That was brilliant! In1971 I stayed at the youth hostel in Stirling and met a French girl called Ilianne. When she did there were “Non distractions a Stirling.” We distracted each other for an hour or so on a bench under the castle walls. Happy memories. Keep keeping up the good work Bruce 🌞
Your timing for me is impeccable! I was just pondering about the origin of the dollar this morning as the internet caught my eye, most sources state "The US dollar (USD) became the official currency of the United States (US) in 1792, but the dollar actually has origins in 16th century Europe. The ‘thaler’, a common name for a Czech coin, became used to describe any similar European silver coin - translated into English, it means ‘dollar.’" Whereas it has come to my attention that google states, "The Scots dollar was a coin minted in Scotland between 1124 and 1709." Thanks again for another interesting, informative video!
And for a long time in Canada our national hardware store has been Canadian Tire and when you made purchases with cash, you would get back a certain percentage of Canadian Tire money. Looked like real little banknotes but the max value was a dollar. You could save it up to make purchases with at the store. Instead of the queen, there was a gentleman in a Scottish bonnet on it.
The problem is forgeries. The Scottish Notes are seen as easily forged, and so are? I always accepted Scottish notes here in England, but ran into another retailer who had been stung, not once or twice, but multiple times. At one point in the 2010s there were shops in England that wouldn't accept English £20 notes let alone £50s? Purely due to forgery, nothing to do with not liking Scots😍🤩😍
Actually „Thaler“ was a coin used inter alia in the territory which is nowadays the Czech Republic, but the word is German in origin since „Thal“ or nowadays „Tal“ means valley, and in the valley were the silver mines that produced the metal for the coins.
Great video Bruce! I love that like most confusing "changes" through history the most common story is not always the most correct. Sometimes it's just the most comforting version of 3 or 4 truths. Thanks for everything you do!
Love this. Thank you Bruce! Beautiful scenery, and love the coffee shop. So interesting. In the US, sterling silver is obviously still valued as affordable jewelry, the .925 stamp being the standard.
When I go to Scotland I know I have to get the Scottish notes changed before returning to England as non of the shops here will accept them. So utterly ludicrous. Last time I forgot and had to take them to a bank here to get swapped as I just couldn't get them accepted anywhere. The Scottish notes are so much nicer as well I think. I loved the one with the otters on.
Utterly ludicrous, indeed. It's the same currency, the very bloody same! Yet they won't accept it because it was made in another part of the kingdom. Why? Just... why??
It's absolutely shocking and 1 of the reasons I don't go visit my family down south. The other reason is I was arrested and tried for assault on a pub landlord. When the landlord told the police its wasn't me they said "oh well, he's Scottish, we're arresting him anyway". The guy who done the assault got off due to my arrest.
❤😂 you and I might be generations and worlds apart Bruce but I feel like a Scotsman today. This kind of semantics is right up my alley. Thanks again for bringing to life the history of some my ancestors.
Fantastic and gave a great game of connect the dots with my wife around what connects Edward, Coins, the Ochil Hills and forgery.... You have a brilliant channel and hope you keep enlightning us for years to come!
Loved that Bruce. I often play in a pub just down the hill from where you did the intro, called the Settle Inn. I can highky recommend it, and loads of history in that building too as well as great beer :)
I find this very interesting. My surname is Sterling, and my brother's father's surname is Stirling. Both from Northern Ireland and my brother used to wind me up saying that my name sounded more English. Anyway, we,re aw Jock Tamson's Bairns. But a fascinating story none the less.
D U D E ! ! ! I was one of your pupils, you got me a Higher Physics and still take time out to listen to you. Thank you for all of this. Meall do neach, oillaimh! I hope to meet you as an adult and hopefully leran more from 'The Incredible Mr Fummey" Suas leis a' Ghaidhlig!
my brother went to school in dollar for years, and i always wondered if that was where "dollar" came from but i never went on to try and make the connection!
Mr Bruce, this is another gem of a video. I really liked the feel of the coffee shop footage. Taking the time to stir the drink made me go pick up my cuppa. Then the outside shots viewing in lent to a feel of just how cozy a spot to sit and listen to an interesting story. Thank you from across the pond once again! 🖤
I just finished reading the book you recommended by Fiona Watson, "Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland." Very interesting reading. If one has watched "Braveheart" and read Dr. Watson's book, you realize that the movie's timeline was really, really compressed. I already knew before reading the book that the movie's version on events wasn't particularly accurate (including Longshank's death), but the book brought some other things into focus for me as well. I love your videos Bruce, and the reading recommendations your often make. Keep up the good work. From one of those "People across the Atlantic." 🙂
Very interesting work piece written about the history of Scottish Silver from West Linton,silver burn mine site. I did some pans in the area and found silver sulphide as described. Thanks for another interesting video tour Bruce 👍
I bought a pair of trainers in Guildford and paid with Scottish Notes and have since visited Dorset, Crewe, Yorkshire and always used Scottish notes. Worth noting that many English banks were under the umbrella of RBS.
If a Scottish note is proffered in an English shop. There's always a Scots man who states " I think ye'll find, pal, tha's legal tender. Love your series, the Scots, and Scotland. 🇬🇧😃💜
Not quite, and I think you'll find, my Scots friend, that legal tender and acceptable currency are not exactly the same. Legal tender is called that because it "must be accepted if offered in payment of a debt." it's usually cash not electronic or even cheques (remember them?). it's all complicated but I think it's part of why you can pay your council tax in 2p pieces if you want, as some of us liked to do back in the day. Whereas a shop can decline them.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan USA, literally across a river from Canada. Canadian currency (notes) were not commonly accepted in the US due to the exchange rate, but coins often were. Canadians, on the other hand, would often accept US dollars, again due to the exchange rate. Conniving little beggars 🙂
And he's always wrong. Banknotes are not legal tender in Scotland. Only recently have BoE banknotes become legal tender in England & Wales. No other banknotes are legal tender anywhere in UK. They are ""Promissory Notes". They promise to give you something of actual value in exchange for the worthless paper. See Bills of Exchange Act. You can create your own legal currency.
@@thefoxhat6163 What's a better rebuttal when someone refuses? If you're offering to pay in pound sterling, and the cashier refuses because it's a Scottish bank note, are you within your right to say 'I'm offering you pound sterling, either accept it or don't' and threaten to walk out?
As a kid, I lived in Edinburgh in the mid '60's. I find it interesting that Bank of Scotland currency is still not accepted in England which was the case in '65. Certainly explains the Scottish national movement.
