Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Groat - James IV Light Coinage, Type III
| Issuer | Scotland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1496-1513 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Sp#5341 |
| Obverse description | Facing crowned bust of James IV rendered in the Gothic hammered style, with the king's face depicted frontally within a beaded inner circle. Two mullets or stars flank the king's neck at shoulder level, serving as decorative charges in the field. The crown is shown in detail above the effigy, with the legend surrounding the bust within the outer circle. The portrait is characteristic of late medieval Scottish coinage, with a stylised treatment of facial features typical of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Edinburgh Mint |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
James IV's Light Coinage reflects a deliberate reduction in silver fineness and weight pushed through in stages from the 1490s onward, driven partly by the chronic shortage of bullion that plagued the Scottish mint throughout his reign. Type III sits at the later end of this debasement sequence. The king's 1503 marriage to Margaret Tudor briefly stabilized Anglo-Scottish relations but did nothing to resolve the structural problems bleeding the coinage.
James died at Flodden in September 1513, which provides the hard terminus for this type.