#numismatist

@auburnlaughter, thank you so much for the welcome back and the multiple asks. They are so appreciated!

All your snippets are below the cut.

On March *5th 1759 the lexicographer and church minister John Jamieson was born in Glasgow. *Some sources say March 3rd

I know most of you will not have heard of Jamieson, but his publication, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, is credited with keeping the language alive., so much so much so he has even been the subject of a book about his work. Jamieson was a bit of a polymath though and learned in many fields, read on........

If you have read some of my posts I like to dig out documents etc from days gone by, a most of these are written in Scots, you only have to read the poetry of Robert Fergusson or Rabbie Burns, the vast majority which is written in the language, or up to modern times if you have read any of Irvine Welsh’s books, you will know that as a language it is distinctly different to what is termed as “proper English”

Anyway a bit about the man, Jamieson grew up in Glasgow as the only surviving son in a family with an invalid father, he entered Glasgow University aged at the staggeringly young age of just nine! From 1773 he studied the necessary course in theology with the Associate Presbytery of Glasgow, and in 1780 he was licensed to preach.

Jamieson was appointed to serve as minister to the newly established Secession congregation in Forfar, and stayed there for the next eighteen years, during which time he married Charlotte Watson, the daughter of a local widower, and started a family. Their marriage lasted fifty-five years and they had seventeen children, ten of whom reached adulthood, although only three outlived their father. He next became minister of the Edinburgh Nicolson Street congregation in 1797 where he guided the reconciliation of the Burgher and Anti-Burgher sects to a union in 1820.

In 1788 Jamieson’s writing was recognised by Princeton College, New Jersey where he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. His other honours included membership of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, of the American Antiquarian Society of Boston, United States, and of the Copenhagen Society of Northern Literature. He was also a royal associate of the first class of the Royal Society of Literature instituted by George IV.

Jamieson’s chief work, the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language was published in two volumes in 1808 and was the standard reference work on the subject until the publication of the Scottish National Dictionary in 1931. He published several other works, but it is the dictionary he is best known for.

He had a particular passion for numismatics, and it was their mutual interest in coins which led to the first meeting between Jamieson and Walter Scott, in 1795, when Scott was only twenty-three and not yet a published author. Jamieson was also a keen angler, as the many entries relating to fishing terms in the Dictionary attest; and published occasional works of poetry, including a poem against the slave trade which was praised by abolitionists in its day. Entries provided by Scott include besom, which he described as a “low woman or prostitute,” and screed, defined as a “long revel” or “hearty drinking bout”. I wonder how many Scottish females have been called “a wee besom” by their mothers with neither really knowing it’s true meaning!

Jamieson’s association with Walter Scott was a two way thing, he wrote a Scots poem *‘The Water Kelpie’ for the second edition of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. 8

*One source say this was actually an Alexander Jamieson, but my research took me to three different sources citing it as yer man in this post.

It was through his antiquarian research that Jamieson developed his practice of tracing words (particularly place-names) to their earliest form and occurrence: a method which was to be the foundation of the historical approach he would use in the Dictionary.

Jamieson wrote on other themes: rhetoric, cremation, and the royal palaces of Scotland, besides publishing occasional sermons. In 1820 he issued edited versions of Barbour’s The Brus and Blind Harry’s Wallace.

Revered by authors including Hugh MacDiarmid, who used it to shape his poetic output, Jamieson’s dictionary has long been regarded as a crucial groundwork which kept alive the Scots language at a time when it was in danger of falling into obscurity.

He retired due to ill health in 1830 and died at home, 4 George Square, Edinburgh on 12th July 1838, he has a fine gravestone in St Cuthbert’s graveyard in Edinburgh, as seen in the fourth pic.

Here is the first of 24 verses of his aforementioned poem, you can read the rest on the link to the excellent Random Scottish History, at the bottom.

Water Kelpie

Aft, owre the bent, with heather blent,

And throw the forest brown,

I tread the path to yon green strath,

Quhare brae-born Esk rins down.

Its banks alang, quhilk hazels thrang,

Quhare sweet-sair’d hawthorns blow,

I lufe to stray, and view the play

Of fleckit scules below

pov: you're holding 90 years of canadian history and it cost less than your coffee addiction 🏛️💵

there's something genuinely profound about holding paper that's almost a century old. especially when that paper helped define a nation's entire economic system.

buy 90 year old banknotes this year:

✅ $1 french BC-2 (bilingual from day one) ✅ $2 english BC-3 (early canadian identity) ✅ $5 check letter D (varieties for serious collectors) ✅ $10 VF20 BC-7 (higher denomination flex)

why these slap:

→ first official bank of canada issue (origin story vibes) → 90 years of survival (scarcity is real) → condition matters (finding good ones gets harder every year) → appreciation potential (first issues always hit different)

before 1935, canadian currency was a mess of different bank issues. these notes UNIFIED everything. they're not just collectibles - they're literally canadian monetary history in physical form.

this isn't speculation. this is authenticated history that's been valuable for 90 years and will probably be valuable for 90 more.