Bawbee

First issue, minted circa 1542–1558. Mint: Edinburgh

A bawbee was a Scottish halfpenny. The word means a debased copper coin, valued at six pence Scots (equal at the time to an English half-penny), issued from the reign of James V of Scotland to the reign of William II of Scotland. They were hammered until 1677, when they were produced upon screw presses.

The bawbee was introduced by James V in 1538, valued at sixpence. These carry his 'I5' monogram flanking a crowned thistle, and a large saltire on the reverse with a central crown. There was also smaller half bawbee and quarter bawbee. Around the year 1544 his widow Mary of Guise minted bawbees at Stirling Castle, with the 'MR' cipher, and the cross potent with crosslets of Lorraine on the reverse. The first bawbees of Mary, Queen of Scots issued by the mint at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh carried the cinquefoil emblems of Regent Arran.

The issue of King Charles II was a coin of copper with the famed reverse inscription Nemo me impune lacessit ("No one provokes me with impunity"), although the last word on these coins was spelled "Lacesset". This motto is still in use today on the edge of the circulating Scottish one Pound Sterling coins. The motto is around a crowned thistle followed by the date. This coin was valued at six pence Scots or half an English penny.

It was metaphorically used for a fortune by Sir Alexander Boswell, the son of the more famous James Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson. It occurs in the song of Jennie’s Bawbee

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