St. James's Auctions (Knightsbridge Coins)
Lot 74
NOT AVAILABLE FOR ONLINE BIDDING. PLEASE CONTACT THE AUCTIONEER IF YOU WANT TO BID ON THIS LOT.†Scotland, James VII (James II of England), 60 shillings, 1688, in gold, laur. bust r., 60 below truncation, rev. crowned arms in the collar of the Order of the Thistle, floral border inside legend, date divided by crown, plain edge (S.5635), a lovely specimen with frosty lustre and choice surfaces, nearly as struck, exceedingly rare *ex Cochran-Patrick Collection, Sotheby’s, 1957 (selling for £1100, 22 times the price of a Cromwell broad in the same auction) ex Lucien LaRiviere Scottish Collection, Spink, March 2006 Following a succession of mint appointments, charges of corruption over the weights of the various denominations issued in Scotland during the reign of the English king Charles II, political bickering inside the Mint, and the eventual replacement of officials running the facility, the Mint was closed and remained inoperable at the end of Charles II’s reign in 1685. The innovative coiner John Falconer wished to be reinstated but parliament instead appointed Lord Maitland and master coiner William Sharpe. New coinage was to undergo the Trial of the Pyx to put an end to corruption. As a consequence of these changes, no gold or copper coins were minted during the reign of James VII, whose title designated him as James II on his Scottish coins because of the addition of MAG BR to the royal title. The die engraver remains unknown but was likely one or more of the Roettiers. While five silver denominations were intended, including the 60-shillings coin, only the denominations of 40-shillings and 10-shillings were produced during this brief reign. The portrait utilized for those coins is the same as that appearing on the 60-shillings coin seen here, although almost all of the contemporaneous coins known are of poorer quality and saw much use. It is quite possible that the reason no 60-shillings coins were issued was James II’s infamous conversion to Catholicism, which fostered a crisis of confidence and led to the Glorious Revolution which ended his reign. We today have only to thank Matthew Young for rescuing the dies and producing c1828 literally a handful of examples of this beautiful coin, which is very scarce in silver and of exceeding rarity in gold, with only 3 known.
