Scotland, James VI 1615 Six Shillings MS61 finest graded example

Scotland, James VI (1567-1625), silver Six Shillings, 1615, Tenth Coinage, crowned bust right within beaded circle, value VI behind head, legend commences at top, initial mark thistle head both sides, IACOBVS. D. G. MAG. BRIT. FRAN. &. HIB. REX., rev. crowned quartered shield of arms, Scottish arms in both first and fourth quarters, date 1615 above, inner beaded circle legend and outer beaded circle surrounding both sides, legend commences upper right, QVÆ. DEVS. CONIVNXIT. NEMO. SEPARET, weight 2.75g (Burns 16, fig.986; S.5508). Seemingly the finest known for this very rare series and certainly of this date, toned with an excellent portrait, graded by NGC as MS61, the sole example of this denomination on NGC's database and top of population, extremely rare.

NGC Certification 6321136-001.

The Latin legend on the obverse translates as "James, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland", and on the reverse as "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder".

We note the comments by Burns in his Coinage of Scotland book that he considered the whole issue extremely rare and only recorded it for certain as the date 1622, but had also seen the dates of 1612 in the Wingate Collection which was listed in Wingate's catalogue as 1619; the date of 1615 with London dealer F. W. Lincoln and finally 1616 in the Guthrie Lornie collection. In the 125 years plus since the work of Burns all the dates from 1610-1622 inclusive are now catalogued for type II with the Scottish arms twice in the reverse shield. Turning to the Collection of the National Museum of Scotland listed in Sylloge 70 the only dates in their collection are 1610, 1612x2, 1613m 1615x2, 1617, 1618, 1619, 1622x2 and an unlisted date of 1624. None of the museum coins come close to the grade of this piece and are mostly worn, one 1619 piece is better than the others and closer in grade to this piece.