Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/538

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. II. bEC. 31, '98.

was also called a turner, no doubt from the old French copper coin the tournois.

Plack was a much older coin-name, and in the form plaque, plak, or plack was used for coins, mostly of base silver, in various parts of Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Probably the earliest record of the name in Scotland is in the Act of 23 July, 1473, " As tuiching the plakkis and the new pennyis." The Scottish plack was of very base silver, and those of James III., 1460-88, were about the size of a modern shilling, but- thinner and only half the weight. On one side were the arms of Scotland, and on the other a much ornamented cross. It is often found that in those days the more orna- mental the cross on the back of a coin the worse the metal of which it is made.

In the time of James VI. there were so- called eightpenny placks and fourpenny placks, and the last placks were fourpenny placks, directed to be issued by the Act of 27 December, 1593. Their standard weight was 23 '55 grains troy, but the few which still exist are only of about the weight of a modern threepenny bit. This was the last coinage of debased silver in Scotland, and the place of such coins was taken by copper money.

I think we may take it that plack was probably for a long time a term for 4d Scots, and bod le for 2d. Scots ; and as 12d Scots was equivalent to a penny sterling, it is possible that a plack came to be a term for a halfpenny and a bodle for a farthing, and that the passage quoted from ' Kidnapped ' should be understood in that sense.

HORACE W. MONCKTON.

In Jamieson's 'Dictionary of the Scottish Language' a plack is stated to be a small copper coin formerly current in Scotland, equal to the third part of an English penny. It was probably upon this authority, and not Chambers, that R. L. Stevenson put the value of a plack above that of a boddle.

J. W. SHAND-HARVEY.

Castle Semplc, N.B.

The confusion as to the value of the plack and the bodle in Scotland arose from the extreme depreciation into which the earlier coin, the plack or bawbee, had fallen. In Queen Mary's reign, and in that of her son, large issues were made of these placks, and they were felt to be too plentiful and to be a burden upon the trading community. They were billon coins with one-twelfth part of silver, and weighed nearly 30 grains. The Government by way of relief reduced their nominal value by one-half, provoking thereby

great discontent. The bodle or boddle was introduced in the reign of Charles L, and his successors continued their use. They were well-struck copper coins, and in Charles II.'s time had the weight of 63 grains, and with them were issued copper bawbees of three times the size and weight of the bodle. The bawbee and the plack used to be of the same value before the great depreciation, and according to the tables R. L. Stevenson was right in deeming the plack to be of higher value than a bodle, whilst Messrs. Chambers in estimating the worth of a plack against English money might take the actual and not the assumed value. A plack with the silver worn away at under 30 grains compares badly with the new bodies of 63 grains.

W. S. C.

MONASTIC RECORDS : VANDERSEE (9 th S. i. 249). At the above reference I made an inquiry which I am now able to answer myself. Mr. George Vanderzee was one of the sub-commissioners engaged in Govern- ment inquiries on the public records of the kingdom in the early part of this century. He appears to have arranged the documents in the Exchequer (King's Remembrancer's Office) and also the Norise Rolls ; and finally he interested himself in calendainng and making abstracts of deeds, charters, &c., relating to monastic establishments.

The three volumes about which I inquired are now known as Additional MSS. 6164, 6165, 6166, and refer principally to extents of property held by alien priories made by Mr. Vanderzee, and were presented to the British Museum by the Record Commissioners. Mr. Vanderzee's reports, &c., may be seen in the Reports of the Commissioners, 1800-1819 and 1837. E. A. FRY.

Birmingham.

ROUNDS OR RUNGS (9 th S. ii. 386, 430, 492). I think I have been partially misunderstood. After pointing out that rung is an old and respectable word, I am asked to admit that it is "vulgar." But I admit no such thing; nor does a word become "vulgar" merely because it pleases J. S. M. T. to call it so. It is twice used by Burns in the sense of " cudgel." See ' The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer,' st. 22 ; ' The Dumfries Volunteers,' st. 2. It is the true technical word for the round of a ladder, and is used by good modern authors when they happen to know this fact. The ' Century Dictionary ' quotes " the higher rungs of the ladder " from Bryce, ' American Commonwealth,' ii. 76.

I beg leave to say that I, for one, am not going to refrain from the use of true and