@ I’m sure you’re right. To be honest, when I travel to London, or if I expect to need a lot of cash, I usually get some English currency from the bank in advance, but if I am on a short excursion or am just visiting the Lake District or some other place in the North and I need to pay for a meal, then as I said, my money has never been refused!
The Scottish notes are backed by the Bank of England, Scotland doesn't have its own state bank. The only reason there is scottish notes is because they winged and moaned. Why don't London or Merseyside have their own money? The Scots will moan no matter what you do.
I orderd a coffee in Glasgow and offered to pay with a Bank of England note; it was refused and the lady in the shop asked me to take it to a Bank and change it. I went elsewhere and it was accepted without issue.
@@Wee_Langside When I worked in a shop I would accept Scottish bank notes, also saw the occasional one from Ulster banks. Didn't hand any out in change and they had to be separated for banking. I had first encountered Scottish notes back in the 1960/70s and had friends from Scotland so no problem doing a swop. Think in handling years of cash I only accepted one forgery.
@@Brian3989 I did the same, working on a market stall when I was a kid. My boss told me to accept Scottish banknotes and coins if they were offered, but only for the purchase of goods and not if the holder was asking me to exchange it for English currency. He also said to completely reject fifty pound notes regardless of their origin, since they were known to be primarily used for dodgy transactions. I saw just one fifty pound note in four years, and the bloke proffering it didn't seem surprised when I had to decline.
In fact Scottish notes are not legal tender anywhere - even in Scotland. In other words, you can't insist that they be accepted for payment. only coins satisfy this requirement (and even then only up to a limit - 20p for bronze).
Ya I had a few Scott notes mixed in with an assortment of Euros and other currency in me travel bag long time back and the morning coffee shop in London back then didn't want them either! That's really long time back and it's sad to know nothing has changed.
Between Stirling and Dollar there's a wee village called Alva at the foot of the Ochils they have there a Glen call the Silver Glen, as a boy we used to play in a cave reported to be a silver mine, it was blocked up by the council in the late sixties I believe. I also heard the story of Sterling coming from Stirling as a boy but I'm sorry to say the other explanation seems more probable. Great show Bruce, Greetings from a Son of the Rock.
We really got our dollar's worth on this video! I found it very interesting and entertaining. Speaking of Pieces of Eight, In the US, an eighth of a dollar used to be called a bit. There was an old saying that went "2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar". As for the Scottish inventing everything and the English stealing it, I fully agree!
Love this guy ... Super insightful. As I have a family history and had some great times when working in the town several moons ago I was fascinated by this history re- the coinage links. Interestingly, I bumped into a historian up near the castle a number of years back who was able to tell me my descendants were bankers.This was priceless and reduced my partner to tears as I'm not remotely materialistic and as she often commented, I'm clueless re- money 😂
When I worked in retail in the south, we had a few misunderstandings about the legality of Scottish currency, nothing serious it's just that there are three banks issuing Scottish banknotes, so it can get confusing if you've never seen one. This go worse after England replaced the pound note with a coin. I knew that they were legal, but a lot of people didn't. Mind you, an Northern Ireland banknote caught me out. I didn't refuse it, I had to phone the bank to double check though.
Fascinating stuff Bruce. Never knew about Stirling and Sons of The Rock, I've always thought of Dumbarton FC as the Sons (of the Rock) and the town they came from.
Speaking of Dumbarton, I happen to have grown up near California's Dumbarton bridge, which was named for the castle. I don't see the resemblance because there's no rock; just salt flats & an old quarry that was turned into a state park a few years ago, & a portion of the salt flats are being turned back to their natural state. A fun trivia fact is that in 1971 the original Dumbarton bridge & its toll booth on my old hometown Fremont side of the bridge were the locations of the toll booth Maude blew through (not the type of toll booth those about to be executed passed thru in Stirling) & the motorcycle cop scene (Tom Skerritt played the befuddled motorcycle cop Maude drove off on). I don't know if Harold & Maude is a popular cult film in Scotland like it is here in the US but I figured I'd share that for anybody who might enjoy it. Great video as always, Bruce!
Costa Coffee once rejected a Scottish note a woman had presented as payment, don't know if you remember, this act started a boycott of Costa in Scotland, as a result they changed there policy, although some are still rejecting it , notably Costa Coffee Rotherham hospital my wife was refused service as a result of using a bank of Scotland note.🏴
Thanks for another great Saturday morning with a video from 🏴. I found it very interesting, as always. So what's the deal with the brits not taking Scott's money? That's wild...
In usa upto 1776 (?)would it be When uk Rothchilds etc created banking and the loan note we use today enabling trade without having to carry valuable and robbable chests of coins about on wagons. Instead carrying promissory notes and all the banks getting rich off charging peep to store their metals in the form of interest. That kind of thing anyway im sure...if one googles it.😊
I understood that the Silver mine, near Menstrie was the biggest find of Silver ever in history, and that Cromwell seized it and this became the silver currency of England. It is also probable that the name Stirling became Sterling currency, due to the Menstrie mine, near Stirling, and the difference in the spelling of the name was more due to hearing the locals pronounce the name Stirling, which sounded to the English as 'Sterling'.
😂 My wife is from Stirling and our son's name is Sterling! I had already told him the association of his name with the Hanseatic League but now, I'm going to send him this! Think of all the BS he'll have at his command when he's well in the cups with his friends when they ask him where he got his name! Thank you! This was wonderful and informative! The wife loved seeing her old prowling grounds!
Aye Bruce. That was a master class. I learned so much about common things we all take for granted and yet echo the lives and the times of our ancestors. There is this Scots thing about spelling names, though. At the MacDonald Museum, I saw a document with the poor bloke's name spelt 3 different ways. Did he know who he was? My own name has many different spellings; from Archiebald to Archbold to the "correct" Archibald. Now my wife says I canna spell so what am I haverin on aboot? (What would she know she English and an O'Brien, an that's another story) . So where does that leave us aboot the spellin of Sterling. I think I'll have a wee bit dram and think on it. Aroha
Many people back in the day couldn't read or write themselves so how names were spelt was often down to how scribes thought their names should be spelt phonetically. This crops up in old census data.
My old dad told me similar storis to this. We lived in Alowa and would walk in the Ochal hills. We moved to Australia 52 years ago, but still consider ourselves Scottish/Australian. I enjoy your channel and look forward to your next visit to Australia.
In February and March I'll be visiting the major towns in Australia and New Zealand with my live show Scotland Made the World. It would be great to see you. Get info at www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx
My geography teacher enjoyed pointing out the window at the Ochils to repeat the Sterling->Stirling version, and I just don't have the heart to take that away from him.
