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THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

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UNITED KINGDOM<br />

our experience teaches us that the Avhole is not greater<br />

than its parts, as a gold unit of Charles I. by Briot, the<br />

finest example in the entire series, is procurable for a<br />

quarter of the amount paid for the eighth. The fabu-<br />

lous prices realised at the Wingate sale, however, were<br />

due to special circumstances, and more recent quota-<br />

tions are greatly reduced. The separate currency for<br />

Scotland closes with Anne and the year 1707, and con-<br />

sists of silver only. The latest gold coins were the<br />

Darien pistole and half-pistole of William III. (1701).<br />

The period from James V., whose bonnet-piece of<br />

1539 is the earliest dated Scotish coin, to the succession<br />

of the Stuarts to the British throne, was, from an auton-<br />

omous point of view, the most prosperous one for<br />

Scotish numismatic history ; and within these dates<br />

there are many pieces of admirable execution and char-<br />

acteristic design, as the Bonnet-piece, the Hat-piece, the<br />

Cruichton and Sword dollars, the silver coins with the<br />

young head of James VI., and those with the portraits<br />

of his mother. The finest epoch, however, may be<br />

probably considered as having been from 1603 to 1707,<br />

when the coinage was under English auspices, and was<br />

on a par with that of the dominant nation in quality<br />

and variety. The difference between the two series is<br />

that the local and sentimental interest seems to subside<br />

very sensibly after 1603 ; but the curious old denomi-<br />

nations and svmbols survived to the end : and anions-<br />

the latest fruits of the Scotish mint was the numismatic<br />

memorial of the rather uncanny Darien project.<br />

The latest monetary evidence of Scotish autonomy is<br />

177 m

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