Plack (coin)

A plack (Scottish Gaelic: plang) was an ancient Scottish coin of the value of four Scots pence or, by 1707, one-third of an English penny.[1]

Not to be confused with Placard or Plaque (disambiguation).

Issues and nomenclature

James III of Scotland started minting placks and two pence half-placks in Edinburgh before 1473. They were made of "billon", an alloy with a low silver content. The name of the coin comes from a Flemish word for a metal disc.[2]

James IV of Scotland, who reigned from 1488 to 1513, issued two kinds of four pence placks, both minted in the alloy called "billon". The first issue has "Lombardic" mediaeval-style lettering, and the second issue used Roman capitals. There were also half-placks, valued at two pence. The half-placks are now comparatively rare.[3]

Placks issued during the minority years of James V are slightly different in design from those of his father, and are sometimes called "Queen's Placks", referring to his mother Margaret Tudor. No half-placks were minted under James V.[4]

On 3 March 1574 Regent Morton issued a proclamation to "cry down" or devalue unofficial placks and lions or hardheads (two pence pieces) made in the time of Mary of Guise. These placks would now be current at two pence, and the lions at one penny. The coins were to be returned to the mint, and if found lawful marked with a Douglas heart and returned to the owner. Such countermarked coins are often found today.[5]

In 1588 the word plack was also used to describe coins of the value of a penny or two pence, the "tuppences" having two dots placed next to the lion of Scotland. These twopenny placks are known as "hardheads" today.[6]

In July 1593 the Parliament of Scotland authorised the minting of a four penny plack with two sceptres crossed and a thistle.[7]

The plack in Scottish literature

The coin appears in the old song:

A’ that e’er my Jeanie had,
My Jeanie had, my Jeanie had,
A’ that e’er my Jeanie had
Was ae bawbie
There’s your plack, and my plack,
And your plack, and my plack,
And Jeanie’s bawbie.

The word is probably derived from the ancient Flemish coin, a plaquette, in use before the introduction into the Netherlands of the French money reckoned by francs and centimes.

It can be found in the works of Robert Burns too:

Nae howdie gets a social night,
or plack frae them
(Scotch Drink)
Stretch a joint to catch a plack,
Abuse a brother to his back.
(To Gavin Hamilton)

See also

References
  • MacKay, Charles – A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch (1888)
  1. SND: plack
  2. Nicholas Holmes, Scottish Coins: A History of small change in Scotland (NMS: Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 17, 19–20.
  3. Nicholas Holmes, Scottish Coins: A History of small change in Scotland (NMS: Edinburgh, 1998), p. 28.
  4. Nicholas Holmes, Scottish Coins: A History of small change in Scotland (NMS: Edinburgh, 1998), p. 28.
  5. William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1574-1581, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 97–8.
  6. David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: 1585-1592, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1881), pp. 317, 326; Nicholas Holmes, Scottish Coins: A History of Small Change in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 49–51.
  7. Thomas Thomson, Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland: 1593-1625, vol. 4 (1816), pp. 48-9.
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