Hello Bruce thank you for sharing this video really fascinating. England is meant to except them but a lot of the people don’t realize that they can because they don’t know it is sterling. It use to happen to me when we always came back from Ireland
My grandfather used to use a similar term that sounded to my young ears like 'old bochel' to mean an old man. It was only much later in life (once I started visiting the mountains) that I realised it must have been 'old buachaille' he was saying.
All Scottish bank notes have the word "Sterling" on them somewhere. Bank of England bank notes do not have any reference to sterling at all! Most of my working life I was located in England and have made it my hobby to have a range of put downs to use against our English pals - just to put there has on a peep.
I live on the south coast of England and have never had a problem using Scottish bank notes or those from Northern Ireland. Maybe they just have educated shop workers in Sussex.
SMACKEROONIES! I love Kevin Bridges’ idea of creating our own currency: “You could be in a recession if your currency’s the Smackeroonie, but never a depression. It would cheer you up.” 😀
I currently live in Totnes, South Devon and many years ago, we did just that. the Totnes Pound. it could only be used in local businesses, the idea being to keep money in the local area, but in the end, that was the death of it. However, many places around the world have been inspired to start their own currencies. Bit of info here, and some links to others, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes_pound.
My father's middle name is Sterling/Stirling/Stirlin depending on what document is being referenced. It was a family name going back many generations on his mother's side. All of which couldnt decided on which spelling was accurate. My guess up till now had been that because of the intermarriages between Scottish, English, French and Norwegian the e/i became variable, lol. Thanks for the information!
Another point is that the term sterling appears in English documents of the reign of Henry II, well over 100 years before Edward's sacking of Stirling. Game, set and match, I think...
I'm a Stewart and, apparently, our branch of Stewart is from the Stirling area. My wife and I visited Stirling in 2006, and I was disappointed that Wallace's Bridge was no longer there. (They must have removed it before filming "Braveheart!" because it wasn't in the movie!! 😁🤣)
They have since found the underwater log posts of the Stirling Bridge that the Battle was named after. It is slightly upstream of the existing stone bridge.
Yes, Castle Stuart is just outside Inverness. There is a very old castle, and a much newer golf course. Different spelling for that branch of the Clan.
In the States are terms for quarter and half dollars from the sectioning of Spanish dollars which were probably the most common coin in circulation into 2 or 4 up to 8 parts or bits. Our quarter dollars and half dollars stopped the practice of cutting up dollar coins with ones that already at the proper size. There were also half pennies as well. The term of 2 bits for a quarter dollar comes from using 2 bits of a Spanish dollar to equal a quarter dollar.
Here in the US, the Coinage Act of 1792 established the dollar as the unit of currency on the advice of Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the Treasury. Primarily because the most common coinage in the Americas at the time was the Spanish Dollar, the Real. There were more Reals in America than pounds all through the colonies, because they were minted in New Spain. TTBOMK, the English never minted any pound coins here, even prior to the Rebellion. Instead, they relied on the Real as well.
And the basis bring the real which were called Pieces Of Eight (think pirate movies) is why a quarter has always been referred to as two bits. Being a quarter of a piece of eight.
As someone who grew up in the Stirling area I have some thing to add to the mix Stirling Sterling and Strivling are all names that the town was known by that is a fact. My "story " is that coins were minted throughout the UK at various mints There was a mint in the castle Fact All minted coins were taken to London where it was found that the purest silver was the silver from Sterling and so the name became the benchmark Given that Scots immigrants were happy to name American towns and villages after places in their own country.In an effort to show their independence of things English they may have chosen Dollar as a finger in the eye to the Auld enemy.. Worth noting that commerce was an area that the Scots excelled at in America. Phew !
The thaler->dollar etymology is almost definitely true because we have written records of the changes, but also because until the mine closed, the Schwaz mine which provided the silver for Joachimsthal produced about 85% of the entire world's silver supply.
Buy me a coffee, drinks a cup of tea 😂 Yes sadly see it a lot, can't accept this mate; legal tender until you cross the border into no man's land 😊 As always very informative with great passion
Ioften had to accept scottish notes.working in a charity shop.and yes there wS always ascotsman stepping forward.to anounce that " ithink you will find its legal tender"thankyou bruce for another entertaining video.please dont hate us Hold onto yr scottish roots.our destiny is together.im half welsh.quarter irish.and british. Bryth means covenant.ish means man.i. n ancient hebrew. And scythians and cal adonii tribe came over from levant.via ireland.iberia and tyre.by tyrranian sea.( Declaration of arbroath)
As I recall, the Spanish exploited a mountain in Bolivia (?), which contained massive quantities of high grade silver. The silver was coined and shipped to Spain where it was mostly spent on wars (particularly in the Low Countries). The coins were typically dollars aka pieces of eight. The exploitation was at the expense of vast numbers of Native Americans.
Back in my days of retail work in the south of England, I always accepted Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes. I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t. The bank will take them. One thing Bruce didn’t mention was that quite a while back, the English bank notes lost their sterling silver value after Black Wednesday, 16th of September 1992. This is why each of the newer banknotes no longer say “pounds sterling” I think. My knowledge of this is very limited so feel free to correct me if I’m way off the mark here.
If you have a limited amount of a particularly pure substance it is better to keep that as your Proof standard rather than using it up. Then you need to start again to find a way round that. Possibly creating a new standard. Potentially not bothering what you use.
I'm from Dollar. We learnt about where currency names came from in primary school back in the 1960s. Seems it wasn't such a thing in the other hillfoots towns.
@@alicemilne1444it will be that Clacks town rivalry kicking in again😂. I'm from Alloa and I love our county but we can all be a wee bit parochial about our towns. Saying that, with our location, the Fort on Dumyat and the River Forth, to say nothing if the silver, wool, coal, glass and whisky we have certainly punched above our weight for a wee county.
One of the most common inscriptions etched into the edge of a pound coin (introduced in the early '80s) was "Decus et Tutamen", "Ornament and Protection". This is a tribute to the invention of milling to prevent coin clipping. I suppose it doesn't need saying that the pound symbol was originally an elaborated stylised L from libra - the Latin for a pound weight.
LSD. Libra, Soldi, Dinari. I have seen photocopies of Genoaese accounts from several hundred years back. I understood the values because 12d=1s, 20s=1l, (did not understand the written words). The same as pounds prior to decimal conversion.
