★ Rare Thistle Noble – From the Beresford-Jones and Marquess of Bute Collections ★

SCOTLAND. James VI. 1567-1625. AV Thistle Noble (35mm, 7.66 g, 8h). Fifth coinage. Edinburgh mint; im: quatrefoil. Struck 1588. (quatrefoil) · IACOBVS · 6 · DEI · GRATIA · REX · SCOTORVM, ship bearing crowned coat-of-arms and two banners inscribed I and 6 / (quatrefoil) · FLORENT · SCEPT’ · PIIS · REGNA · HIS · IOVA · DAT · NVMERATQ :, thistle over crossed scepters, crown at each end; in each quarter, crowned lion rampant left; all within angled quadrilobe; thistles in external voids. Burns 3/2 (Fig. 951 [same obv. die]); SCBI 35 (Ashmolean & Hunterian), 1151/1150 (obv./rev. – same obv. die); SCBC 5456. Good VF. Well struck on a full round flan. Rare, especially in this grade.

From the James & Martha Robertson Collection. Ex LVL Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 102, 18 May 2016), lot 1539; St. James’s 26 (5 March 2014), lot 71; R. Duncan Beresford-Jones Collection (Spink 108, 7 March 1995), lot 499; Marquess of Bute Collection (Part II, Sotheby & Co., 11 June 1951), lot 191.