Scotland 1580 1/2 merk
This specimen was lot 46013 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Costa Mesa, CA, August 2021), where it sold for $360. The catalog description[1] noted, "SCOTLAND. 1/2 Merk (Noble), 1580. Edinburgh Mint. James VI. NGC VF-30. Second Coinage. Sharply defined with pleasing dark tone and hints of luster in areas. The leftmost legends are pushed off the flan and shallow striking splits punctuate the borders. Each side shows multiple strikes with significant die shift. Very attractive. From the Loch Ness Collection." This example is double struck on the reverse, making it hard to read the date, which appears at 7 o'clock. 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.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver, this specimen 6.59 g.
Catalog reference: S-5478.
- 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]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The August 2021 ANA sale: World and Ancient Coins, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.
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