Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†ATCHESON, ATCHISON, ACHESOUN, n. Obs. exc. hist. (See quot.)Sc. 1808 Jam.:
Atcheson, Atchison. A billon [a low-grade silver] coin . . . struck in the reign of James VI., of the value of eight pennies Scots, or two-thirds of an English penny. . . .Sc. 1887 E. Burns Coinage of Scot. II. 405–406:
The latest coinage ordered of eightpenny and fourpenny picces was on the 30th of July 1588, when “the generall Thomas Achesoun, maister of his hienes cunyiehous [Mint], and vtheris officiaris of the said cunyiehous,” were commanded to fabricate eighty stones weight of these pieces, amounting to a currency value of £11,520, to defray the expenses of an expedition under Francis, Earl of Bothwell, to repress insubordination in the Northern Isles and the adjacent mainland districts. In certain contemporary documents the eightpenny and fourpenny pieces are styled Achesouns and half-Achesouns, probably from having been the first base coinage made when this Thomas Achesoun was master of the mint, an office which he held from 1581 to 1611.
