Taught to place old coin in rising river (8)
I believe the answer is:
educated
'taught' is the definition.
(educating is a kind of teaching)
'coin in rising river' is the wordplay.
'coin' becomes 'ducat' (ducat is a kind of coin).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rising' says the letters should be written in reverse (going up in a down clue).
'river' becomes 'dee' (River Dee).
'dee' in reverse letter order is 'eed'.
'ducat' inserted within 'eed' is 'EDUCATED'.
'to place old' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for educated that I've seen before include "Well-read" , "Civilised" , "Enlightened, knowledgeable" , "Schooled, trained" , "Schooled, enlightened" .)