Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1901 — The Bawbee. [ARTICLE]

The Bawbee.

Almost every body know! that in Scotland the halfpenny is called a “bawbee,” but liow it came to receive that name is not a matter of such common knowledge. It appears that the first attempt at the portraiture of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, was made in her earliest infancy, and her “wee” face was engraved upon the Scottish halfpennies at the time of her coronation In 1543, when she was but nine months old. A number of these small coins are still preserved and it will be easily understood that the name “bawbee,” or baby, was originally given to tbe coin bearing the baby’s effigy.