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Penny of King David I

Michael Young sent in the images of this hammered silver coin. It was found by a friend but they weren’t sure if it was English or Scottish.

On the obverse is a very crude representation of a bust, which is surrounded by a legend. On the reverse is an equally crude cross fleury with pellets in the angles. Part of the legends on the coin itself might show up but I can’t identify any of the letters from the images.

This coin would obviously be an ‘also ran’ in a beauty contest but it would still be of great interest to collectors of Sottish coins, for it is a penny of King David I. It’s an example of period D, during which some quite hideous coins went into circulation. In Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands pennies of this type are listed as number 5009.

Soon after Henry I died early in December of 1135 his nephew, Stephen of Blois, was crowned as King of England. In January the Scots invaded northern England and soon captured Carlisle, which had a mint and nearby silver mines. This led to the first Scottish coins being issued. The earliest coins copied the last type of Henry I. Soon afterwards copies of Stephen’s Watford type were put into circulation. Later still pennies were issued that were more typically Scottish and coins of period D might have been struck before and after the death of King David.   

Valuation

On this coin hardly any of the legend shows up, the imagery is crude and the flan looks to be uneven. However, most coins of period D are poorly struck from badly made dies. Leading on from this, the coin pictured here could actually be graded as Fine for this issue. Working purely from the images rather than from sight of the actual coin, if I was cataloguing it for sale at auction I’d set the pre-sale estimate at £400 – £600 and would expect it to sell for a figure within that range.

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