@@basilpunton5702 People nowadays regard the old twelvefold division as weird but there was logic to it. You could equally split a shilling between 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 people. The decimal system only allows 2, 5 and 10. Ever wondered what happens to the penny missing from a 33p share of a pound? Large scale transactions involve fractional amounts, but there's always a residual amount.
Now then, Bruce. In cumbria and northumbria, they do take scottish pounds. I remember one time when I visited London. I gave a barman in the tavern we went in a scottish tenner. He said, "What's that? Looks like funny money to me. I said, "Oh yeah. Scotland starts North of the Theams for you cockney gits eh. 😂
I have seen an Dollar silver coin(from Dollar in case there is any misunderstanding 😂). They were stamped with a deer! Or as Americans say a buck! So think again ❤️✌️
Im a kiwi and lookin forward to the show, 'let me tell you a story' dads lot come from waterford Ir we had been there since who knows how long but mentioned in the battle of clontarf brian boru high king and the dublin/waterford/wex viking alliance . Im very interested in the dal riata as there is a version of our name in ulster that may have some scottish relations in the mists of time. Ide like to think so cheers.
Cutting off silver in Britain would get you hung so clever rotters would put a load of coins in a bag and shake n spin them all day then empty the bag out and melt down the flakes.. making it appear more everyday wear n tare..evidently not as pointless as it sounds as they bought loads of coins to do over and over.
Wee pronunciation guide for you, Bruce. 😊 The Bayeux tapestry isn't "bay-you", it's "bah-yeuh". The vowel in the second syllable is like the a sound in the Gaelic word "dragh". You got Joachimsthaler 99% right. The only thing you could do better there is to pronounce the J as a Y, which is the way it is in all Germanic languages except English and Scots.
@@garyweir8587 Aye, a ken fine. Bit he gied it laldy wi the German, sae he micht as weel dae the same wi the French. Note: "Bay-you" is the American pronunciation. You won't find that in any dictionary in the UK.
According to James B Johnston Place-Names of Scotland (1892) Stirling is probably derived from "ystre Felyn" - the dwelling of Felyn. In 1124 we have "Strevelin" 1130 Strivelinshire" 1125 "Strivelin" 1182 "Strivellin" 1250 "Estrivelin" 1295 "Estrevelyn" 1455 "Striviling" 1470 "Sterling" (but they spellt it wrang, ken!) 1682 "Strivrlinge". I am referring to the 1972 reprint p. 300 The earliest English use of sterling (coin) is from 1297 which falls within the reign of Longshanks but suggests that the word was current beforehand. Norman silver coins often depicted birds and "star" can mean both star and bird the suffix ling (which sterling shares with shilling) means "little" so the English word has more in common with "starling" than "Stirling" . In antiquity the tribes inhabiting southern Scotland seemed to have valued silver over gold and this is what the Romans paid them protection money with. The next influx of silver was brought by the Vikings. There was indeed sliver in Bridge of Allan but it was not exploited until after 1500. It is significant that a legal dispute of the 12th century between the monks of Dunfermline and the nuns of North Berwick over the revenues of Airthrey, Cornton and Logie does not mention any mines. You forgot to mention the Silver Glen near Tillicoultry but that was not exploited until the 18th century (mostly for its lead). I am a graduate of Stirling University and I liked it so much that I did my PhD there and have lived in the area ever since. I have never heard anyone from Stirling refer to themselves as "sons of the rock" a term that is historically applied to natives of Dumbarton (or is it Dunbarton?) Jaochim is pronounced "Wakeem" There was a moment in your piece when I thought that you were going to talk about the battle of Bonnymuir in 1820 and the execution of Baird and Hardie but you went down a rabbit hole instead - pity.
That was brilliant! In1971 I stayed at the youth hostel in Stirling and met a French girl called Ilianne. When she did there were “Non distractions a Stirling.” We distracted each other for an hour or so on a bench under the castle walls. Happy memories. Keep keeping up the good work Bruce 🌞
Your timing for me is impeccable! I was just pondering about the origin of the dollar this morning as the internet caught my eye, most sources state "The US dollar (USD) became the official currency of the United States (US) in 1792, but the dollar actually has origins in 16th century Europe. The ‘thaler’, a common name for a Czech coin, became used to describe any similar European silver coin - translated into English, it means ‘dollar.’" Whereas it has come to my attention that google states, "The Scots dollar was a coin minted in Scotland between 1124 and 1709." Thanks again for another interesting, informative video!
And for a long time in Canada our national hardware store has been Canadian Tire and when you made purchases with cash, you would get back a certain percentage of Canadian Tire money. Looked like real little banknotes but the max value was a dollar. You could save it up to make purchases with at the store. Instead of the queen, there was a gentleman in a Scottish bonnet on it.
The problem is forgeries. The Scottish Notes are seen as easily forged, and so are?
I always accepted Scottish notes here in England, but ran into another retailer who had been stung, not once or twice, but multiple times.
At one point in the 2010s there were shops in England that wouldn't accept English £20 notes let alone £50s? Purely due to forgery, nothing to do with not liking Scots😍🤩😍
Actually „Thaler“ was a coin used inter alia in the territory which is nowadays the Czech Republic, but the word is German in origin since „Thal“ or nowadays „Tal“ means valley, and in the valley were the silver mines that produced the metal for the coins.
@@JohnnieAshtonshh, don't go spreading truth to bigots.😮
@@MrMWRMWR I note the original post has been removed oops🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Great video Bruce! I love that like most confusing "changes" through history the most common story is not always the most correct. Sometimes it's just the most comforting version of 3 or 4 truths.
Thanks for everything you do!
Love this. Thank you Bruce! Beautiful scenery, and love the coffee shop. So interesting. In the US, sterling silver is obviously still valued as affordable jewelry, the .925 stamp being the standard.
Numismatic Fummey is as fascinating and funny as ever.
When I go to Scotland I know I have to get the Scottish notes changed before returning to England as non of the shops here will accept them. So utterly ludicrous. Last time I forgot and had to take them to a bank here to get swapped as I just couldn't get them accepted anywhere.
The Scottish notes are so much nicer as well I think. I loved the one with the otters on.
I lived in Scotland for eight years, I actually got a Bank of Jersey note in change once!! I wish I'd kept it!!
Yep, the Tesco in Carlisle (just off the motorway) is more of a currency exchange than a supermarket! 😂
🤣
Utterly ludicrous, indeed. It's the same currency, the very bloody same!
Yet they won't accept it because it was made in another part of the kingdom.
Why? Just... why??
It's absolutely shocking and 1 of the reasons I don't go visit my family down south. The other reason is I was arrested and tried for assault on a pub landlord. When the landlord told the police its wasn't me they said "oh well, he's Scottish, we're arresting him anyway". The guy who done the assault got off due to my arrest.
