Scotland 1682 merk
This specimen was lot 46048 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Costa Mesa, CA, August 2021), where it sold for $240. The catalog description[1] noted, "SCOTLAND. 1/4 Dollar, 1682. Charles II. NGC VF Details--Obverse Scratched. Error type with Irish arms in the first field and 'CAROVLS'. An evenly worn coin with dark toning and one horizonal scratch through the neck." 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 merk appears to have traded for 13 shillings and five pence, or a little more than an English shilling. The exchange rate between Scottish and English coinage varied but during this reign, 60 shillings = one English crown. This type was struck 1676, 1679-82.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 6.65 g, 0.917 fine silver.
Catalog reference: S-5621; KM-110.2.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- 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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