SCOTLAND’S EARLY COINAGE

PART 2 OF AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF SCOTTISH MONEY

By Jonathan Callaway

Introduction

This article will cover the period from 1136 when David I had the first Scottish coin minted, through to the end of Robert III’s reign in 1406. This covers a period when many new coin types were minted, on the face of it a potential source of confusion until you remember that coin values were really determined by weight and purity. At the same time, it should also be remembered that both size reductions and debasement also became a feature of the silver coinage, leading to the steady devaluation of the Scottish pound against the English one.

Scotland’s agrarian and barter economy had met more or less all its needs for many centuries. With no urban centres of any significance until the 12th century the sort of economic activity that might require a medium of exchange barely existed. Some foreign coins had come into limited circulation thanks to trading links with the Romans, the Vikings and English invaders, but the developments that took place in the years immediately prior to and during David I’s reign saw this begin to change.

David I (1124-1153)

David I, the youngest of Malcolm III’s sons by Margaret, ascended the throne in 1124. His wife, Matilda (or Maud) Countess of Hunting[1]don, was a descendant of William the Conquer[1]or. More pertinently for our story, he was the first Scottish king to have his own coins minted.

He reigned for an impressive 29 years and brought a number of far-reaching changes to the way Scotland was governed. He had been raised and educated in the court of his brother-in-law, the English king Henry I, and when he returned he brought numerous Anglo-Norman nobles north with him. These noblemen were given crown lands in return for pledges of support. Naturally, Norman influence grew and so did the number of their motte and bailey castles, fortified residences around which settlements developed and from which the Norman nobles could exercise their authority on behalf of the king.

The feudalisation of Scotland was underway, accompanied by the parallel growth of the power and wealth of the church – as well as all those castles many monasteries were established during his reign.

Royal burghs were established, the first being Berwick-upon-Tweed, ironically an English town since 1482 after changing hands many times during Scotland’s frequent wars with England. The second royal burgh was Roxburgh, today a tiny half-forgotten village. Royal burghs, often starting as small settlements, were given guaranteed trading rights and thus started to attract merchants and artisans. They grew through immigration, often by English and Flemish merchant settlers. Many more burghs followed, including Edinburgh, Stirling, Dunfermline, Haddington, Perth, Dumfries and Aberdeen. Those on the coast were able to expand their international trade, but populations remained small. Edinburgh’s population in 1100, for example, was estimated to have been perhaps no more than 5,000, but it was still the largest urban settlement in Scotland at that time.

David also pushed Scotland’s southern border further south, gaining control first of Cumbria then the whole of Northumbria and most of Durham. He astutely exploited English weakness and division resulting from the death of Henry I in 1135 and a subsequent civil war (“The Anarchy”) between the English king Stephen and Matilda, an empress thanks to her marriage to the future Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V. However, David’s brutal methods caused English forces to rally against him and he was defeated at the Battle of the Standards in 1138, at Cowton Moor near Northallerton. He retained control of most of the northern English lands he had seized, and Stephen bestowed on David’s son Henry the earldom of Northumberland. Nevertheless, by 1157 David’s successor, his young grandson Malcolm IV, had been forced to concede both Cumbria and Northumbria south of the Tweed, to Henry II.

“David’s brutal methods caused English forces to rally against him and he was defeated at the Battle of the Standards in 1138, at Cowton Moor near Northallerton”

The first Scottish coin

It was in Carlisle in 1136 that David introduced his great innovation, his own coinage, regarded as Scotland’s first even if initially minted in the newly captured English town of Carlisle. This took the shape of a silver penny, the same size and purity as its English equivalent and thus interchangeable. The silver came from mines in the Alston area high in the Pennines southeast of Carlisle. David’s purpose in minting coins was to aid the projection of royal power and patronage and link it firmly in people’s minds to the intended boost in economic expansion. To some it was just his “regalian gratification” but it did mark a major step in the Normanisation, or Europeanisation, of Scotland.

David’s first silver pennies were almost identical in design to their English equivalents, copying in fact the final type of English king Henry I’s penny. They were crude productions by the standards of what came later. It and subsequent issues were undated. Indeed, the first Scottish coin to bear a date was the gold ducat of James V minted in 1539.

A recent discovery is a variant of David’s penny with an image of Carlisle castle on the obverse. This new find is so far unique and recently changed hands for a staggering £32,000.

Halving and clipping

Silver pennies were often cut into halves or even quarters to allow for them to be used for even smaller transactions. Perhaps the cross on the reverse of many early pennies, whether in long or short form, was more than just a religious symbol and was used to indicate where the coin could be cut? The long form was introduced to make coin clipping, another less welcome and very much illegal practice, more obvious.

The Moneyers

Who actually made the coins? When David had his first coins minted the work was done by individual moneyers. Their names and the towns where they worked were included in the inscription on the reverse of the coins, in abbreviated and hard-to-read form. Moneyers paid the king fees to strike coinage and to make and use the dies needed to hammer out individual coins. The dies tended to be changed every few years as they wore out: it was important to maintain the quality of the coinage. Their profit was called “seignorage” and it could be substantial, if risky if the result was undersized coins or coins without the requisite metal purity.

