288 The Early Coinage of Scotland. 



of having a Mint at some period during Alexander III.'s reign. 

 In a paper recently read before this Society the writer mentioned 

 that Dumfries was " the Castle of the Frisians, who in Saxon 

 Chronicles are referred to as Fries or Fres," and that Nennius 

 mentions as one of the important towns " Caer Pheris." There is 

 no doubt that this is the distinctive part of the name which would 

 linger in the district. Dumfries held a very important position 

 during the reign of Alexander III. It had been a Royal Burgh 

 from the time of William the Lion, and here King Alexander 

 brought together a fleet to subdue Magnus, King of Man, a very 

 important event. We know that Dumfries had frequently the 

 honour of being visited by the King. It is almost certain that 

 when Walter the moneyer coined here he would use the second 

 syllable — in every probability the name by which the town was 

 generally known — in order to distinguish the coins from those he 

 had coined at Dunbar or Dunfermline. The coins with Walter on 

 Fre or Fres are very rare. From this one would infer that the 

 coinage had not been large. There appear to be five varieties 

 struck from five different dies. On two of the varieties the A and 

 L in WALTER are in monogram, while on one he leaves out the 

 letter L, and calls himself WATER: ON FRES. The form of 

 bust of No. 1 appears to be of an early type with low flat crown 

 to left, sceptre head cross porninee. 



The followmg are the legends on the five varieties at present 

 known, Nos. 1 and 4 having the AL in monogram. 



Fig. 1.— obv. ALEXANDER REX 

 rev. WAL/TER : ONF/RES 



Fig. 2.-K)bv. ALEXANDER: REX: C: 

 rev. WA/LTE/R ON/FRE 



The C after REX on the obverse probably stands for 

 " Scotorum." 



Fig. 3.— obv. ALEXANDER REX 

 rev. WA/TER/ONF/RE : 



The legends on this variety are mostly imperfect, the die having 

 failed on " ONE." 



Fig. 4. — obv. Same as last, but- after REX 

 rev. WAL/TER/ONF/RES 



