Scotland: silver penny of Alexander III, second coinage, ca. 1280-1286

Scotland: silver penny of Alexander III, second coinage, ca. 1280-1286

Obverse: ✚ ALEXANDER DEI GRA, crowned head of Alexander III right, lis-topped scepter before.
Reverse: REX SCO TOR RVM ✚, long cross with six-pointed mullet (or voided star) in each angle. Straight sided lettering.
Issuer: Alexander III, King of Scotland (1249-1286).
Specifications: silver penny, 19.2 mm, 1.36 g. Second coinage, Class Ma. Edinburgh mint, struck circa 1280-1286.
Grade: PCGS XF45; cert. #43640588.
Reference: Numista-55480, Cf. Burns pl. XV, figs. 152-158; Spink-SCBC-5053.
Provenance: ex-Agora Auctions Numismatic Sale #100, Lot 242, 4 May 2021.* Prior provenance to the Wisdom Collection.
Notes: King Alexander III of Scotland died without a surviving heir. His granddaughter, Margaret, the Maid of Norway, only three years old at the time of his death, was made the presumptive heir under six regents called the Guardians of Scotland, but she herself died at age seven without being formally crowned as queen. The death of Alexander and his young female heir presumptive, and the subsequent period of chaos, was an indirect cause of the Wars of Scottish Independence against England. (The popular but heavily fictionalized film Braveheart is set during that period.)
Comments: I am of Scots-Irish descent, yet somehow I managed to lack a single Scottish coin in my collection for 45 years. So I was very pleased to acquire this one. Scotland's independent coinage ceased in 1709 after the Acts of Union with Great Britain, so Scottish coins are not something you see every day.



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Thank you. I forgot I composed the rough draft of this thread in a moderators-only forum and copied-and-pasted from there. The software is smart about that- you can't copy-paste images from restricted forums and private messages. If you do, you can see them, but nobody else can!

I'll have to re-upload them to work on this public forum.

Had you not just given me that heads-up, it would have taken me a while to realize that!

Edit- they should work now. Thanks again.

 

Anybody else- see the pics now? You should be able to. I logged out and looked, and saw them there now.

 

Thanks. This one? It's a full groat.

 

Ah, yes. I suppose that one is indeed a half-groat, though I'm more accustomed to using the Polish half-grosz in that particular context. Those Polish-Lithuanian pieces are quite affordable, even in Mint State like that one. They're probably my favorite type of early dated coins.

(*I'd still trade three of them for this Scottish piece, though.)

 

By "points", and "24 points", do you mean the tips of the mullets (stars)?

Despite my enthusiasm, it will be fairly obvious that I'm a complete neophyte with Scottish coins. This is, as mentioned, my very first.

 

Thankee, sir. D'ye ken anything aboot this "Wisdom Collection" cited in the provenance?

 

Awesome. Everyone feel free to "pile on" with any Scottish coins you might have- not just medievals.

 

So does this mean my coin is from Berwick rather than Edinburgh, as attributed by the auctioneer?

And what do the coins with odd numbers of points look like? The mullets/stars must have to be different from one another, to come up with an odd number of points?

 

Thanks for that. So Berwick, then.

 

I want that 1565 ryal!