Scotland 1575 1/2 mark
This specimen was lot 50165 in Ponterio sale 168 (Philadelphia, August 2012), where it sold for $441. The catalog description[1] noted, "SCOTLAND. Half Mark, 1575. NGC VF-25. James VI (1567-1625)." A merk was originally forty shillings Scots in the sixteenth century. Both the merk and the Scots shilling shrank in the intervening years and this half merk appears to have traded for 6 shillings and eight pence (hence the "6 8" on the obverse). That would make it worth one-third of a twenty shillings or ten English pence. The reverse motto, "· SALVVM · FAC · POPVLVM · TVVM ·DNE ·", means, "O Lord, save Thy people".
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 6.79 g, 0.666 fine silver, 32 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: S-5478; C-SJ6HMK-015.
- Lobel, Richard, Mark Davidson, Allan Hailstone and Eleni Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of the Coins of Scotland, Ireland, Channel Islands & Isle of Man, London: Coincraft, 1999.
- Skingley, Philip, ed., Standard Catalogue of British Coins: Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Man & Lundy), Pre-Decimal Issues, 2nd edition, London: Spink & Son, 2003.
- [1]Ponterio, Richard, Ponterio sale 168: The Official ANA Auction, Irvine, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2012.
Link to:
- Scotland 1571 ryal Dav-8463 without counterstamp
- 1572 half merk
- 1575 20 pounds
- 1576 20 pounds
- 1580 half merk
- 1582 20 shillings
- Coins and currency dated 1575
- return to coins of Great Britain, Scotland