First Scottish Purchase In Over Five Years

[scottishmoney 34]

It has been over five years since I purchased anything Scottish, despite the fact that I consider the collection active. It gets so hard to find material that I do not have already, or am willing to afford. Usually Alexander III (1249-1286) pennies get the big big passover by me, they are far and away the most common of all medieval Scottish coinage, there are estimated to have been some 50 million of them minted during that reign.

But, most of them are Berwick pennies, which is believed to be denoted by 24 points in the stars on the reverse. It is conjectured that the number of points in the stars denotes the mints, and the lesser known ones must have been from smaller locales. This example is one with 28 points, and is not associated with any known locale. As such it is actually a fairly scarce piece and a neat find.

[Geordie582 18]

Great Coin! There's something about hammered that draws you! I speculate on who has handled it, what did it buy and why is it in such good condition? Was it buries in a hurry in times of peril or was it lost? Modern stuff just can't compete

[Hussulo 6]

Very nice coin! it would be great to find out where it was minted.

[Art 0]

Great coin. It's got to be difficult to go that long without adding to one of your main collections.

[Geordie582 18]

Just spotted this on E-bay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...81218&rd=1&rd=1

It looks like a Berwick type.

[scottishmoney 34]

Kind of funny how so many Scots pennies are found up in Yorkshire, Lancashire etc. However hoard evidence in Scotland suggest that Scots pennies represent less than 10% of what circulated there during that time. English pennies were represented in far greater numbers. Several years ago I purchased a small hoard of 64 cut farthings and halfpenny coins that were dug up in Yorkshire about 15 years ago. There were 7 Scots coins, 1 Irish, 1 Danish, and the rest were English coins ranging from Henry I(1154-1189) through the earliest issues of Edward I(1272-1307)

After I imaged these several years ago I determined the cut farthing at 1 o'clock is actually a Henry I English cut.

[Geordie582 18]

Nice haul! It's the sort of thing I'd like to find in a junk shop - Ah! well. I can dream can't I?

[scottishmoney 34]

There were 64 pieces in the lot, I remember paying about £20 for the whole haul. The fun part was finding the Irish coin, the Henry I coin, and the asst Scots which are mostly William I pieces. I have a Danish piece in there too, I have identified it as Danish, but still not to a particular ruler.