396, Lot: 668. Estimate $300. Sold for $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SCOTLAND. Alexander III. 1249-1286. AR Penny (18.5mm, 1.32 g, 5h). Second coinage, class J (’Baliol’ type). Posthumous issue, struck circa 1290-1292. + ΛLЄXΛNDЄR DЄI GRΛ, crowned heat left; lis-tipped scepter before / + RЄ X SC OTO RVM, long cross pattée. Burns 79 (fig. 209 – same dies); Stewart & North 29-30 (same rev. die); SCBI 35 (Ashmolean & Hunterian) 286 (same obv. die); SCBC 5059. Near VF, toned, slightly double struck. Rare.

Stewart & North tentatively suggest that the Class J Alexander pennies were struck during the interregnum between queen Margaret and John Baliol. This is a reasonable suggestion, as the present coin shares a reverse die with a Baliol issue. The authors do, however, caution that Class J could simply be the first issue of Baliol.