❤😂 you and I might be generations and worlds apart Bruce but I feel like a Scotsman today. This kind of semantics is right up my alley. Thanks again for bringing to life the history of some my ancestors.
Fantastic and gave a great game of connect the dots with my wife around what connects Edward, Coins, the Ochil Hills and forgery.... You have a brilliant channel and hope you keep enlightning us for years to come!
Ah thanks
Loved that Bruce. I often play in a pub just down the hill from where you did the intro, called the Settle Inn. I can highky recommend it, and loads of history in that building too as well as great beer :)
I know the pub
We drive pass Stirling Castle most weekends from Airdrie on route to our Caravan in Arbroath, stunning views.
I find this very interesting. My surname is Sterling, and my brother's father's surname is Stirling. Both from Northern Ireland and my brother used to wind me up saying that my name sounded more English. Anyway, we,re aw Jock Tamson's Bairns. But a fascinating story none the less.
D U D E ! ! !
I was one of your pupils, you got me a Higher Physics and still take time out to listen to you.
Thank you for all of this.
Meall do neach, oillaimh!
I hope to meet you as an adult and hopefully leran more from 'The Incredible Mr Fummey"
Suas leis a' Ghaidhlig!
my brother went to school in dollar for years, and i always wondered if that was where "dollar" came from but i never went on to try and make the connection!
Mr Bruce, this is another gem of a video. I really liked the feel of the coffee shop footage. Taking the time to stir the drink made me go pick up my cuppa. Then the outside shots viewing in lent to a feel of just how cozy a spot to sit and listen to an interesting story. Thank you from across the pond once again! 🖤
Yay
I absolutely love your videos
Never mind "Str[i|e]ring".
It made my day to hear someone pronounce "Ochils" correctly for a change. 🙂
Yay
Just a guess but, Ockles?
@@TheDopekitty yup. Sometimes you'll hear locals put a little 'ch' sound where the 'ck' is. The same way we say loch, for example.
Very interesting video, and I see you had a lot of fun filming in that cafe
I just finished reading the book you recommended by Fiona Watson, "Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland." Very interesting reading. If one has watched "Braveheart" and read Dr. Watson's book, you realize that the movie's timeline was really, really compressed. I already knew before reading the book that the movie's version on events wasn't particularly accurate (including Longshank's death), but the book brought some other things into focus for me as well. I love your videos Bruce, and the reading recommendations your often make. Keep up the good work. From one of those "People across the Atlantic." 🙂
Very interesting work piece written about the history of Scottish Silver from West Linton,silver burn mine site. I did some pans in the area and found silver sulphide as described. Thanks for another interesting video tour Bruce 👍
Thanks!
I bought a pair of trainers in Guildford and paid with Scottish Notes and have since visited Dorset, Crewe, Yorkshire and always used Scottish notes. Worth noting that many English banks were under the umbrella of RBS.
Until that bast... blue it up and now it's under the control of Nat West.
If a Scottish note is proffered in an English shop. There's always a Scots man who states " I think ye'll find, pal, tha's legal tender.
Love your series, the Scots, and Scotland. 🇬🇧😃💜
I always mention the Scottish Pound has a better Exchange Rate !!
Not quite, and I think you'll find, my Scots friend, that legal tender and acceptable currency are not exactly the same. Legal tender is called that because it "must be accepted if offered in payment of a debt." it's usually cash not electronic or even cheques (remember them?). it's all complicated but I think it's part of why you can pay your council tax in 2p pieces if you want, as some of us liked to do back in the day. Whereas a shop can decline them.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan USA, literally across a river from Canada. Canadian currency (notes) were not commonly accepted in the US due to the exchange rate, but coins often were. Canadians, on the other hand, would often accept US dollars, again due to the exchange rate. Conniving little beggars 🙂
And he's always wrong. Banknotes are not legal tender in Scotland. Only recently have BoE banknotes become legal tender in England & Wales. No other banknotes are legal tender anywhere in UK. They are ""Promissory Notes". They promise to give you something of actual value in exchange for the worthless paper. See Bills of Exchange Act. You can create your own legal currency.
@@thefoxhat6163 What's a better rebuttal when someone refuses? If you're offering to pay in pound sterling, and the cashier refuses because it's a Scottish bank note, are you within your right to say 'I'm offering you pound sterling, either accept it or don't' and threaten to walk out?
As a kid, I lived in Edinburgh in the mid '60's. I find it interesting that Bank of Scotland currency is still not accepted in England which was the case in '65. Certainly explains the Scottish national movement.
Despite the Bank of England holding assets totalling the value of all of the Scottish notes.
Actually, it’s quite rare for Scottish notes to be rejected in England. I don’t think it ever happened to me.
@@oronjoffe You must have been lucky, happened to me all the time in the Midlands.
@ I’m sure you’re right. To be honest, when I travel to London, or if I expect to need a lot of cash, I usually get some English currency from the bank in advance, but if I am on a short excursion or am just visiting the Lake District or some other place in the North and I need to pay for a meal, then as I said, my money has never been refused!
The Scottish notes are backed by the Bank of England, Scotland doesn't have its own state bank.
The only reason there is scottish notes is because they winged and moaned.
Why don't London or Merseyside have their own money?
The Scots will moan no matter what you do.
I love Scotland and holiday there often. I've often wondered what the reaction of the English visitors would be if their English money was refused.
Exactly
@elainethomson7146 I've yet to meet a Scot, who would refuse any note.
@@anthonyferris8912 they refused the Northern Irish notes I had from my trip to Belfast 😏
I orderd a coffee in Glasgow and offered to pay with a Bank of England note; it was refused and the lady in the shop asked me to take it to a Bank and change it. I went elsewhere and it was accepted without issue.
@@alexburns6783 I dare say they were simply making a point. A valid one.
As someone who recently had his Scottish Notes rejected this made me burst out laughing 😂 2:40
@@cornflakesandmilk8157 I'm seriously thinking of showing this to someone who wouldn't take my Scottish £10s, which I still have😡😁
@@Wee_Langside When I worked in a shop I would accept Scottish bank notes, also saw the occasional one from Ulster banks. Didn't hand any out in change and they had to be separated for banking. I had first encountered Scottish notes back in the 1960/70s and had friends from Scotland so no problem doing a swop. Think in handling years of cash I only accepted one forgery.
