Scottish Currency

Preceding the Act of Union in 1707 Scotland had its own currency: the Scottish pound. From the fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century the deterioration of the coinage resulted in the disappearance of the Scottish and English currencies. In 1560, 5 pounds Scots equaled 1 pound sterling. When King James VI came to the throne of England (1603) the exchange rate for Scots pounds to sterling was fixed at 12:1. The merk (worth 13 shillings and 4 pence) was mostly a unit of account, but was sporadically minted. Scotland periodically suffered a shortage of coinage, which is one reason why references to European coins, such as the rex dollar can be found in testaments during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly in Scottish burghs. Scottish currency was withdrawn after the Act of Union in 1707, but the rents and wages also the value of agricultural produce continued to be stated in Scottish money.

In many of the old Scottish wills and testaments, the sums of money mentioned will more often than not appear as abbreviations for pounds, shillings and pence. These abbreviations are usually written in superscript (i.e, above the other writing in that line of text) form.

'lb' or 'li' (with a stroke through it) signifying the Latin word 'libra' (meaning pounds)

's' (or double s) signifying the Latin word 'solidus' (meaning shilling)

'd' suggesting, the Latin word 'denarius' (meaning penny).

Latin Numerals

If you learned Latin at school, the digits 1 to 10 in Roman numerals are: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x.

On the other hand, in Scots documents in the period 1500-1750 you are likely to come up against some variations.

In the first instance, the last 'i' digit in any series of 'i's will invariably be rendered a 'j', e.g.: ij equals 2, vj equals 6, and xiij meaning 13.

Numbers like 4 (iv) and 9 (ix) are just as likely to be written like iiij and viiij. So: xiiij equals 14, and viiij equals 9

Other Roman numerals which you may come across are the letter 'L' (which equals 50) and 'C' (which equals 100).

Sometimes an abbreviation mark was often written after the 'C' (e.g. C/) to represent the Latin word Centus.

You should also look out for the use of a superscript XX which will look like this ^xx to represent a 'score' meaning (20), mostly in combination with other Roman numerals, e.g.: C/ iij xx iiij equals 164 (i.e. C/ equals 100, iijxx equals three score which in turn equals  60, and iiij equals 4).