MKGees Scottish Goldpanner - Hilltop

Part of my personal collection

Hidden high in the Lowther Hills in Southern Scotland is the small village of Leadhills, the highest village in Scotland. For hundreds of years lead and silver have been mined from the deep within the hills here and gold has been panned from the waters. It is known that the Romans mined around Leadhills and may also have taken gold.

The gold found at Leadhills is the purest in the world at over 23 Karat. The purity of this gold still attracts many goldpanners to the area in search of their fortune.

So much gold has been found here that not only did the miners make their wedding rings from their finds but also the Scottish Crown Jewels were made from Leadhills gold! There is still a lot of gold to be found and nuggets worth thousands of pounds are still found to this day (a license is required to pan for gold).

This coin has a design on the front and back.

On the front the Goldpanner geocoin depicts a local goldpanner and his dog searching for their fortune in a village burn (Scottish for stream) with a Red Kite flying overhead. In his pan you can see his find. This geocoin has genuine Leadhills gold in the goldpanners pan! This gold was especially panned by two local goldpanners from the burns around Leadhills just for this geocoin. The gold has been carefully placed into the coin by hand in Leadhills. 

The other side of the coin depicts the Curfew Bell and traditional miners cottages of Leadhills. This Grade C Listed Building and Scheduled Ancient Monument has stood in the middle of the Village of Leadhills since 1770 and was used by the mine owners to control the daily lives of the miners and their families. It was rung to wake the village, at meal times and at shift changes. It was also used to alert everyone to an emergency in one of the hundreds of mines across the hills. 

The coin was designed by Leadhills artist Andy Foaly. This is the Hilltop edition.