The National:

IT can be tough to keep track of all the UK's snubs of Scotland, and one such example has only now come to our attention.

Late last month, following a Freedom of Information request, it emerged that the Royal Mint opted not to produce a commemorative coin to mark the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in March 2014.

It would have featured an image of Robert the Bruce, marking his victory over Edward II's army.

However, advisers feared it would not be "prudent" to produce the coin in that year.

So, just to re-iterate: the UK Government-owned Royal Mint decided not to produce a coin for Bannockburn's 700th anniversary because it came in the same year as the independence referendum.

It was also revealed that an advisory committee scrapped plans for a coin marking 300 years since the death of Queen Anne, with the Act of Union coming during her reign.

Minutes from a 2012 meeting at Buckingham Palace state: "A crown piece to commemorate the death of Queen Anne had been proposed but, with the Act of Union being one of the main achievements of her reign and a referendum on devolution being planned for 2014, political concerns were raised."

"Achievement" isn't the word we'd use to describe the Act of Union. And it wasn't actually a referendum on "devolution".

But still, we can't expect the brains behind the Royal Mint to know about one of Scotland's biggest ever constitutional decisions, can we?

It all makes it seem a little like the decisions may have had something to do with fears of risking a rise in support for independence...

The Freedom of Information request also revealed that officials didn't want to produce a coin in 2016 marking 50 years since England's World cup win, as "it was regarded as a negative rather than a positive statement about English football, that England has only won it once".

They recommended the Battle of Hastings in its place.