THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

UNITED KINGDOM
our experience teaches us that the Avhole is not greater
than its parts, as a gold unit of Charles I. by Briot, the
finest example in the entire series, is procurable for a
quarter of the amount paid for the eighth. The fabu-
lous prices realised at the Wingate sale, however, were
due to special circumstances, and more recent quota-
tions are greatly reduced. The separate currency for
Scotland closes with Anne and the year 1707, and con-
sists of silver only. The latest gold coins were the
Darien pistole and half-pistole of William III. (1701).
The period from James V., whose bonnet-piece of
1539 is the earliest dated Scotish coin, to the succession
of the Stuarts to the British throne, was, from an auton-
omous point of view, the most prosperous one for
Scotish numismatic history ; and within these dates
there are many pieces of admirable execution and char-
acteristic design, as the Bonnet-piece, the Hat-piece, the
Cruichton and Sword dollars, the silver coins with the
young head of James VI., and those with the portraits
of his mother. The finest epoch, however, may be
probably considered as having been from 1603 to 1707,
when the coinage was under English auspices, and was
on a par with that of the dominant nation in quality
and variety. The difference between the two series is
that the local and sentimental interest seems to subside
very sensibly after 1603 ; but the curious old denomi-
nations and svmbols survived to the end : and anions-
the latest fruits of the Scotish mint was the numismatic
memorial of the rather uncanny Darien project.
The latest monetary evidence of Scotish autonomy is
177 m