A Collection of Scottish Coins, the Property of a Gentleman (Part III)

James III (1460-1488), Light issue, 1467, Groat, type Ic, Edinburgh, mm. cross pattée, tressure of eight arcs, trefoils on cusps except above crown, t and l by neck, reads d gra, legend ends scotor, rev. three pellets and annulet in first and fourth quarters, mullet of six points in second and third, cross before vil, double saltire stops both sides, 2.61g/12h (SCBI 35, 743-4 and B 3, fig. 568, same dies; SCBI 72, 767, same obv. die; S 5265). On a full flan, about very fine and very rare £800-£1,000

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

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From the Innerwick (East Lothian) Hoard 1979 (no. 65); bt D. Cavanagh June 1983

Although there is no documentary evidence for the weight reduction of the Scottish coinage, indirect evidence would suggest c. 1467, a few years after the English initiative. The sporadic mint records show 83 lbs of silver being struck June 1467-68, after almost no production during the previous couple of years. The initials by the neck are believed to stand for Thomas Tod and Alexander Levingstoun, who were appointed mintmasters probably in the early 1470s. The obverse die of the current specimen was used first at Edinburgh and later at Berwick.