In the reign of Charles II. other buildings were added behind, forming
a neat quadrangle; and here was the Scottish coin produced till the
Union, when a separate coinage was given up and this establishment
abandoned; though, to gratify prejudice, the offices were still kept
up as sinecures. This court with its buildings was a sanctuary for
persons prosecuted for debt, as was the King’s Stables, a mean place at
the west end of the Grassmarket. There was, however, a small den near
the top of the oldest building, lighted by a small window looking up
the Cowgate, which was used as a jail for debtors or other delinquents
condemned by the Mint’s own officers.
In the western portion of the old building, accessible by a stair from
the court, is a handsome room with an alcove ceiling, and lighted
by two handsomely proportioned windows, which is known to have been
the council-room of the Mint, being a portion of the private mansion
of the master. Here, in May 1590, on a Sunday evening, the town of
Edinburgh entertained the Danish lords who accompanied James VI. and
his queen from her native court—namely, Peter Monk, the admiral of
Denmark; Stephen Brahe, captain of Eslinburg [perhaps a relative of
Tycho?]; Braid Ransome Maugaret; Nicholaus Theophilus, Doctor of Laws;
Henry Goolister, captain of Bocastle; William Vanderwent; and some
others. For this banquet, ‘maid in Thomas Aitchinsoune, master of the
cunyie-house lugeing,’ it was ordered ‘that the thesaurer caus by and
lay in foure punsheouns wyne; John Borthuik baxter to get four bunnis
of beir, with foure gang of aill, and to furneis breid; Henry Charteris
and Roger Macnacht to caus hing the hous with tapestrie, set the
burdis, furmis, chandleris [_candlesticks_], and get flowris; George
Carketill and Rychert Doby to provyde the cupbuirds and men to keep
thame; and my Lord Provest was content to provyde naprie and twa dozen
greit veschell, and to avance ane hunder pund or mair, as thai sall
haif a do.’
In the latter days of the Mint as an active establishment, the
coining-house was in the ground-floor of the building, on the north
side of the court; in the adjoining house, on the east side, was
the finishing-house, where the money was polished and fitted for
circulation. The chief instruments used in coining were a hammer and
steel dies, upon which the device was engraved. The metal, being
previously prepared of the proper fineness and thickness, was cut into
longitudinal slips, and a square piece being cut from the slip, it
was afterwards rounded and adjusted to the weight of the money to be
made. The blank pieces of metal were then placed between two dies, and
the upper one was struck with a hammer. After the Restoration another
method was introduced—that of the mill and screw, which, modified
by many improvements, is still in use. At the Union, the ceremony of
destroying the dies of the Scottish coinage took place in the Mint.
After being heated red-hot in a furnace, they were defaced by three
impressions of a broad-faced _punch_, which were of course visible on
the dies as long as they existed; but it must be recorded that all
these implements, which would now have been great curiosities, are
lost, and none of the machinery remains but the press, which, weighing
about half a ton, was rather too large to be readily appropriated, or
perhaps it would have followed the rest.
The floors over the coining-house—bearing the letters, C. R. II.,
surmounting a crown, and the legend, GOD SAVE THE KING, 1674,
originally the mansion of the master—were latterly occupied by the
eminent Dr Cullen, whose family were all born here, and who died here
himself in 1792.