Pound Scots
unit of currency in the Kingdom of Scotland
The pound (Modern and Middle Scots: Pund) was the currency of the Kingdom of Scotland prior to 1707, after which Scotland became a country of the Kingdom of Great Britain and subsequently began using the pound sterling as its currency. It was introduced by David I, in the 12th century, on the Carolingian monetary system of a pound divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. The Scottish currency was later devalued relative to sterling by debasement of its coinage. By the time of James III, one pound Scots was valued at five shillings sterling.
Issue
Silver coins were issued denominated in merk, worth 13s.4d. Scots (two-thirds of a pound Scots). When James VI became King James I of England in 1603, the coinage was reformed to closely match sterling coin, with £12 Scots equal to £1 sterling. No gold coinage was issued from 1638 to 1700, but new silver coinage was issued from 1664 to 1707.
Acts of Union 1707
With the Acts of Union 1707, the pound Scots was replaced by sterling coin at the rate of 12:1 (£1 Scots = twenty pence sterling), although the pound Scots continued to be used in Scotland as a unit of account for most of the 18th century. Today, there is no distinct Scots currency; but Scotland's three largest clearing banks (the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Bank of Scotland and the Clydesdale Bank) issue banknotes denominated in sterling.
“Pound Scots” enters the record as unit of currency in the Kingdom of Scotland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pound, Scots and unit can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Pound Scots” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pound, Scots and unit provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q35921. The first chronological checks are 1707, 1603, 1638 and 1700.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pound Scots” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.