Scotland, James V 1540 gold 2/3 Bonnet piece of Two Merks VF20

Scotland James V (1513-42), gold Two Thirds Ducat or Bonnet piece of Two Merks, 1540, third coinage (1539-42), bonnet type, bearded profile portrait right wearing bonnet, beaded circles and legend surrounding both sides, annulet on inner circle at 9 o'clock, initial mark lis, IACOBVS. D. G. R. SCOTORVM. 1.5.40, rev. crowned Scottish arms, I to left and 5 to right all within inner beaded circle, legend surrounding + HONOR. REGIS. IVDICIVM. DILIGIT (Burns 1, fig.755; SCBI 35:906-7; SCBI 58:36-7; S.5374). With a detailed Renaissance style portrait, has been slabbed and graded by NGC as VF20, a pleasing example of one of the earliest dated coins of the British Isles, the second date ever used on a coin in the Scottish series and the only date for this one year denomination, extremely rare.

NGC Certification 1811991-004 - one of only two pieces graded.

The Latin legends translate as "James the Fifth by the grace of God, King of Scotland" on the obverse and on the reverse as "The King's power loveth judgement" a psalm from the Bible.

These coins are the earliest dated Scottish coins and 1540 is the second date issued. Such dating predates the English coins by a decade when Roman numeral dates were adopted on gold and silver of Edward VI, but the first gold coin to have familiar "Arabic" dating in the English series are actually the Oxford gold issues of Charles I from 1642 the great Grandson of James V.

The artful Renaissance style portraits on these Scottish pieces was also rendered in locally mined gold from Crawford Moor and the lands of Corehead. The Hopetoun manuscripts the only surviving contemporary documentation of these issues puts the Bonnet Piece Ducat and its fractions and value of Three Merks, Two Merks and One Merk which had always been values for accounting only up until this point in time. They remain a highly important and revered portrait gold issue of the Scottish lineage.

Provenance:

Ex R. Duncan Beresford-Jones Collection of Scottish Gold Coins, Spink Coin Auction 108, 7th March 1995, lot 489.

Ex Spink Numismatic Circular, August 2004, item HS1780.

Ex Dix Noonan and Webb, Auction 67, 28th September 2005, lot 1161.

Ex Loch Ness Collection, Stacks Bowers Galleries, 16^th August 2021, lot 41502.