@@Brian3989 I did the same, working on a market stall when I was a kid. My boss told me to accept Scottish banknotes and coins if they were offered, but only for the purchase of goods and not if the holder was asking me to exchange it for English currency. He also said to completely reject fifty pound notes regardless of their origin, since they were known to be primarily used for dodgy transactions. I saw just one fifty pound note in four years, and the bloke proffering it didn't seem surprised when I had to decline.
Blackpool refused my Scottish notes in the 80s look at the place now , karma.😊
In fact Scottish notes are not legal tender anywhere - even in Scotland. In other words, you can't insist that they be accepted for payment. only coins satisfy this requirement (and even then only up to a limit - 20p for bronze).
Loved this. Well, I love all your offerings. Thanks
So glad!
Ya I had a few Scott notes mixed in with an assortment of Euros and other currency in me travel bag long time back and the morning coffee shop in London back then didn't want them either! That's really long time back and it's sad to know nothing has changed.
Good Video as usual but just a correction.We Northumbrians have no issues with Scottish Pound notes ,they circulate freely here!!!
Well done you
Between Stirling and Dollar there's a wee village called Alva at the foot of the Ochils they have there a Glen call the Silver Glen, as a boy we used to play in a cave reported to be a silver mine, it was blocked up by the council in the late sixties I believe. I also heard the story of Sterling coming from Stirling as a boy but I'm sorry to say the other explanation seems more probable. Great show Bruce, Greetings from a Son of the Rock.
I still have a dent on my head from exploring that mine :)
You mean that the English use the eh sound because they like to draw out a vowel?
We really got our dollar's worth on this video! I found it very interesting and entertaining. Speaking of Pieces of Eight, In the US, an eighth of a dollar used to be called a bit. There was an old saying that went "2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar". As for the Scottish inventing everything and the English stealing it, I fully agree!
😜
Wow! That explains all those American movies where someone asks for 'two bits'. That would be a quarter, or 25 cents then if I am right. 😲
I've been to Darnley Coffee House in 2016! I recognized it right away when I saw you walking there from the two cannons 😀
Love this guy ... Super insightful. As I have a family history and had some great times when working in the town several moons ago I was fascinated by this history re- the coinage links. Interestingly, I bumped into a historian up near the castle a number of years back who was able to tell me my descendants were bankers.This was priceless and reduced my partner to tears as I'm not remotely materialistic and as she often commented, I'm clueless re- money 😂
😜I think that might have been your ancestors rather than descendants...
@ScotlandHistoryTours Of course and thanks for that observation....fortunately mercury turning direct tomorrow 👍
Good morn, Laird Bruce.
aye the ochil hills , named as they went up , "Och hills "
incredible content, perfect timing & delivery!
Much appreciated!
When I worked in retail in the south, we had a few misunderstandings about the legality of Scottish currency, nothing serious it's just that there are three banks issuing Scottish banknotes, so it can get confusing if you've never seen one. This go worse after England replaced the pound note with a coin. I knew that they were legal, but a lot of people didn't. Mind you, an Northern Ireland banknote caught me out. I didn't refuse it, I had to phone the bank to double check though.
Great tale well told and good guide to Scots tour guides
Thank you kindly!
Great History and Language lesson Bruce.
Except that Offa introduced Sterling pre-800 AD/CE. 🤭 Bruce regularly attempting to rewrite history is very entertaining though.
This is a good one Bruce...although I'll need to watch it again because my brain got fuddled somewhere between Sterling and Sterling
A brilliant presentation! I especially like the part about the half penny
13:17
Oh, my!! Our tame guide has bias for Scotland!! Who could have guessed?😂
More than a bias
Fascinating stuff Bruce.
Never knew about Stirling and Sons of The Rock, I've always thought of Dumbarton FC as the Sons (of the Rock) and the town they came from.
There ye go
Speaking of Dumbarton, I happen to have grown up near California's Dumbarton bridge, which was named for the castle. I don't see the resemblance because there's no rock; just salt flats & an old quarry that was turned into a state park a few years ago, & a portion of the salt flats are being turned back to their natural state. A fun trivia fact is that in 1971 the original Dumbarton bridge & its toll booth on my old hometown Fremont side of the bridge were the locations of the toll booth Maude blew through (not the type of toll booth those about to be executed passed thru in Stirling) & the motorcycle cop scene (Tom Skerritt played the befuddled motorcycle cop Maude drove off on). I don't know if Harold & Maude is a popular cult film in Scotland like it is here in the US but I figured I'd share that for anybody who might enjoy it. Great video as always, Bruce!
Costa Coffee once rejected a Scottish note a woman had presented as payment, don't know if you remember, this act started a boycott of Costa in Scotland, as a result they changed there policy, although some are still rejecting it , notably Costa Coffee Rotherham hospital my wife was refused service as a result of using a bank of Scotland note.🏴
Use a card.
@@anthonyferris8912No don’t surrender, take a flask 🏴
in a military town those notes are accepted its just not educated people who think they are being scrammed
Matter of principle - No!
@anthonyferris8912 Why don't we just use your face instead. 😊
Thanks for another great Saturday morning with a video from 🏴. I found it very interesting, as always. So what's the deal with the brits not taking Scott's money? That's wild...
Great history lesson! Thank you.
You're welcome
Very very interesting Bruce.🤔, and aye - I saw what ye did there 😂
😜
Scottish £5 note is awesome especially as im a fisherman. And yes Im a sassanack .
Bruce, brilliant as usual, history with humour 😂
Brilliant really enjoyed this upload 👍🏻👍🏻😂
I'm delighted
In usa upto 1776 (?)would it be When uk Rothchilds etc created banking and the loan note we use today enabling trade without having to carry valuable and robbable chests of coins about on wagons. Instead carrying promissory notes and all the banks getting rich off charging peep to store their metals in the form of interest. That kind of thing anyway im sure...if one googles it.😊
A stirling stirring of the stories of Stirling and Sterling!
I understood that the Silver mine, near Menstrie was the biggest find of Silver ever in history, and that Cromwell seized it and this became the silver currency of England.
It is also probable that the name Stirling became Sterling currency, due to the Menstrie mine, near Stirling, and the difference in the spelling of the name was more due to hearing the locals pronounce the name Stirling, which sounded to the English as 'Sterling'.
Another brilliant episode. Cheers. Oh that cup of tea looked good 😉.
😜
😂 My wife is from Stirling and our son's name is Sterling! I had already told him the association of his name with the Hanseatic League but now, I'm going to send him this! Think of all the BS he'll have at his command when he's well in the cups with his friends when they ask him where he got his name! Thank you! This was wonderful and informative! The wife loved seeing her old prowling grounds!
