Archive Research Guides (7)
Research Guide: Old Scottish money
Scottish money was abolished as a circulating currency at the Act of Union in 1707. However, the
valued rent of land and, in many places, feu duties and ministers’ stipends, schoolmasters’ salaries,
and other parochial payments were still reckoned by the pound Scots and the merk, or mark, for
some considerable time after the union. However, payment was made in English pounds sterling.
Both the English and the Scottish pound were made up of 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Thus
there were 240 pence in a pound. But there were 12 Scots pounds to the English pound. The merk
was two thirds of a Scottish pound, or 13 shillings and 4 pence. Information below sourced from
www.thereformation.info/old_scottish_money.htm.
Scottish value
Scottish name and value
Sterling value
1 penny
1 penny or doyt
one twelfth of a penny
2 pennies
1 bodle
one sixth of a penny
2 bodles
1 plack or groat
one third of a penny
3 placks
1 bawbee *
half a penny
12 pennies
1 shilling
1 penny
20 shillings
1 pound
20 pence
13 shillings and 4 pennies
1 merk or mark
13 pence
18 merks or marks
12 pounds Scots
£1
* The bawbee was originally a copper coin worth ha’penny (half a penny); in Mary Queen of Scots’
time it was worth 3 pence Scots money, and later raised to 6 pence.
Explanation of currency abbreviations
Latin names were used for the abbreviated money forms, so where 2d meaning two pence, the ‘d’
abbreviation derives from ‘denarius’:
English
Latin
Currency abbreviation
Pounds
Librum
L
Shillings
solidus
s
Pence
denarius
d
Archive Research Guides (7): Old Scottish money
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