Rare First Issue of William the Lion

CNG 103, Lot: 1214. Estimate $4000. Sold for $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SCOTLAND. William I 'the Lion'. 1165-1214. AR Penny (19.5mm, 1.48 g, 11h). Roxburgh mint; Folwold, moneyer. Struck circa 1165-1174. + W[...] REX, crowned bust right, holding scepter / [+] FOLPO[L]D O[N] R, cross pattée; lis in angles. Burns fig. 25A–D; SCBI 35 (Ashmolean & Hunterian) –; SCBC 5021. Near VF, toned, areas of flat strike, some find patina, small edge split. Extremely rare.

From the Arthur M. Fitts III Collection. Ex Dix, Noonan, Webb 88-89 (29 September 2010), lot 2325.

From the DNW sale: “Very few coins seem to have been struck between the death of David I in 1153 and the introduction of the crescent and pellet coinage around 1180. It is possible that some posthumous coins in the name of David were struck at this time but named coins of Malcolm IV and William the Lion’s first type are excessively rare. Burns records three specimens of William’s first type in 1887 (B. fig 25b-c-d) and by 1967 a fourth is mentioned by Stewart. From then until the present no further examples seem to have been published. It is interesting to note that R.C. Lockett had no specimen in his extensive collection although he owned no less than 23 sterlings of David I.”