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1/2 Plack - James VI
| Issuer | Edinburgh Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1583-1590 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.91 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | A crowned thistle, the national emblem of Scotland, depicted centrally within a beaded inner circle. The thistle head is shown in full bloom surmounted by a royal crown, rendered in the bold but somewhat irregular style characteristic of hammered billon coinage of the Edinburgh Mint. The design is contained between a beaded inner circle and the outer legend, with the field area plain. The overall workmanship reflects the modest denomination and the limitations of late sixteenth-century hammered coinage production. |
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| Additional information |
The half plack belongs to the "Thistle Coinage" issued during James VI's minority and early personal reign, a period when Scotland's billon small change was chronically debased and frequently counterfeited. The privy marks used across the 1583–1590 span — including the crescent and the annulet — allow specialists to narrow individual pieces to shorter windows within that bracket, though attribution can be slippery on worn examples.
Sp. 5516 is among the more elusive of the Thistle Coinage denominations by surviving population.