Too often, all we know about these hardworking skilled craftsmen is their name and the town in which they operated. David’s first coin, of which all too few have survived, was struck in Carlisle by Erebald (or Erembald), who had formerly struck coins there for Henry I. He was followed by Ricard, while Hugo struck David’s coins in Roxburgh and Folpalt in Berwick. Mostly, it seems, these were Anglo Saxon individuals who had moved north to pursue their profession. Erebald was also the moneyer to David’s son Henry, working in Corbridge, in Northumberland. After Carlisle he moved to Edinburgh to continue minting coins for David.

It could be a dangerous trade: in 1125 Henry I was so displeased that, when mercenaries he had hired refused to be paid in English coin because they doubted its quality, he decreed that every moneyer in England should have both his right hand and his testicles amputated as punishment. Nevertheless, it was a well-remunerated profession of high standing, and this draconian punishment did not appear to deter others from taking the place of those unfortunates.

The finding of a David I silver penny on the Isle of Wight and another in Lincolnshire indicate not only that the coins circulated widely but also that trade with England was maintained despite all the conflicts. Prince Henry, David’s son, also struck pennies as earl of Northumberland. These were similar to David’s but had a differing legend.

Silver pennies were the only coin type struck in Scotland for 150 years until Alexander III introduced halfpenny and farthing (“fourthling”) coins in the 1280s. The word itself derives from the Old English “peningas” and is closely related to the Germanic “penning”, now the modern German “pfennig”.

From David I (1124-1153) to David II (1329-1371)

There were six monarchs and two interregnums between David I and David II. David I’s successor was Malcolm IV (1153-1165) who was succeeded by David’s grandson William I “The Lion” (1165-1214). William was so-called because he replaced the dragon with a lion rampant on the arms of Scotland, not because of his valour in battle. William’s long reign saw Scottish trade and prosperity grow and the concluding of the first alliance between Scotland and France in 1295.

“During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Scotland’s history is a striking success … developing agriculture sustained a population growth to around the million mark, while flourishing wool and leather exports through the east-coast burghs boosted the money supply to over 40 million silver pennies (some £180,000) circulating interchangeably with England’s in a medieval sterling area.” (Alexander Grant in The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol VI, Cambridge 2008)

Coinage use took off during William’s reign and his coins are often the earliest easily available to collectors – all that preceded them are rare and correspondingly expensive today, even if they are only found in poor condition, quite often having been badly struck in the first place. As the royal burghs expanded, many of them became the home to moneyers and a number of regional mints was established. The dearth of surviving coins leaves much scope for additional research, always with the potential for new discoveries by metal detectorists and archaeologists.

In 1174 William fought and lost a war with Henry II of England and had been captured in battle with the result that Scotland was forced to pay a huge ransom, some 40,000 merks, to regain his freedom. A merk (or “mark”) was worth 13s 4d in the 12th century and was used as a unit of account until James VI finally issued his own silver merk coin in 1579. The payment was probably made mostly in bullion rather than coin, as was payment of another 10,000 merks paid to persuade the English king Richard Coeur de Lion, who was in dire need of funds to pay for the crusades, to formally grant Scotland’s independence.

William I continued the state-building work of his grandfather and opened further mints in Perth and “Dun” (believed to be Dunfermline). He was followed by Alexander II (1214-1249) and Alexander III (1249-1286), whose widely available silver pennies were struck in at least 16 mints across Scotland. The latter outlawed the cutting of his pennies into halves or quarters and introduced correspondingly smaller halfpenny and quarter pennies (“farthings”).

Alexander III was succeeded by Margaret (1286-1290) whose premature death created a royal vacuum that no fewer than 13 “competitors” attempted to seize. John Baliol (1292-1296), a descendant of David I, was selected but the true beneficiary was England’s Edward I whose influence over and claim of feudal overlordship over Scotland was cemented (so much for the 10,000 merks paid to Richard!). Baliol was deposed in 1296 by Scottish nobles unhappy at the level of English influence over his affairs. He is remembered for his nickname of “Toom Tabard”, or Empty Coat, an allusion to his powerlessness. He consoled himself by retiring to his estates in France.

Robert the Bruce (1306-1329) and the Scottish Wars of Independence

A second interregnum was ended when Robert I (“The Bruce”), another descendant of David I, was crowned king in 1306 and proceeded first to unify the warring Scots then mount a fierce campaign to oust the English from Scotland – the start of the Scottish Wars of Independence which lasted until 1357 when the Treaty of Berwick was signed.

“By the time Robert signed a peace treaty with England in 1328 all Scottish towns including Berwick, where much of his coinage was minted, had been regained”

Robert the Bruce’s campaign culminated in the famous victory over Edward II at Bannockburn in 1314. In 1320 the Declaration of Arbroath was penned – a letter from 39 Scottish nobles to the Pope seeking, successfully, to dissuade him from supporting the English crown’s claims over Scotland. This famous document has become something of a shibboleth for present-day nationalists. By the time Robert signed a peace treaty with England in 1328 all Scottish towns including Berwick, where much of his coinage was minted, had been regained.

