James I halfcrowns
This site has been created to record all known James I halfcrowns from his first and second coinages , together with all coins with the mint mark rose , being the first mark of the third coinage.
Also shown are all known examples of coins having the raised grass line on the observe rather than the flat grass line.
If you have any comments, or details of omissions, I would be delighted to hear from you at ianshillinglaw@hotmail.com
Images of all coins with provenances , can be found by clicking the pictures below.
First coinage 1603-1605
There are 12 known first coinage examples (N.2071; S.2644), 9 with the mint mark thistle and just 3 with lis.
All 12 have the obverse legend IACOBVS D G ANG SCO FRAN ET HIB REX separated by semi colons, and reverse legend of EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI separated by stops.
Thistle 1603-1604 (9)
Lis 1604-1605 (3)
Second coinage 1604-1607
The second coinage (N.2098; S.2653) is even rarer than the first, with 5 known examples of mint mark lis and only 1 surviving example of mint mark rose and 2 of escallop.
From October 1604, James preferred to call himself King of Great Britain and all the second coinage dropped reference to England and Scotland and had the new obverse legend of IACOBVS D G MAG BRIT FRAN ET HIB REX (James by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland) separated by semi colons. The reverse legend was replaced with QUAE DEVS CONIVNXIT NEMO SEPARET separated by stops.
Lis (5)
22 May 1604- 20 June 1605
Rose (1)
21 June 1605- 10 July 1606
Escallop (2)
11 July 1606- 30 June 1607
Third coinage mm rose 1620-1621
The rose is the first mint mark of the third coinage (N.2122;S.2666) and appears on just five known examples. All five match the second coinage with BRIT FRAN and semi colons on the obverse, but on the reverse, the harp of Ireland is no longer plain but ornamented with a bird's head, and are therefore recorded as third coinage.
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There are also two known examples of the rose mint mark with no ground line under the horse on the obverse which have their own Spink catalogue reference S.2666A. On these the small rose replaces the seeded rose on the obverse and the legend no longer matches that of the second coinage with BRIT becoming BRI, and colons replacing semi colons.
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Rose (5)
24 June 1620 - 8 June 1621
Rose, no ground line (2)
Thistle over rose (2)
Third coinage - mm thistle - grass under horse
The second mint mark of the third coinage is thistle, and during this period plumes first appeared above the shield on the reverse denoting that those coins were struck from silver from the mines of Wales (Spink S.2667)
A few coins of this period have grass rising out of the ground line below the horse, with 2 found without plumes and 3 with plumes.
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Thistle - grass (2)
Thistle - grass with plumes (3)
Third coinage - mm lis - cross hatched grass
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The third mint mark was Lis, and during this period some coins appear with cross hatched grass below the horse, with 4 found without plumes and 2 with plumes.
Lis - Cross grass (4)
Lis - Cross grass with plumes (2)
