I went a bit out of my comfort level with this one. I was hoping for your opinion. It's a first coinage heavy issue, 2.8 grams
Very lovely coin, though not my area of interest. From the books I think I see Robert III first issue, Edinburgh mint and will date between 1390 and 1403. Must be VF (UK grading) for a hammered coin, so a lovely example to have. The weakness to the detail of the pellets on the reverse will be from the original dies. I can't see any reason to doubt its authenticity. Whether it was worth what you paid for it all depends on the price and how much you love it! The only book I have on this area is a Coincraft offering from 1999, and that lists a VF specimen as £140. Prices have gone up a long way since then. If I wanted one, I would be happy if I could get it around £500 but would not be surprised to see it run towards £1000. There is a less good Perth mint example on Ebay at present, NGC graded XF40 for $1350.
Looks nicely struck for the type to me, though I'm using coins from that time period in general as a reference.
Thanks Paddy, from those prices I don't think that I did too bad. It was in the 300 range. The dealer always bundles coins if you buy more than 1. I found a few other auctions most of them sold for around the same price, and some going for quite a bit more.
Thanks I see these type coins every once in a while, and most are either bent or have very little details left. This one stuck out from the rest.
That was a brilliant deal for a coin in that condition. I would have strayed from my usual English coinage to pick that one up for that price. Was that in the US?
Yes, it is a smaller shop. I tend to find coins that are quite uncommon, coins that I don't see unless at a big show. I wish that I could make the trip more often, He has some really nice coins.
Awesome! Medieval Scottish has a certain mystique for me. Despite being of Scottish descent on my mother’s side, I did not own any independent Scottish coin until 2021. And that lone Alexander III penny remains my only Scottish coin to date. Impressive that you got a groat. On my only semi-educated intuition, I’d say the $300-ish price you paid sounds like a pretty good deal.
Yes, prior to the Groat all GB coins were Pennies and across much of Europe the Denier, name derived from the Roman Denarius. (Hence the abbreviation for a British Penny pre-decimalisation was "d" instead of "p".) When the new coin worth 4 Pennies was introduced it became known as a Groat from the Norman French word "Grosse" for large. - simply because of its larger size.