Robert the Bruce issued silver pennies as well as halfpennies and farthings, all hard to find today. The weight of the penny was very slightly reduced from 22½ to 21 3/7th grains, the first attempt to squeeze more profit out of minting coins though it was not enough of a change to prevent Scottish and English silver pennies remaining interchangeable. English coins too, had seen a slight fall in size.

David II (1329-1371)

When David II succeeded his father Robert in 1329, at the tender age of five, he had just been married off to Joanna, a sister of the English king Edward III and a year older than him. Guardians governed in his name while he was in his minority, but Edward III sought to take advantage by supporting the claims of Edward Baliol (son of John) to the throne. Each time Baliol invaded with the support of an English army he was repelled but from 1333 to 1341 young David II was forced into exile in France.

On his return David led an invasion of England in 1346, in support of France who had become embroiled in the Hundred Years War with England, only to be defeated near Durham and taken into captivity by Edward III for eleven years.

His coins are interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, three styles of bust have been recorded, showing him first as a young boy, then as more mature. He had silver halfpennies and farthings minted before his first penny was issued.

Meanwhile, his second coinage in 1357 saw the introduction of the silver groat, worth four pence, and the half-groat, both similar in design to their English counterparts. This was another new denomination in Scotland, the word deriving from the German “groschen”, the French “gros tournois” and the Dutch “groot”. Henceforth the coins would become a regular feature of Scottish coinage until the time of James VI.

However, David’s particular claim to a place in Scotland’s numismatic story came with the minting of Scotland’s first gold coin in the same year.

Scotland’s first gold coin

David II had regained his throne only after another huge ransom was agreed, this time 100,000 merks to be paid over ten years. England required it to be paid in gold, and David had Scotland’s first gold coin, dubbed the noble, specially minted for the purpose. Minted in Edinburgh between 1357 and 1367, the coin was based on the second noble design introduced by the English king Edward III. It was the first Scottish coin to feature the lion rampant on the “ship and shield” obverse, reflecting the change to the arms made by William I. The king is seen sitting on a ship holding his shield, while the reverse is an ornate pattern of crowns surrounding a cross.

The coin remains an extreme rarity: only four are known, all in institutional collections. One theory for its scarcity is that, as the noble had been coined to pay off David II’s ransom to the English, this ensured that most of them would be melted down once they were delivered into English hands. Its value was 6s 8d or a half-merk.

It is not clear where this substantial amount of gold came from as there is no evidence that any Scottish mine was producing gold in the 14th century. It must have been imported, and thus at considerable expense to the Scottish economy. The cost of paying off the substantial ransom was covered by raising new taxes – the trading wealth being created by the east coast ports of Edinburgh, Perth and Aberdeen no doubt helped. The rural economy was also strong though there had been a falling off in the 1360s.

The first weight reduction

David II was also the first Scottish monarch to start to issue reduced weight silver coins, at first to stay in step with England but then on his own initiative, quite possibly to help meet the costs of paying the huge ransom despite the higher taxes he had imposed. Scotland was still a relatively poor country compared to England. In any event this was the start of divergence between the Scottish and the English pound.

The first weight reduction of the silver penny was from 21 3/7th to 18 grains but David II went on to make a further reduction to 15 1/3rd grains in 1367, a total fall of about 28% and enough to end the parity between English and Scottish coins. This caused Edward III to promulgate his 1356 ban on the use of Scottish coins in England, though this turned out to be temporary.

Robert III (1390-1406) debases the silver but not the gold coinage

Robert III was born John, Earl of Carrick, but changed his name when he acceded to the throne in 1390. He holds the unenviable title of being the first Scottish monarch to start to debase the metal content of his silver pennies and halfpennies. As Scots were forced to trade in their old coins for new ones the king (rather than the moneyers) did at least make a healthy profit on the exchange. It has been estimated that by 1392 Scottish coins were worth only half that of their English counterparts.

Robert III also replaced the profile bust on the obverse of earlier Scottish coins with a facing head, one possibly intended result of which was that it made his coins much easier to confuse with the more valuable English issues.

We end this part of our continuing survey with a look at Robert III’s ground-breaking and quite stunning new gold coin, the lion, first minted in 1390. It weighed 61½ grains, was worth 5 shillings and was accompanied by a demy-lion worth 2s 6d. It has been said that the name derived from a French coin but one look at the coin will make it clear that the design itself, with a crowned shield depicting the Scottish lion rampant on the obverse, is likely to have prompted its name. The reverse depicts St Andrew on a cross, an emblem that became a staple of Scottish heraldic history. These gold coins were substantially reduced in size by some 38% in 1403 after a rise in bullion prices, to just 38 grains.

Our story will continue with the James, all six of them, who, with Mary Queen of Scots, take us up to the Union of the Crowns in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became James I of England and moved his court to London.

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to Spink, Noonans, Stacks-Bowers, Davissons Ltd and other firms for the use of images of coins they have handled.

By Jonathan Callaway