. It is true that the first Money Act1 of James I. recommends that the king _" gar amende the mone and ger sfcrylin i k t i kwech mone e fyned th Inglande f an to o 'st s addei t i t d; "hu that he is only to do this " quhen him lykis, and thinks it speidfull and profitable coine realme.th th s d r whicfo An e " h have hitherto been assigned to this reign show conclusively that the recommendation was not carried out. There is yet another reason.apart from all this for doubting Kuddiman's value at this period. In Nicolson's Scottish Library, in the valuable chapte n coin o d medalsr an s , frequent referenc r James madi eSi o t se Balfour's MSS. on the prices of the money in Scotland. I am indebted r HiltM o l Jamieso a cop r f thio yfo n s MS.,preservew e no - th n i d Advocates' Library, which is highly interesting, and entirely confirms the values indicated above. It is entitled " Prysses of the cunzie in the hail tyme of Ja. 1, Ja. 2, Ja. 3, Ja. 4, Ja. 5, and Queene Mary;" and in it Balfour gives the value of the money coined out of the ounce of silver in time th Jamef eo 5s.s a ,. sI whic h would rais poune eth twelvf do e ounces to L.