David II (1329-1371), Second coinage, Class A, Groat, class ‘A8’, Edinburgh, mm. cross pattée, small young bust, tressure of six arcs (less well defined), nothing in spandrels, saltire and crosslet stops, reads rcx and cotorvm, double crosslet at end of legend, nothing after villa, extra saltire stop after first ms, 4.42g/5h (SCBI 35, –; cf. B 11, fig. 258; S 5091). Very fine £240-£300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Scottish Coins, the Property of a Gentleman.

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Collection

Lord Grantley Collection, Part V, Glendining Auction, 18-19 May 1944, lot 1718 (part); DNW Auction 55, 8 October 2002, lot 664

The odd spellings of rcx and cotorvm, while looking like die-sinker’s errors, are almost certainly deliberate as the vendor has traced another two dies with the same details as Burns fig. 258, including the final double crosslet, this coin being from one of them. While Stewart, following Davidson, omitted these dies from his list, the vendor places this group as the penultimate type of class A replacing Stewart’s A8 which therefore becomes ‘A9’ and introduces the ornate A as found on class B dies.