[MR] BBC: Hoard of Scottish Coins from Carrot Field

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble friends, especially fellow Scots,

Yesterday BBC Scotland offered a feature on a hoard of coins found in a
Fife carrot field by a metal detectorist in 2022.

The 52 coins are rather crude copper farthings, worth 1/4 of a Scottish
penny, and date from the troubled reign (weren't they all troubled?) of
James III between 1460 and 1488. The finder, Alan Baxter, discovered a gilt
silver ring in this field when it was covered in thick oat stubble. The
stubble prevented his metal detector from getting close to the soil. Four
years later the farmer harvested carrots, and Baxter was back, almost
immediately turning up the coins.

His other finds include two extremely rare coins from the brief reign of
John Balliol (1292-1296). Balliol was Edward I's puppet, and was sacked and
imprisoned when the Scots made a mutual defense pact with France, the Auld
Alliance. This sparked the First War of Scottish Independence, featuring
William Wallance and his lot.

You can see photos of the ring, the various coins and some of the other
objects Baxter has uncovered at
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-68659675 .

A brief bio of the very unpopular King of Scots James III is found on
Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_III_of_Scotland .

And you can read about John Balliol at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Balliol .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.