1 Crown - James V 2nd Coinage, Type IV

James V's second coinage was prompted by a deliberate revaluation policy following currency instability inherited from the regency period after Flodden. The crown was tariffed at 20 shillings Scots, though repeated adjustments to gold valuations across this coinage make precise dating of individual types genuinely difficult — Sp.5371 sits at the end of a sequence where the distinctions between types rest almost entirely on mintmark and crown style.

Scotland's gold supply in this period depended heavily on trade receipts and French subsidy payments. James's French alliance, renewed formally in 1534, was not merely diplomatic theatre — it had direct consequences for the bullion flowing through the Edinburgh mint.