1 Penny - James VI

Scotland had no copper coinage to speak of before James VI authorized a series of small copper issues in the 1590s, the pennies among them. The Privy Council initially resisted copper on principle — small denomination coinage had long been the province of base billon — but chronic shortage of circulating small change forced the issue. Spink 5522 falls within a type notorious for crude, off-center strikes owing to the rudimentary equipment at the Edinburgh mint during this period, a production problem documented rather than incidental.