THE BAWBEE ISSUES OF JAMES V AND MARY ROBERT B. K. STEVENSON Introduction THE intermittent coinages of the Scottish mint in the first half of the sixteenth century into the 1550s have attracted little new study for a long time with the exception of some rare gold.1 Silver was virtually only struck between 1526 and 1538, supposedly at 10 deniers fine (83.3 per cent). The groat at eighteen pence Scots weighing 42.8 gr. (like Henry VIII's 1540 fourpenny groat) was thus intrinsically c.83 per cent of Henry's 1526 groat at 11.1 deniers which weighed 48 gr. It was billon that provided the bulk of the coins in circulation, in the form of placks, fourpence Scots, minted up to about 1515, and of sixpenny bawbees from 1538 or 1539 under James, and 1543 into 1554 under Mary. The bawbee at 3 deniers fine (75 per cent alloy) seems to have remained unchanged in quality or weight throughout,2 while the successive debasements of Henry and Edward VI brought the English silver down, very briefly in 1551, to a base shilling of that same standard, described by George Brooke as the worst silver England ever saw. Edward's post-recovery base pennies at 4 deniers were comparable in size to the half-bawbee, but were supported by a range of good quality higher denominations not paralleled in Scotland till after the issue of bawbees had ceased. Intensive collecting and study of billon has been discouraged by more than its low value, liability to corrosion and relative quantity. Good clear specimens have been difficult to find. Deficiencies in striking are common to thin base-metal coins, and have often been compounded by the long periods during which the placks and bawbees circulated. Thus a rural hoard buried c. 1587 had still respectively 12 and 32 of these out of 94 coins (Noranside, Angus, 1962).3 In contrast to that find, two hoards hidden about 1530 (Linlithgow) and 1555 (Rigghead, Collin, Dumfriesshire) gave in 1963 considerable new opportunities for study.4 In particular they included the largest recorded numbers, in the first of James IV and James V placks (324) and in the second of James V bawbees (132). The latter were in particularly good condition. So were the accompanying bawbees of Mary (214), which were mostly of Acknowledgements. The late Robert Kerr made the initial Museums of Scotland copyright. I am much indebted for card-index of the Rigghead coins acquired for the National them to Mr I. F. Larner and Miss H. Jackson respectively, Museum. Dr I. H. Stewart has read the typescript critically at and to the Director Dr R. G. W. Anderson and other present various stages; this and the prolonged loan of his bawbees members of staff for support and assistance. have been invaluable to the study. Mrs J. E. L. Murray has read some parts. I am grateful for the opportunity of 1 I. H. Stewart, Scottish Coinage second edition (London. examining an unpublished hoard found in Linlithgow c.1935 1967), pp. 200-3; Lt Col and Mrs Murray, see notes 23-24. presently on loan to the National Museums. Photographs for 2 Burns, p. 294, note 7. There is a very great variation in comparison were made available by the Ashmolean and the present appearance of bawbees, from bright silvery Hunterian Museums' cabinets, and some from the British through almost pewter to patinated dark brown as if entirely Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum (Edinburgh whole copper. Hoards show that this is due to differing circum- bawbees omitted in particular), for which Mr N. J. Mayhew, stances in which each has been buried or hidden. Dr J. D. Bateson, Miss M. M. Archibald and Mr M. A. S. 3 Noranside: 1. D. Brown and M. Dolley, Bibliography of Blackburn are especially thanked. Photographs of the rel- Coin Hoards of Great Britain and Ireland, 1500-1967 evant parts of the late Dr James Davidson's collection and of (London, 1971), SO 20; Appendix here. See Braeside, the Lockett collection have been used. Dumfries Museum Greenock (1955) buried c.1573, SO 2 and PSAS 89 (Mr D. Lockwood) and Dundee Museum (Mr A. Zealand) (1955-56), 109-12. have also been helpful. 