Double Crown - James I 2nd coinage, 4th bust

James I's second coinage, introduced in 1604, followed the fractious unification of the English and Scottish crowns and required entirely new dies reflecting his dual kingship. The fourth bust variety within this coinage represents one of several iterative portrait revisions the Tower Mint worked through during this period — the king's likeness was updated more frequently under James than under any previous Tudor or early Stuart monarch, partly driven by royal dissatisfaction with earlier renderings.

Spink 2622 is among the scarcer bust varieties of the Double Crown series. Production across the full second coinage ran until 1619, but the narrower 1605–1611 window for this specific bust limits surviving examples considerably.