Robert III (1390-1406), Heavy coinage, Second issue, Groat, Edinburgh, mm. cross potent, tressure of seven arcs, trefoils on some cusps, nothing on breast, annulets in spandrels, double annulet stops after robertvs, dei and rex, reads scottorrvm, rev. three pellets in quarters of cross, single annulet stops after dns, and p, double after ms and z, three annulets placed horizontally after ed, 2.68g/2h (SCBI 35, –; SCBI 72, 199, same obv. die: cf. B 40, fig 391 for obv.; S 5167). About very fine, the most unusual reverse die unpublished, extremely rare £240-£300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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Bt Soink February 1982

Part of a relatively small group of Groats with annulets in the spandrels. Those struck at Edinburgh also have double annulet as stops while Perth coins have double crosslets [see lot 725]. Unlike the single Perth die, there were at least three obverse dies in use at Edinburgh. One of these produced almost all the extant examples, the other two seem to have had very little use. This die is one of the latter. Around this time, die production quality began to slip with misspellings creeping in and striking becoming careless.