The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

XIII.
NOTES ON A FORBES PENNY OF ALEXANDER II.
I SEND for inspection a long double cross penny of Alexander
II. of Scotland, struck at the Forres mint. The
coin is of extreme rarity, and I know of only two other
specimens, both of which are now in a cabinet in Renfrew-
shire. In all three the moneyer is WALTGR,, but in
the coin now submitted the name of the mint is more
distinctly rendered than in the others, and appears as
FUGS. Whether these four letters are intended to represent
in full the ancient name of the modern town of
Forres, or are simply a contraction of it, I cannot say, but
from inquiries made, I find that in old records the town
occasionally appears as " Fores," thus showing but an
additional letter, viz., 0, in the spelling. There is no
other Scottish mint to which these coins can be attributed ;
and as Alexander II. was for some time in Forres (where
he held courts), and as the combination of letters FUGS,
when pronounced with a stress upon the second letter,
gives a very fair sounding of the modern name Forres, it