1 Penny - Alexander III 2nd Coinage, Class D

Alexander III's second coinage was introduced around 1280 as part of a broader realignment with English penny standards under Edward I, whose own recoinage of 1279 had established new weight and design conventions across Britain. Scotland followed suit closely enough that contemporary merchants and money-changers treated the two coinages as near-equivalents — a practical convenience that also reflected the political accommodation Alexander maintained with his southern neighbor throughout the 1280s. Class D is distinguished from the other second-coinage classes by specific star and pellet configurations in the voided long cross quarters, details that allow attribution without reference to mint records, most of which do not survive.