The Sgarabhaigh Sixpence forms an important part of a wider project to conserve and share the small Scottish island of Sgarabhaigh which lies in the beautiful Western Isles of Scotland. The coin design is based on an ancient coin of the realm and incorporates a blend of the ancient and modern history of the island as well as three of the ecological cornerstones of the place that is Sgarabhaigh. We have minted it in ‘fine’ silver which is 99.9% pure silver, rather than the harder but less pure Sterling Silver, as it will not have to suffer the rigours of general circulation.

The coin is based on the silver sixpence produced by James VI of Scotland (1588-1625) also James I of England (1603-1625) the first King to unite the crowns of Scotland and England. It is a denomination of coinage first introduced in 1551 and was minted up to 1967 with its final demise being part of the decimalization of currency in the United Kingdom in 1971.

The selection of a coin from this period of Royal Union is considered appropriate as Friends of Sgarabhaigh too is a joint Scottish / English venture. The coin is therefore a solid silver coin 26mm diameter and weighing 4.5gms, the same proportions as the hand struck sixpence coins minted up to 1662. The machine-made milled coins made after that date reduced in size to 21mm dia and a weight of 3 gms and they in turn were changed in1816 to a 19mm diameter 2.8 gm coin. This coin would have been hand struck in 1603 as this was the traditional method of coin production up to 1662. We have however minted the coin using a mechanical method employed post 1662 in order to retain the maximum detailed definition of the features of the coin. Its detail is an amalgam of historic and ecological elements which create what is a unique, and we believe an accurate, representation of what is now Sgarabhaigh. (more…)