4 Rigghead (cited below as Rigg., full summary in App- The photographs and diagrammatic drawings are National endix) and Linlithgow 1963, Brown SM 6 and SN 1. THE BAWBEE ISSUES OF JAMES V AND MARY 121 early varieties that are less well represented elsewhere, but tapered sharply to the latest. In both finds there were groats of James V which are rare in hoards. Under Scots law the coins of whatever metal could be claimed for the Crown, and the preliminary study was made to provide a basis for selection for the National Museum of Antiquities (NMAS) and other public collections, for rewards to the finders, and for the return to them of the remainder. Unfortunately it was not feasible at that time to make a photographic record as a permanent check on the initial catalogue. Further comparative review at intervals since has concentrated on the collections of the NMS.5 A limited amount of comparison beyond them has now been included, most recently from the illustrations of the Oxford and Glasgow Sylloge.6 It is planned to publish the resulting numismatic details in this Journal, beginning now with the bawbees and their halves, to be followed by James V's groats and one-third groats, and then by his placks with those of James IV. Further aspects of these and other hoards of the period may be covered by a later paper elsewhere. James V's bawbees, 1538-42 The sixpenny bawbee was a newly devised denomination (pl. 12, 1). Together with the 3-merk 'bonnet-piece' ducat, dated 1539 and less rarely 1540, it broke away from earlier designs and the broader flans of placks and crowns. A new coin issued perhaps for several years before 1539 had been the one-third groat, also valued at sixpence, which contained 63 per cent more silver; it was no doubt inconveniently small, being similar in size and weight to the half-bawbee. The history, contemporary name and typology of the bawbee were established by Edward Burns;7 previous numismatists had reckoned them as placks. He based his detailed classification on Thomas Coats' Scottish collection, now part of the national collections. His published sample of James's bawbees was, however, only seven with four halves, of which three were in other collections. Two of these were in the NMAS which Richardson's catalogue of 1901 shows as having five of the bawbees and three halves;8 one more was added before 1962. The most accessible account with illustrations has been by I. H. Stewart.9 From the Rigghead hoard's 132 bawbees of James and 6 halves the NMAS received 53 and 4 halves, the Hunterian Museum 15 and one half, and Dumfries Museum 23 (including 4 from a stray parcel) and one half. Forty were returned to the finders and so ultimately became available to collectors. The number of obverse dies represented was not firmly ascertained for the bawbees, but the maximum number of dies represented by a single coin is 93 with 13 noted more than once. Of the singles 7 have been duplicated in other samples examined, some photographically. Relations to the gold issues (pl. 12, A-G)8 Bawbees were certainly projected in 1538, but the historical records (p. 125-7 below) do not make clear when their actual issue began. They covered at any rate less than five years during which a small amount of gold was struck from a very few dies. James V died in 5 The National Museums of Scotland, since the NMAS and 292-307; III. pl. lvii, lx-lxii. Cited as Burns or B. The was amalgamated with the Royal Scottish Museum (RSM) present paper is dedicated to Burns' memory following the under a new Board of Trustees in 1985. centenary of the posthumous publication of his great work. 6 See also Note to Catalogue below. I. D. Bateson and N. See I. H. Stewart. 'Edward Burns'. BNJ 57 (1987), 89-98. 11 J. Mayhew, SCBI 35: Scottish Coins in the Ashmolean A. B. Richardson. Catalogue of Scottish Coins in the Museum, Oxford and the Hunterian Museum. Glasgow National Museum, Edinburgh (Edinburgh. 1901). Cited as (London, 1987); numerous Rigghead bawbees are there Richardson or Rich. The gold in pl.2.A-G here arc Rich. illustrated. Cited as AS and HS. James V 36. 37. B.4. Rich.39-40. 7 The Coinage of Scotland (Edinburgh. 1887), II, 262-8 '' Stewart. 122 THE BAWBEE ISSUES OF JAMES V AND MARY December 1542. The design on the reverse of the bawbees with its novel crown-girt saltire is too close to that of the unique pattern ducat dated 1539 (pi. 12, A-B, B.la fig. 750) to have been used before this was abandoned; the designs for billon had hitherto been kept distinct from those for gold or silver. A crowned shield like that on the pattern's obverse was then placed on the reverse of the ducat's striking portrait of the king wearing a bonnet (a low cap embroidered with jewels to resemble a crown)"' and a heavy gold collar of thistle-heads like that which had surrounded the pattern's shield." This ducat is still dated 1539, from a single obverse die both with and without a pellet to the left of the field (B. figs. 751 and 752).