Some antiquaries conjecture that the earliest Scottish mintage belongs to Alexander 1. But it is doubtful whether the silver penny ascribed to hint is not of his successors of the same name. Many are seen of Wil liam, who reigned 1189-1214, yet nothing is said of the mint until the time of David II. in 1329-1371. Then a statute ordains a new coinage, with a distin guishing mark, Sig2171771 notabile, that the chamberlain shall agree, on part of the king, with the coiner, (mone tarius) and the workmen; and the warden, (custos ?none ter) and master of the money or master coiner, (magister monrtarius,) are also named : Statute, Day. II. cap. 38. 46. In this reign, the mint perhaps subsisted on a re gular establishment, for certain privileges, such as ex emption from taxes, sitting on juries, and other bur dens, are conferred on Adam Tore, warden, James Milliken, mint master, and their servants, by a charter dated in 1358. These privileges were renewed by James V. in 1542 and his successors, and so lately as the year 1781, the officers of the mint proposed to take advantage of them. The number of officers, and the nature of their duties, were different at different times. At length the establishment is described, in an act of Privy Council in 1567, as consisting of a general of the coining house, master coiner, warden assayer, and sink er, together with melters, forgers, and printers ; and it is described nearly in the same terms in statute 1597, cap. 249. with the addition of another officer, the counter warden. By the articles of the Union,§ 16. it is provided that the establishment shall be subsequently preserved on the same basis as before it, and now the officers con sist of general, master, counter-warden, assayer, and smith. It is not evident, when the denominations of the diffierent officers was bestowed, from which alone a correct history of the establishment could be deduced. In the records we find appointments 'to the office of ge neral in 1559, and afterwards of master of the coining house in 1538, warden in 1539, counter-warden 1542, master-coiner 1565, sinker or hacker of the irons 1546, keeper of the king's coining irons 1525, assayer 1329— 1370. This last office was then granted to John Gold smith, burgess of Edinburgh. Mr. Budding observes, that he has obtained the name of only two wardens of the Scottish mint, but we have remarked so many, that there seems to have been a regular succession from a very early period. Indeed, the duties of this officer, and those of the counter-warden, have been always very important. By Stat. 1483, § 93, it is enacted, that the king shall appoint a wise man, that has knowledge in money, to be warden, who by Stat. 1551. § 33, 58. is rendered responsible for the quality of the coinage. He is to furnish the master-coiner, who is made respon sible for the quantity of the coinage, with bullion, and keep an account of the number of ounces struck yearly, Stat. 1488. It has been affirmed, that foreigners were employed as engravers to the Scottish mint of old, but we have been able to find very few, if any, such. Briot, a French artist, was employed to engrave the dies for the coronation medal of Charles 1. in 1633, and the suc cessors of this sovereign commanded the celebrated Thomas Simon, in 1662, to make puncheons for gold and silver coinage in the Scottish mint : Venue, Works of Simon, Appendix, p. 71. The abilities of the artists were exceedingly various, and the erroneous legends prove their ignorance of the language, regarding which they were employed ; thus, on the coins of James IV. 1488-1513, for Rex Scotorum, we see, Rex Cot, Cotto, or Cotru. The quality of the products of the Scottish mints, however, was not inferior to what came from some of the cotemporary mints in Europe, and in the sixteenth century, probably surpassed those of England. Many of the dies are said to have beon recently in pre servation. A great quantity of base coin was continu ally in circulation ; and, notwithstanding successive or dinances that the national coinage should be of the same weight and fineness as the English, there were many complaints in England of its inferiority. Its circula tion there was prohibited, but it was allowed to be brought to the mint as bullion. Rudding—Annals of the Coinage, vol. i. p. 443, 484. The numerous forge ries in Scotland led to a penal statute against " forging the king's irons ;" and magistrates were enjoined to esta blish " sufficient clipping houses" where the 44 clipper" was to have a certain remuneration for destroying false money. Stat. 1540, cap. 124.-1567, cap. 19.