Aye Bruce. That was a master class. I learned so much about common things we all take for granted and yet echo the lives and the times of our ancestors. There is this Scots thing about spelling names, though. At the MacDonald Museum, I saw a document with the poor bloke's name spelt 3 different ways. Did he know who he was? My own name has many different spellings; from Archiebald to Archbold to the "correct" Archibald. Now my wife says I canna spell so what am I haverin on aboot? (What would she know she English and an O'Brien, an that's another story) . So where does that leave us aboot the spellin of Sterling. I think I'll have a wee bit dram and think on it. Aroha
Many people back in the day couldn't read or write themselves so how names were spelt was often down to how scribes thought their names should be spelt phonetically. This crops up in old census data.
Thanks
Ah thanks
Cheers min. As ever, an education.
Seen you a while back in Arbroath, I’ll need to look up your new dates.
24th October in Arbroath
@ScotlandHistoryTours see you there
My old dad told me similar storis to this. We lived in Alowa and would walk in the Ochal hills. We moved to Australia 52 years ago, but still consider ourselves Scottish/Australian. I enjoy your channel and look forward to your next visit to Australia.
Maybe see you at one of my Austrlaian live shows in February.March
In February and March I'll be visiting the major towns in Australia and New Zealand with my live show Scotland Made the World. It would be great to see you. Get info at www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx
Thanks great video
My geography teacher enjoyed pointing out the window at the Ochils to repeat the Sterling->Stirling version, and I just don't have the heart to take that away from him.
Hello Bruce thank you for sharing this video really fascinating. England is meant to except them but a lot of the people don’t realize that they can because they don’t know it is sterling. It use to happen to me when we always came back from Ireland
So much understated cleverness in @brucefammey's bits on this episode. As a Silversmith, I just keep chuckling.
😜
Bonus points for dropping “Old Bodach” into this video, Bruce. Sgoinneil! 👌🏻
😜
My grandfather used to use a similar term that sounded to my young ears like 'old bochel' to mean an old man. It was only much later in life (once I started visiting the mountains) that I realised it must have been 'old buachaille' he was saying.
All Scottish bank notes have the word "Sterling" on them somewhere. Bank of England bank notes do not have any reference to sterling at all! Most of my working life I was located in England and have made it my hobby to have a range of put downs to use against our English pals - just to put there has on a peep.
A good pass time
I live on the south coast of England and have never had a problem using Scottish bank notes or those from Northern Ireland. Maybe they just have educated shop workers in Sussex.
SMACKEROONIES!
I love Kevin Bridges’ idea of creating our own currency:
“You could be in a recession if your currency’s the Smackeroonie, but never a depression. It would cheer you up.” 😀
Aye brilliant
I currently live in Totnes, South Devon and many years ago, we did just that. the Totnes Pound. it could only be used in local businesses, the idea being to keep money in the local area, but in the end, that was the death of it. However, many places around the world have been inspired to start their own currencies. Bit of info here, and some links to others, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes_pound.
Scottish living in england here. Pissed masel about england not taking the money 😂🤣 very true
😜
My father's middle name is Sterling/Stirling/Stirlin depending on what document is being referenced. It was a family name going back many generations on his mother's side. All of which couldnt decided on which spelling was accurate. My guess up till now had been that because of the intermarriages between Scottish, English, French and Norwegian the e/i became variable, lol. Thanks for the information!
Great video, very interesting.
Having lived in London, you're not wrong about them not taking our money lol. Bloody annoying.
Another point is that the term sterling appears in English documents of the reign of Henry II, well over 100 years before Edward's sacking of Stirling. Game, set and match, I think...
❤ Another great video, Bruce!
I'm a Stewart and, apparently, our branch of Stewart is from the Stirling area. My wife and I visited Stirling in 2006, and I was disappointed that Wallace's Bridge was no longer there. (They must have removed it before filming "Braveheart!" because it wasn't in the movie!! 😁🤣)
They have since found the underwater log posts of the Stirling Bridge that the Battle was named after. It is slightly upstream of the existing stone bridge.
Yes, Castle Stuart is just outside Inverness. There is a very old castle, and a much newer golf course. Different spelling for that branch of the Clan.
In the States are terms for quarter and half dollars from the sectioning of Spanish dollars which were probably the most common coin in circulation into 2 or 4 up to 8 parts or bits. Our quarter dollars and half dollars stopped the practice of cutting up dollar coins with ones that already at the proper size. There were also half pennies as well.
The term of 2 bits for a quarter dollar comes from using 2 bits of a Spanish dollar to equal a quarter dollar.
Entertaining explanation
Here in the US, the Coinage Act of 1792 established the dollar as the unit of currency on the advice of Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the Treasury.
Primarily because the most common coinage in the Americas at the time was the Spanish Dollar, the Real. There were more Reals in America than pounds all through the colonies, because they were minted in New Spain.
TTBOMK, the English never minted any pound coins here, even prior to the Rebellion. Instead, they relied on the Real as well.
And the basis bring the real which were called Pieces Of Eight (think pirate movies) is why a quarter has always been referred to as two bits. Being a quarter of a piece of eight.
Interesting!!
It is what I like!
Huggies my beloved Family in Scotland, yes camera person you n your too.
Quality as aye fella nicely done I owe you at least a couple of coffees ❤😂
Deal
@ 👍❤️🫂
As someone who grew up in the Stirling area I have some thing to add to the mix
Stirling Sterling and Strivling are all names that the town was known by that is a fact.
My "story " is that coins were minted throughout the UK at various mints
There was a mint in the castle Fact
All minted coins were taken to London where it was found that the purest silver was the silver from Sterling and so the name became the benchmark
Given that Scots immigrants were happy to name American towns and villages after places in their own country.In an effort to show their independence of things English they may have chosen Dollar as a finger in the eye to the Auld enemy.. Worth noting that commerce was an area that the Scots excelled at in America. Phew !
The thaler->dollar etymology is almost definitely true because we have written records of the changes, but also because until the mine closed, the Schwaz mine which provided the silver for Joachimsthal produced about 85% of the entire world's silver supply.
Buy me a coffee, drinks a cup of tea 😂
Yes sadly see it a lot, can't accept this mate; legal tender until you cross the border into no man's land 😊
As always very informative with great passion
😅
Ioften had to accept scottish notes.working in a charity shop.and yes there wS always ascotsman stepping forward.to anounce that " ithink you will find its legal tender"thankyou bruce for another entertaining video.please dont hate us
Hold onto yr scottish roots.our destiny is together.im half welsh.quarter irish.and british. Bryth means covenant.ish means man.i. n ancient hebrew. And scythians and cal adonii tribe came over from levant.via ireland.iberia and tyre.by tyrranian sea.( Declaration of arbroath)
As I recall, the Spanish exploited a mountain in Bolivia (?), which contained massive quantities of high grade silver. The silver was coined and shipped to Spain where it was mostly spent on wars (particularly in the Low Countries). The coins were typically dollars aka pieces of eight. The exploitation was at the expense of vast numbers of Native Americans.
