Found while metal detecting this 3rd issue David 2nd penny. I have been trying to find other examples to compare both condition and potential values but am struggling to find any. There are lots of 3rd issue groats available for comparison but virtually no pennies. Is the penny relatively rare for this issue and how would you guage its condition?
Wonderful find. I have nothing intelligent to add, but figured I would share my one-and-only Scottish coin (of Alexander III). I'm of Scots-Irish descent, so you'd think I would have had more than one Scottish coin up to now. I do want to acquire a Sword & Scepter piece someday. I like how the Scottish coins have stars in the angles of the cross. Interesting that they're five-pointed on your coin and six-pointed on mine.
I tr I tried searching Numista but only first and second issues appeared. No third issues. Thanks anyway. It was worth a try.
Lovely Alexander penny Lordmarcovan. Did you find it or buy it? All of the coins in my collection have been found over the last 37 years using a metal detector. That is why my collection is so varied. Being Scottish myself, I was delighted to find the David penny. Other Scottish coins in my collection include a Thistle Merk and a Charles 1st half groat that has had a hole pierced through it.
I bought it. I have only metal detected on your side of the pond once- I spent a week digging in Essex in 2013. Found two hammered silver pieces- pennies of Edward I and Charles I. No Scottish, though some of my colleagues were digging either Scottish or Irish Conder tokens. I did not manage to find a Roman coin, though bizarrely enough, I did once find one here in Georgia, of all places! It was on a colonial site.
I believe I might have soiled myself in happy surprise if I dug a Thistle Merk. Kinda like the time I popped an Oregon Trail commemorative half dollar on a site here in Georgia. You've gotta love those pleasant surprises!
Your penny has a wonderful colour, and it is from the third coinage that was minted starting in the mid 1350s. Indeed the pennies are less common than groats as a large number of the groats were minted for the purpose of paying tribute to Edward III of England in lieu of David II being released from English captivity whilst the pennies largely stayed in Scotland and were lost like yours was. Here is a penny from David's first coinage that was issued beginning in 1333: And the above is from the second coinage. Here is a half-groat, a stinker to find a nice example: The larger coin is a groat, but not a common one - minted in Edinburgh but the obverse is what sets it apart from most Scots groats - it has seven arcs in the tressure around the king's portrait - there are approximately half a dozen reported examples of this coin. Sorry canna help much with valuation, I bought all of mine a couple of decades ago.
