1 Penny - Alexander III 1st Coinage, Type VIII

Alexander III's first coinage ran through several distinct type progressions as the Edinburgh and other Scottish mints refined their dies across the 1250s–70s. Type VIII sits late in that sequence, by which point the moneyer system — individual craftsmen contracting directly with the crown — was producing work of reasonably consistent quality, though die-to-die variation remains substantial across surviving examples. Scotland at this period still operated without a permanent royal mint in the modern sense; production moved between authorized locations, and attribution of specific pieces to specific towns often relies on moneyer name alone.