Thursday, 22 May 2014

Groat

I am always dreaming of finding treasure at Balintore Castle to aid in its restoration. This blog post amply illustrates the divergence of dreams and reality, as a recent discovery of a 1838 silver groat under the floor-boards is by far the nearest thing to treasure yet uncovered. Yet, a groat is worth a mere 4d in old money or 1.6 p in new. 

The date of 1838 is  interesting as it pre-dates the construction of Balintore Castle in 1860. So, one presumes it was in circulation for at least 22 years before being lost - most likely during the building phase itself. Queen Victoria looks very young, and indeed she only came to power in the preceding year of 1837.

Groats ceased to be minted in 1856, which is a great shame as a coin worth four-pence has great numismatic charm.
Balintore groat: reverse
Balintore groat: obverse
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3 comments:

  1. Unknown22 May 2014 at 14:48

    Excellent - and your groat may come in handy post 18 September!

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  2. Laura S.24 May 2014 at 15:24

    Or think of it as a portent of things to come. :-)

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  3. chenda26 May 2014 at 13:52

    You can't help imagining who the last person was to touch the coin, can you ? Its kind of weird how theres such a connection between you and the original builders - I remember that little wooden plaque you found signed by the origial builders, written to the future owners of the castle.

    Anyway, keep up your amazing work :)

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