Printed Auction 44

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Closed March 12, 2025
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    First Renaissance style portrait

    A44, Lot 215:

    SCOTLAND. James III. 1460-1488. AR base silver groat, issue of 1471-1483 (.770). 1.97 gm. 22 mm. First Renaissance style portrait. Edinburgh mint. His realistic portrait, half right; tressure of eight arcs, trefoils on cusps; +IΛCOBVS : REX : DEI : SCOTORVM (the SCOTORV legend is listed in Burns as the eight arc variety) / Long cross with thistles opposing in two quarters and small mullets opposing in the other two (mullet in upper right quadrant variety; +VIL LAxE DINB VRGh. S. 5270. Burns II: p. 116:12/13; pl. xliv:582-3. Very Fine; attractive example with a clear portrait. Very rare, particularly in appealing condition.

    The Leland Scott Collection. With early hand-written tag

    Also ex Spink with older tag (£650).

     

    The first “real person” portrait on a British coin

    (As featured in Coin World Magazine, March 2025)

    In 1471 the young Scottish king, James III, had his youthful 30 year old image featured on the obverse of a base silver groat. This was the first Renaissance style portrait of a British king shown as he actually looked, and it took until the Fifth Coinage of Henry VII, very early in the 1500’s, for his realistic profile to appear on English coinage. British coins had long featured a front-facing two-dimensional image that made no effort at visually discriminating the kings. This change to an actual image was an important mark of England’s entry into the Renaissance.

    The Renaissance (French “rebirth”) replaced the medieval world view, and was a time of rediscovering the classical learning of the ancient world. The exact time when it began is a source of scholarly debate but in the 14th century literature like the Canterbury Tales, the Decameron, and Dante’s Inferno were reflecting this humanism, and drawing and painting eventually followed.

    The reverse of this James III groat began the use of thistle heads on Scottish coinage. James III is generally considered the founder of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, a Scottish Order of Chivalry that is still functioning. In modern times, the current king, Charles III, is reported to have awarded it five times so far in his reign.

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