King James the First Hammered Silver Penny

[gigmaster]

You never know what the next shovelful will bring. In this case it was a King James the First Hammered Silver Penny! Had a great day finding lots of civil war relics and right in the middle of it all this penny. The farm dates back to the 1600's but had a lot of civil war activity too. Here is a video of the hunt!

 

[Scrappy]

English hammered (in the Americas) is at the top of my list. I’m happy to see you got one, and in nice shape!

 

[Steve in PA]

Ahhh the fields of SE VA produce another sweet hammered. Congrats on such a memorable find!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Steve - I'm still drooling over that one as it's a hammered I have yet to dig. As far as it's dating, I'm reposting the comment I made on Facebook so others here can see. Here it is:

"Great find Steve! If you look at the 12 o'clock position along the top edge of the coin in your photo on the left you'll see a mint mark that sort of looks like an upside down hand with 5 fingers. That's called an escallop, and during the reign of James I it was used only for the period 1606-1607. So that should be a very close dating clue for your coin. Below is another example of an escallop mint mark shown in a sidebar that appears on page 79 of my new book, It's #4, and it's displayed on a James I sixpence that was one of many hammered coins I recovered at an early site not far from my home." This coin has a date of 1606 on the reverse which confirms the mint mark.



Congrats again on a killer coin!!

 

[pepperj]

This might help narrow the date of the coin down through this link/read.
http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital BNJ/pdfs/1907_BNJ_4_10.pdf

 

[CRUSADER]

Steve - I'm still drooling over that one as it's a hammered I have yet to dig. As far as it's dating, I'm reposting the comment I made on Facebook so others here can see. Here it is:

"Great find Steve! If you look at the 12 o'clock position along the top edge of the coin in your photo on the left you'll see a mint mark that sort of looks like an upside down hand with 5 fingers. That's called an escallop, and during the reign of James I it was used only for the period 1606-1607. So that should be a very close dating clue for your coin. Below is another example of an escallop mint mark shown in a sidebar that appears on page 79 of my new book, It's #4, and it's displayed on a James I sixpence that was one of many hammered coins I recovered at an early site not far from my home." This coin has a date of 1606 on the reverse which confirms the mint mark.

View attachment 1516788

Congrats again on a killer coin!!

There is an issue here with the mint mark, I do agree the closest match is the escallop however that was issued under the second coinage, & this type of coin is from the 3rd coinage of 1619-25. No mint mark from this 3rd coinage match the coin in question.

 

[CRUSADER]

TV[ET]V[R] VNITA DEVS
I [D G R]OSA SINE SPINA

Above is the obverse & reverse legend.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome find, congratulations!

 

[1942 merc]

Unreal .......I say banner also . How many of you have even seen a coin like this over here ? You sir need a deus in those nails . I do not have the coil you do on the ATP but I have a nail infested site that the ATP and a 5x8 coil could not produce in . I found two buttons with the pro there . I bought a deus and I am on button 30 or so now all from the same site . I just wish my site was as old as yours is .

 

[CRUSADER]

Unreal .......I say banner also . How many of you have even seen a coin like this over here ? You sir need a deus in those nails . I do not have the coil you do on the ATP but I have a nail infested site that the ATP and a 5x8 coil could not produce in . I found two buttons with the pro there . I bought a deus and I am on button 30 or so now all from the same site . I just wish my site was as old as yours is .

If you mean hammered, then the East coast boys do get them from Lizzy I, James I, Charles I. Plus the odd random.

 

[CRUSADER]

I don't normally vote banner until we have a full ID, but in this case I have because the answer is only going to get better.

 

[gwdigger]

Man oh man how I'd love to find that. But gonna be tough around here. Congrats. Banner vote going in now.

 

[Donnie B from VA]

Beautiful coin! Congrats!

 

[JamieD]

Great find!

I think the situation that crusader identified with the coinage number not matching up to the mint mark is because rather than an English penny the coin is likely to be a 1 shilling issued in Scotland by James i in his role as James VI of Scotland.

During James reign 1 English pound equalled 12 Scottish pounds so an English penny was the equivalent of a Scottish shilling and the designs used on equivalent coins were very similar.

Here is a Scottish shilling with the same design as yours:
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/123751

Although I can't find a shilling with the same mintmark there is a two shillings here with it so it was probably also used on the shilling:
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/781238

Hopefully someone might have the relevant literature to tie the mintmark to a year, it may be that it's the same as the English escallop mark identified by Bill D and used in the same year?

Jamie

 

[GB1]

sweet voted banner

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

There is an issue here with the mint mark, I do agree the closest match is the escallop however that was issued under the second coinage, & this type of coin is from the 3rd coinage of 1619-25. No mint mark from this 3rd coinage match the coin in question.

Cru - check out this excellent reference entitled "The English Silver Coins of James I". Near the bottom of the 2nd page it states that during the 3rd coinage the "pellets" after complete words in the inscription were missing. But in this example they still show up. So this is getting more baffling since the coin is showing characteristics of both the 2nd and 3rd coinages. Could it be a counterfeit?

http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital BNJ/pdfs/1907_BNJ_4_10.pdf

 

[washingtonian]

Holy mackerel, sweet dig. Congrats!

 

[ArDirtSlinger]

Great SAVE!!!!!! I'm thinking Banner!!

 

[Silvermonkey]

Holy crap! What a spectacular find. I would love to learn more about that coin. I've never seen anything like it, especially on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Once in a life time kind'a fine and certainly BANNER worthy!!!!

 

[Patriot Relics]

Anytime I see a hammered coin dug on our side of the pond my jaw hits the floor. Great video and incredible save

 

[Tnmountains]

Spectacular hunt, video and finds.