This is the remarkable history of every currency Scotland has ever had

Don’t worry, it’s all in a good cause, and is occasioned by the controversy sparked by the Sustainable Growth Commission’s recommendation that an independent Scotland should continue to use the sterling for years after the break with the rest of the UK.

News of this so-called “sterlingisation” process took my mind back four years to when Alex Salmond appeared to be caught out by Alistair Darling over the exact form of currency that a newly independent Scotland would use.

Remember that then chancellor George Osborne had already ruled out a currency union, effectively saying that it just wouldn’t work, so sleekit Alistair thought he was on a winner as he pressed Alex on Scotland’s intended currency.

But it backfired, because Darling had to admit that even outwith a currency union, Scotland could still use sterling, because it is a reserve currency. ANY nation could use the pound, as Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and, ahem, Tristan da Cunha do.

I am not going to get into the rights and wrongs of sterlingisation, though it does seem sensible to keep using the pound until a better alternative is found. And anyway, why not let the people choose our new currency as one element of a three-part referendum held, say, six months after we vote for independence in which the Scottish people are also given the choice of a monarchy or a republic and membership of the EU or EFTA or not?

Why not let us choose? We’re too stupid? Balderdash – this is probably the most sophisticated electorate in the world, and don’t forget the people of Russia who had just emerged from decades of Soviet control held a FOUR-part referendum in April, 1993. Boris Yeltsin did not win all four parts, proving that it was indeed a genuine plebiscite. So why not give people here REAL choices?

Four years ago, I remember screaming at the television screen: “But we’ve already had a currency union when we were independent before!”

And not just once, it should be said. It is the curse of historians, even amateur ones like myself, that people tend to quote historical precedents only when it suits them. It didn’t suit the No side in 2014 to mention previous currency unions, and the Growth Commission concedes that a full currency union is off the table, but we can still use the pound, so hopefully all sides will read this brief study of the history of Scotland’s currency and see the precedents that have been set.

Just to prove how diverse that currency has been, here’s a list of some of the coins that have been used in Scotland down the centuries – I’ll use the Scots terms, though I’m well aware there are different names in Gaelic.

Remember the bob, the Scots word for a shilling? How about the bawbee, aka the billon? The farthing first seen in 1280? The merk or mark? The boddle or bodle or Turner? The plack, as mentioned by Robert Burns? Or the stunningly beautiful gold unicorn?

We’ve also imported the names and sometimes the actual coins such as the dollar, ryal, noble, testoun, pistole, ducat, florin, crown and half-crown, and of course the groat – and before anyone thinks it, John o’ Groats is not named after the coin allegedly charged by John the local ferryman, but after Jan de Groot, a Dutchman who operated the ferry to and from Orkney, the groat having been in existence for at least 200 years before Jan appeared on the scene in the late 15th century.

That’s just the coinage. Wait till you learn about our banknotes down the centuries, by far the most important form of Scottish currency.

And that’s the trouble with Scotland’s currency – if it’s so damned important, why do so many people know so little about its history?

For it is a quite remarkable history. The first coins in Scotland that we know about were brought here by the Romans. Prior to their arrival, such trade as existed in Caledonia seems to have been achieved through barter, the exchange of one set of goods for another.

The various hoards that have been discovered show that Roman coins were in use in what is now Scotland for at least five centuries after the Empire invaded and eventually went back to Hadrian’s Wall – there is one theory that the Roman governors may have paid the Caledonians to stay north of the Wall, but there is also no doubt that ancient Scottish people traded with Roman Britain.

Coinage from Anglo-Saxon and Viking times was commonly used in southern Scotland in the ninth and 10th centuries, but the great leap forward took place in 1136 when King David I captured Carlisle and its silver mines. David promptly minted silver pennies, the first genuine Scottish currency, and here’s the rub – apart from his profile on one side, the Scottish silver penny was pretty much identical to that of England, and most importantly, they were minted to the same weight standards.

So for nearly 200 years, a de facto currency union existed, as English and Scottish pennies were used either side of the Border. Try telling that to a London cabbie the next time he or she turns down your Clydesdale Bank tenner.

David also introduced the Scottish pound and, heavily influenced as he was by the Normans, he adopted their system of 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound.

One interesting product of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was the huge sum of money paid by both families and estates to ransom English knights who had been captured, most of them while fleeing the field. There are many records of ransoms being paid in marks or merks, which were coins recognised in both countries.

