INTRODUCRION xliii

Scotlarrd,

(3) .Ectc d'or, or coccron~ie, golden crown. It was worth
about 5 livres 1 SOUS,l equal to 9s. 4d. sterling. (P. 155,
receaved some 5611. in 10 golden crowns.')

(4) Pistole. A Spanish gold coin current in France. Its
standard value was 10 livres tournois, equal to 16s. 8d.
That fairly corresponds with a proclamation in Ireland in
1661 fixing it at 16s. Littré (Dict. s.v.), states the value of
the coin a good deal higher, though he giv es the standard as
above. But its value gradually increased, like that of other
gold coins, and in later Irish proclamations is much higher.
The British gold coins Jacob:~a and Carolus were also used
by Lauder in France, and are explained below.

2. In .~cotland and England.y

(1 ) Jacobuq (2) Carolrc.f. James vi. on his accession to
the throne of England, with a view to the union of the
kingdoms, issued a coinage for both countries, which was in
this sense uniform that each Scottish coin was commensurable
and interchangeable with an English coin. Ile ratio of the
Scots to the English -2 s. d., which during centuries was
nlwa}'s becoming lower, was finally flxed at 1 to 1~. The
English 20s. and Scots 121. pieces of equal value now issued
were called the unite. The double crown or lOs. piece was
the Scots 6 l. piece, the crown the Scots 3 l. piece, and so on.
The unite was so called from the leading idea of union,
just as the double crown had the legend, Henric:~s Ro~a.r
Regna Jacob:~a. As Henry \'11, united the Red and White
!toses, James was to unite the two kingdoms. It seems
probable that James intended the unite as a 20s. or pound
piece to be the standard and pivot of the coinage of both

1 The exact value in 1666 in livres tournois was 511. Ils. 6d.-tllfnroires, rrt
supra, p. 256.

Sec Cochran Patrick's Records of the Coiuage of Scotlanct (i8~6) Ruding's
Anrrals af 1hs Coin~rge (1817) and Nandbook of the Coim of Great Britain and
Ircland in the British Diuseum, by Il, A. Grueber (t8g9) Burns, Coinage of