Watch List notes:

Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-67), First Period, portrait half-ryal or 30 shilling piece, 1555, bust left, rev., ivstvs fide vivit, crowned Scottish shield, 3.79g / 58.49 gr. (Murray, NC 1979, p. 162, 1B, this coin recorded; Burns p. 291, 8 and fig. 822.2; S. 5398), has been mounted and worn but of good weight, about fine and very rare. Ex Christie's, 8 October 1974, lot 51; previously ex Bearman and Virgil Brand Collections and Glendining auction, 7 July 1948, lot 35. In 1979 J.K.R. Murray wrote that the four coins from these dies which were known to him 'may be forgeries' (NC 1979, p. 157), a suggestion followed by Bateson & Mayhew in noting '?forgery by Jons' when describing the Ashmolean's example in 1987 (SCBI 35, 998/A; ex Alderman Hird Collection). Joan E.L. Murray, in discussing the forger Jons of Dunfermline (The First Gold Coinage of Mary Queen of Scots, in BNJ 1979, pp. 82-86), is unspecific on the point while the ex 'Dundee' Collection (Spink/Bowers & Ruddy, 1976, lot 125) specimen, acquired later by LaRiviere and again sold by Spink (29 March 2006, lot 102) was unchallenged. Also in 2006 Holmes, in compiling SCBI 58, remarks that the National Museums of Scotland example (no. 280) was 'at one time thought to be false'. Prospective purchasers are advised to form their own judgment regarding the status of the coin which is, under the circumstances, offered as viewed.
(3000-5000 GBP)