Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
RYAL, n. Also ryall, rial. A name applied to a silver coin of the face value of 30s. Scots minted in the reigns of Mary and James VI. Hist. The word is also loosely applied to a gold three pound piece of Mary, 1555–8, the corresponding 30 shilling piece being the half-ryal, but there is no contemporary authority for this usage (see E. Burns Coinage Scot. II. 289). [′rɑe(ə)l]Edb. 1821 W. Liddle Poems 149:
Other some pays ne'er a rial, Tho' shor'd and threaten'd wi the jail.Sc. 1844 Letters C. K. Sharpe (1888) II. 564:
The rial and the coin I picked up.Sc. 1887 E. Burns Coinage Scot. II. 336:
Under Mary and Henry silver coins of considerably larger denominations than had hitherto been fabricated in Scotland were introduced. These consisted of the ryals and their parts, the two-thirds and one-thirds of ryals, of which the coinage was ordered by the Act of Privy Council 22nd December 1565.Sc. 1955 I. H. Stewart Sc. Coinage 82:
The only other gold coins of Mary before her marriage are three-pound and thirty-shilling pieces, usually called ryals and half-ryals.
You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Ryal n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Nov 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/ryal>