'Shale Money'

‘Shale Money’, a piece of fashioned coal / shale of squat circular form, 36.24g, 60mm diameter, accompanied with a letter dated 13th May 1930, describing the piece as being dug and found at Portpatrick in 1893, the first part of the letter states “The opinion of some of the late Dr Anderson of the National Museum Edinburgh…“, the second part “Stone Money, Round disc of shale or Cannel Coal, the specimen given to Mr Rusk. SSC Edinburgh was dug up along with about 50 others on 25th Dec 1893 in opening a grave in the disused portion of the old Graveyard of Portpatrick… Dr Anderson referring to the find said they were stone money and that they were used in the old superstition of putting a piece of money in the hands of the dead and coffin was practised in early times but in some districts was practiced even yet.”

(Qty: 2)