From the strict prohibitions against exporting the precious metals, and the anxious enactments for their import under inspection of the warden, the mint evi dently laboured, in general, under a deficiency of bul lion. However a very fine coinage from the native gold of Scotland was issued' by it in the year 1539, in what are called bonnet pieces. Nearly two centuries antece dent to that period, a gold coin or medal was struck of David, which has been supposed English workmanship ; and in 1478 a gold medal of James IV. weighing two ounces, was struck at Berwick, and sent by him to the shrine of a saint in France.—Pinkcrton on Medals, vol. ii. p. 113. At this latter period the native gold was sepal ated from the sand by washing ; and it is affirmed that, in the subsequent reign, Germans repairing hither in quest of that metal, had engaged 300 persons in their service, and recovered as much as to afford large sums to the king. In the earlier years of James VI. Corne lius Devosse, a German lapidary in London, obtained a grant of the gold mines in Scotland, from the recom mendations of Queen Elizabeth, on condition that the whole gold procured by him should be carried to the mint. The subject continued to attract much attention after the union of the crowns, more, perhaps, than it merited. A master of all mines and minerals was ap pointed in 1607, and the gold and silver mines of Les mahago were bestowed on the Marquis of Hamilton in of the Privy Seal. In 30 days, eight pounds of native gold were brought to the mint, by the German lapidary, where it was coined into L.3 pieces, each an ounce in weight. All of these, which could not exceed 100 in number, have utterly disappeared. The workmen also obtained gold, which they sold for 20 shillings Sterling an ounce. Besides what was brought to the mint, it is said in the Manuscripts of Atkinson on this subject, who was personally concern ed, that a partner in the mining concern got as much native gold as enabled an artist in Edinburgh to make 44 a fair deep bason," capable of holding an English gallon to the brim, which the Earl of Morton presented full of gold unicorns to the king of France, assuring him that both were from the native gold of Scotland. It is not recorded by any other author, that the mint produced that coin, the unicorn, of Scottish gold. Another contract seems to have been made with a dif ferent foreigner, wherein provision was made in like manner for supplying the mint. Atkinson affirms that Mr. Buhner, afterwards Sir Bevis Bulmer, presented a porringer, made of Scottish gold, to Queen Elizabeth, and alludes to a coinage different from the former. Somewhat later, namely in 1633, a fine medal of Scot tish gold, issued from the Edinburgh mint, on the coro nation of Charles I. inscribed around the edge, EX AIM) UT IN SCOTIA REPERITCR. There was no gold coin age in the two reigns succeeding; and the last in Scot land was that of William III. in 1701, struck from some gold sent home by the Scots Darien Company. Native gold is still found in small quantities in Scotland. But though silver has been frequently extracted from lead ore, and though Atkinson gives an account of the find ing and losing of a rich silver-mine at Hilderstone, in the county of Linlithgow, we have not heard of any coinage from it.
Perhaps no documents are extant which shew the total coinage in any of the metals issuing from the mint during the reign of any of the Scottish sovereigns ; nor is it probable that either bullion or money ever could be abundant in a country alike destitute of domestic pro ducts and foreign commerce. William the Lyon hav ing been taken prisoner, was ransomed for 40,000 merks, and David II. nearly two centuries after, was ransomed for 100,000, which must have drained the na tion of a large portion of the currency, and led to the employment of the mint for the special purpose of pro ducing it. Attempts have been made to prove that great advantage was derived from a monopoly of trade with France. " Nay," says one author, " who would believe it, were it not demonstrable from unquestionable vouchers, the records of the mint, so immense were our profits this way, that, in the reign of James VI. we coined 119 stone-weight of gold, and 986 of silver, within the space of one year." Preface of the Trans lation of Beague's Campaigns, p. 28. From a few au thentic details of the operations of the mint, which have occurred to us, we incline to conclude that the quantity of gold within the period specified, is somewhat over rated, but that the computation of silver is not so.