Alexander III halfpenny

[Richard2]

Found this the other day, had a couple of his pennies but not a halfpenny, are they rarer? And can you tell me what mint is it , its approx 15mm in diameter. Thanks in advance Richard.

[scottishmoney]

This is from the second coinage of Alexander III, with the Crowned bust with sceptre variety, there are two mullets of 6 points each on the reverse. It is suggested that these were likely minted in Berwick. This is the most common variety of the halfpenny, being S-5061 in the Seaby catalogue and SA3HD-010 in Coincraft. But that said, halfpennies and farthings from Scotland are quite a bit scarcer than the pennies. Much like in England they were more often than not just cut from pennies, I have literally hundreds of them from England, Scotland and a few from Ireland and Denmark.

This piece would grade aFine, about fine, and would have an approximate value of £90-100 in said grade, but maybe a bit higher for the right buyer.

[Richard2]

Thanks for that info Scotishmoney, i thought you would be the one that would be able to help. Would it have had the same value as an english halfpenny

[scottishmoney]

Thanks for that info Scotishmoney, i thought you would be the one that would be able to help. Would it have had the same value as an english halfpenny

Scottish coinage had the same value as English until late in the reign of David II(1329-1371), the subsequent coins minted after 1367 were minted at a lower weight, resulting in a star being put on the sceptre to denote the difference. From then on, Scottish coins were devaluated against English sterling, or at times altogether prohibited. When the first weight change occurred ca. 1367 the English responded by tariffing the groat to threepence, so basically a 25% reduction in value. The only time after that the Scottish coinage evaluated against sterling was when "Old Coppernose" aka Henry VIII devalued sterling by debasing it, and the Scots during James V and early Mary responded by tariffing the English coins down. But this was shortlived, during the reign of Mary, the coinage devalued twice, and several times during James VI, resulting in numerous recoinages(all at a profit especially to James VI for the crown.) It was only in 1603 when James ascended the English throne that the coinages were fixed at a rate of Scots £12: English £1, with one minor blip in the 1690's it remained thus until 1707 when the recoinage as a British coinage began.

[Tony Tonnison]

Hi can anybody tell me what mint this half penny is and it’s value please.

[Paddy]

The mint is going to be guesswork. The only book I have on these states, for the Alexander III halfpennies: "The mints for these issues are uncertain".

Based on the 4 stars of 5 points (20 points in all) being Edinburgh and the halfpenny having only 2 stars of 5 points, it would be reasonable to guess the coin posted would also be Edinburgh.

As to value, the cop out answer is "whatever someone will pay you for it"! The Coincraft book of 1999 suggests £50 in VG and £100 in Fine. These prices were probably way too high at the time, but probably closer to the truth now.