When were iron nails used as currency in Scotland?

Question

The Wikipedia article on the history of money mentions that iron nails were once used as money in Scotland. When was this, and how did the system work? What made nails suitable for playing the role of currency?

Answer 1

I can only guess at this,but when Scotland had no King and were fighting against the British that would be a timespan I would look into

Answer 2

Before I had seen that question, I hadn't had a clue that that might have occured. Be weary of wikipedia, it has no academic value to it at all - it is a cardinal sin to reference it in university essays since your source could be anyone in the world, anywhere, with no real knowledge of what they're talking about.

That aside, i assume if iron nails really were used as currency, then it would be because iron was a valuable resource at the time...well, to the extent that it was frequent enough to be used as currency.

Answer 3

Obols?- ancient metal objects used as currency but not shaped as nails.
Iron nails were apparently used for horse shoes much later
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People have always traded and bartered with each other. As economies became more complex, money was created as a more convenient means of exchange. In those early days, money was generally a commodity -- something valued by the people who agreed to use it. Iron nails were used as money in Scotland, dried cod in Newfoundland, sugar in some West Indies Islands, salt in ancient Rome, wampum by Native Americans, corn in Massachusetts in the 1600s. Sometimes money was backed by a commodity: the first Latin coins were stamped with the image of a cow and could be redeemed for cattle.