The last of the Bruce kings, David II, decided to end the currency union and effectively devalued the Scottish coinage at a time of austerity for the nation. In 1356, Edward III of England banned Scottish coins from his country altogether, which forced Robert III to further devalue Scotland’s currency. He did bring in the first gold coin, the Lion, and the Stewart dynasty continued to innovate and bring in new coins, most notably the beautiful Unicorn introduced by King James III. It is important to note that coins in this era were supposedly worth their weight in whatever metal they were minted. As the Scottish economy lurched forward and backward, successive kings debased the amount of metal in the coinage, thereby automatically devaluing the Scottish currency.

It should be noticed that the Stewarts were not entirely disinterested in changing the coinage. Everyone in Scotland was forced to trade in their old coins for new ones and the kings made a healthy profit on the exchange. It should be noted that it was the Stewarts who first ordered “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit” – the motto of the Order of the Thistle – to be imprinted on Scottish coins.

When James VI became James I of England, despite the fact that the two countries remained independent, the king ordered a currency union with the Scottish coinage brought up to English standards at a rate of £12 Scots to £1 sterling.

The coinage for the rest of the 17th century was varied, with Scottish copper coins staying in circulation. We had a bodle, worth tuppence, which was so called because the master of the Scottish mint reputedly said he didn’t care a bodle for something. The copper bawbee, worth sixpence, got its name from the French “bas billon” which is also the source of the word “bob” or shilling, a word that means the same in English and Scots.

The last real Scottish coin was the silver shilling introduced by James VII and II, but its weight reflected the fact that 13 Scottish shillings were worth one English shilling.

The separate Scottish coinage, like so much else, disappeared with the 1707 Union. Interestingly, the Act of Union’s Article 16 says this: “That, from and after the Union, the coin shall be of the same standard and value throughout the United Kingdom as now in England, and a Mint shell be continued in Scotland under the same rules as the Mint in England; and the present officers of the Mint continued subject to such regulations and alterations as Her Majestie, her heirs or successors, or the Parliament of Great Britain shall think fit.”

That “vow” and the then Scottish Mint’s production lasted just two years. By 1709, there was just one coinage for the whole of the UK, an achievement masterminded by no less a person than Sir Isaac Newton, who was master of the Mint. The Scottish Mint’s demise is still seen as a disaster for the country and even that arch-Unionist Sir Walter Scott recorded the protests when it was finally closed in 1830. The title of governor of the Scottish Mint passed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1870, but was abolished entirely in the 1971 Coinage Act.

By the time of the Union, the Bank of Scotland – established in 1695 – had already started issuing the type of currency which would transform the economic scene. Banknotes printed in Edinburgh were in set denominations and were redeemable for cash, ie coins or gold, on demand.

The first £1 note was printed by the Bank in 1704, and until the Royal Bank came into being in 1727, the Bank of Scotland had the field to itself. The Royal and the Bank were fierce competitors and did not recognise each other’s banknotes until 1751. Over the centuries, some 80 banks have issued Scottish notes, but now only three do it – the Bank, RBS and Clydesdale.

A much greater threat came from Westminster in the mid-1820s when the government ordered that £5 should be the minimum denomination.

A massive campaign to save the Scottish £1 note began, led by a certain Malachi Malagrowther, the pseudonym of Sir Walter Scott – yes, him again. The government gave in and that is one reason why Wattie’s face has been on Scottish banknotes in recent years.

Even a Unionist such as Scott could see that doing away with a distinctive Scottish currency was damaging to the nation, and perhaps we need another Malachi Malagrowther to bring forward ideas to make a Scottish pound work for an independent Scotland.

Certainly by the time the Banknotes Scotland Act of 1845 came into being, the distinctive nature of Scotland’s currency was unarguable.

Perhaps one of the first acts of the government of an independent Scotland will be to make those Scottish notes into legal tender, for technically speaking, they are not legal at present.

And just to prove the point, following the collapse of RBS and the Bank of Scotland, the Banking Act of 2009 says the three Scottish note-issuing banks have to keep an equivalent copy of a Bank of England banknote of the same monetary value for every Scottish note they put into circulation. The point is, as we have shown, that anyone who says an independent Scotland couldn’t use the pound or any other currency, or be in a currency union, is just plain wrong.