Of c
Bolivia and of course Argentina had massive and very horrible silver mines. Appalling conditions.
I have been on that street. I have been in the Church of the Ruud. My 3xgreat grandparents are buried in the cemetery behind the church
Back in my days of retail work in the south of England, I always accepted Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes. I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t. The bank will take them.
One thing Bruce didn’t mention was that quite a while back, the English bank notes lost their sterling silver value after Black Wednesday, 16th of September 1992. This is why each of the newer banknotes no longer say “pounds sterling” I think. My knowledge of this is very limited so feel free to correct me if I’m way off the mark here.
If you have a limited amount of a particularly pure substance it is better to keep that as your Proof standard rather than using it up.
Then you need to start again to find a way round that. Possibly creating a new standard.
Potentially not bothering what you use.
Lived in Clacks for 14 years as a young fella and never even thought about why the dollar was a dollar ???
I'm from Dollar. We learnt about where currency names came from in primary school back in the 1960s. Seems it wasn't such a thing in the other hillfoots towns.
@@alicemilne1444 Probably not :)
@@alicemilne1444it will be that Clacks town rivalry kicking in again😂. I'm from Alloa and I love our county but we can all be a wee bit parochial about our towns. Saying that, with our location, the Fort on Dumyat and the River Forth, to say nothing if the silver, wool, coal, glass and whisky we have certainly punched above our weight for a wee county.
One of the most common inscriptions etched into the edge of a pound coin (introduced in the early '80s) was "Decus et Tutamen", "Ornament and Protection". This is a tribute to the invention of milling to prevent coin clipping.
I suppose it doesn't need saying that the pound symbol was originally an elaborated stylised L from libra - the Latin for a pound weight.
LSD. Libra, Soldi, Dinari. I have seen photocopies of Genoaese accounts from several hundred years back. I understood the values because 12d=1s, 20s=1l, (did not understand the written words). The same as pounds prior to decimal conversion.
@@basilpunton5702 People nowadays regard the old twelvefold division as weird but there was logic to it. You could equally split a shilling between 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 people. The decimal system only allows 2, 5 and 10.
Ever wondered what happens to the penny missing from a 33p share of a pound? Large scale transactions involve fractional amounts, but there's always a residual amount.
Now then, Bruce. In cumbria and northumbria, they do take scottish pounds. I remember one time when I visited London. I gave a barman in the tavern we went in a scottish tenner. He said, "What's that? Looks like funny money to me. I said, "Oh yeah. Scotland starts North of the Theams for you cockney gits eh. 😂
😜
I have seen an Dollar silver coin(from Dollar in case there is any misunderstanding 😂).
They were stamped with a deer!
Or as Americans say a buck!
So think again ❤️✌️
Thanks for the info
I'm from the northeast part of the USA and pronounce "sterling" and "Stirling" the same way in my accent.
So you need to change your accent😂
2:39 instant Subscribe.....and sadly infuriatingly accurate 😠😔
Im a kiwi and lookin forward to the show, 'let me tell you a story' dads lot come from waterford Ir we had been there since who knows how long but mentioned in the battle of clontarf brian boru high king and the dublin/waterford/wex viking alliance . Im very interested in the dal riata as there is a version of our name in ulster that may have some scottish relations in the mists of time. Ide like to think so cheers.
Cutting off silver in Britain would get you hung so clever rotters would put a load of coins in a bag and shake n spin them all day then empty the bag out and melt down the flakes.. making it appear more everyday wear n tare..evidently not as pointless as it sounds as they bought loads of coins to do over and over.
Hello Alan
Wee pronunciation guide for you, Bruce. 😊 The Bayeux tapestry isn't "bay-you", it's "bah-yeuh". The vowel in the second syllable is like the a sound in the Gaelic word "dragh".
You got Joachimsthaler 99% right. The only thing you could do better there is to pronounce the J as a Y, which is the way it is in all Germanic languages except English and Scots.
Ye ken he's no French, aye?
@@garyweir8587 Aye, a ken fine. Bit he gied it laldy wi the German, sae he micht as weel dae the same wi the French.
Note: "Bay-you" is the American pronunciation. You won't find that in any dictionary in the UK.
According to James B Johnston Place-Names of Scotland (1892) Stirling is probably derived from "ystre Felyn" - the dwelling of Felyn. In 1124 we have "Strevelin" 1130 Strivelinshire" 1125 "Strivelin" 1182 "Strivellin" 1250 "Estrivelin" 1295 "Estrevelyn" 1455 "Striviling" 1470 "Sterling" (but they spellt it wrang, ken!) 1682 "Strivrlinge". I am referring to the 1972 reprint p. 300
The earliest English use of sterling (coin) is from 1297 which falls within the reign of Longshanks but suggests that the word was current beforehand. Norman silver coins often depicted birds and "star" can mean both star and bird the suffix ling (which sterling shares with shilling) means "little" so the English word has more in common with "starling" than "Stirling" .
In antiquity the tribes inhabiting southern Scotland seemed to have valued silver over gold and this is what the Romans paid them protection money with. The next influx of silver was brought by the Vikings. There was indeed sliver in Bridge of Allan but it was not exploited until after 1500. It is significant that a legal dispute of the 12th century between the monks of Dunfermline and the nuns of North Berwick over the revenues of Airthrey, Cornton and Logie does not mention any mines. You forgot to mention the Silver Glen near Tillicoultry but that was not exploited until the 18th century (mostly for its lead).
I am a graduate of Stirling University and I liked it so much that I did my PhD there and have lived in the area ever since. I have never heard anyone from Stirling refer to themselves as "sons of the rock" a term that is historically applied to natives of Dumbarton (or is it Dunbarton?)
Jaochim is pronounced "Wakeem"
There was a moment in your piece when I thought that you were going to talk about the battle of Bonnymuir in 1820 and the execution of Baird and Hardie but you went down a rabbit hole instead - pity.
the last beheading in Britain was not in Broad Street but at Tower Hill London in 1747 when Simon Fraser was beheaded for Treason
Nope th-cam.com/video/g0m_XNebXaA/w-d-xo.html