Aidan Keady, WINS#948
Ireland was a relatively late adopter of coinage - prehistoric Irish society didn't use coins and it wasn't until about 995AD that the first coins were minted on the island, by the Vikings of Dublin. The earliest coins were copies of contemporary pennies of English king Aethelred II, in the name of Sithric, king of Dublin. In fact, some of the coins copy Aethelred's name and are identifiable only by the moneyer's name on the reverse. While the first of these coins were well-struck and to the same weight standard as the English coins, later phases saw a decline in weight and workmanship. It's possible that some later issues of bracteate coins were minted by native Irish, but it's uncertain. Striking of coins had probably ceased when the Norman conquest occurred, beginning in 1169.
Space (and lack of knowledge on my part) don't permit to discuss here in detail the next 700+ years of Irish coinage - it is somewhat complicated! Initially, the Irish coins were of the same standard as contemporary British coins - they were issued by the same kings, who were kings (or queens) of Ireland also - but by the mid-15th century they were of a reduced size and silver content. From the reign of Henry VIII onwards, the harp was depicted on all Irish coins and this remains the national symbol on present-day Euro coins. In 1701 the Irish pound was standardised as 12/13ths of a British pound. Following the Act Of Union of 1800, the Irish and British currencies were united in 1826 and no more coins were minted for Ireland until after independence.
The modern-day Irish coinage dates from 1928. After independence in 1922, it was decided to strike a new coinage for Ireland. A competition was held, judged by a committee headed by playwright W.B. Yeats. The designs of Percy Metcalfe were unanimously chosen and became the basis for the coins from 1928 until the introduction of the Euro in 2002. The coins were interesting in that they didn't feature the king on the obverse (though Ireland initially had Dominion status, the same as Canada) and while British and Irish coins both circulated in Ireland, some Irish coins had different metal compositions and sizes to their British counterparts:
In February, 1971 Ireland and the UK introduced decimal coins. The Irish decimal coins - 1/2p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 50p - started off the same sizes and compositions as their UK equivalents, but the later-introduced 20p (1986) and £1 (1990) were different in size and composition to the UK coins. Further, in the 1990s, the sizes of the 5p and 10p (which corresponded to the pre-decimal shilling and florin) were reduced and the Irish coins ended up larger than the UK coins. Finally, the UK 50p was reduced in size, while the Irish one continued at its original size until the adoption of the Euro and Euro coins. In 1979, the link to sterling was broken and the Irish pound became a currency in its own right.
Everyone likes to scan their change for rare coins, so what's rare in Irish coins? :D
The "classic" Irish rarities are the 1943 florin and halfcrown - this was the last year in which silver coins were minted (apart from the 1966 10 shilling coin, a one-year only commemorative) and most were melted without being issued. However, some got into circulation. The florins are extremely rare - maybe 40 known, not noticed until 1968!, while there are a few hundred halfcrowns.
There are two known 1938 pennies and one 1938 halfcrown - one penny was sold for £40,000 a few years ago, while the other penny and the halfcrown are in the museum. The name of the country was changed from Saorstát Éireann to Éire as a result of the 1937 constitution and the 1938 coins were trial strikings in preparation for large-scale minting in 1939.
For decimal coins, the 1985 20p is extremely rare - it was introduced to circulation in 1986, but a small number were minted in 1985 and supplied to vending machine operators for testing and of course some weren't returned. These sell for thousands when they appear.
In fact, many Irish pre-decimal coins are hard to obtain in EF condition - the 1937 halfcrown (40,000 minted) is regarded as being as rare as the 1943 in EF+ condition.
The oldest book on Irish coins I know of is Simon's "Essay on Irish Coins" from 1749, re-published with additions by Snelling in 1810:
The standard catalogue nowadays is Spink's "Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands: Including Anglo-Gallic Coins". This gets updated about once a decade.
For a good understanding of Irish coinage in its historical context, Edward Colgan's "For Want of Good Money" is heartily recommended:
The best website is John Stafford-Langan's: www.irishcoinage.com
See below also for two books published by the Numismatic Society of Ireland.
The museum section is brief - the only significant collection I can recall seeing is in the National Museum - Decorative Arts and History. This is in the former Collins Barracks, an army barracks from 1704 until 1997 and part of the National Museum since. There's a good collection of military bits and pieces, including a Vampire jet trainer 'plane (apart from a couple of ministerial transports, the Irish air corps no longer has any jets), clothes, silver and of course coins - the coin exhibition is called Airgead - the Irish word for silver and money.
The glory days for Irish coin collectors were the 1970s - there was an Irish-produced monthly magazine, "Irish Numismatics", and a number of bricks and mortar coin shops in Dublin. The magazine is fondly remembered and back issues are sought-after (a recent full set was sold for €600!), but it and the shops are gone. The only remaining coin shop I know of is a small one in George's St. Arcade - Lir Coins. There was a shop in the city centre which had some modern coins - Cathedral Stamps - but it has moved to the suburbs and has little of interest to me except some 2x2s and maybe a book on Euro coins.
Nowadays, we see the local dealers at coin fairs - there are usually three coin fairs a year in Dublin - in February, April and October. The April fair is a 1-day affair, the others are 2- or 3-day shows which usually attract some international dealers with some ancient coins. Most shows are in the RDS halls in Ballsbridge, though the most recent February fair was organised by a US-based dealer and held in the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan and it's planned to have an October fair there too. There are also less regular fairs in Belfast and some coin dealers attend George's Market in Belfast on Fridays. Some Irish auction houses hold coin sales - Whyte's is probably the largest local auction house and held a major sale of Irish coins in 2000. Dublin Coin Auctions holds regular auctions of coins - two a year, I believe.
The Numismatic Society of Ireland (NSI) was founded in 1961 and has an aim 'To advance the study of, and foster interest in, numismatics and in particular, Irish Numismatics'.
It has a nationwide membership and holds monthly meetings in Dublin from September to May. Typically, meetings have around 20 attendees, except for the annual auction held in December, which attracts a larger attendance. In Northern Ireland, there's the "NSI Northern Branch" which holds meetings in Belfast - members from the Northern Branch regularly attend Dublin meetings and vice versa (though we are not so regular in travelling north). Most meetings feature a talk, with members or guest speakers making a presentation for an hour or so, with the finer points teased out in the bar afterwards. As well as the December auction meeting, there are a couple of special meetings - a display competition in January and a "Show and tell" in September, when members can bring along their acquisitions from over the summer break and impress everyone present.
As well as the display competition, there is an annual essay competition - each competition has prizes of the society's silver and bronze medals - this is an example of the silver medal, weighing 50.8g.
The society has two publications - a bulletin, which is roughly quarterly, with short articles and items of news and reports on the meetings - and a journal - Occasional Papers - which appears more occasionally, as the name suggests. The latter publishes longer articles of a more scholarly bent. The first issues were in the 1960s and there was a break in publication for some years, but it now appears with greater regularity under an energetic publications editor. In recent years, two books have been published by the society - "Tavern Tokens", based on the collection and work of Fr Rice, now in its second edition, in colour, hardback and with additional tokens added, and the new "Gunmoney" by Phil Timmins, a guide to the emergency money produced to fund James II's war with William III in 1689/1690. The latter has already almost sold out and may well spur interest in collecting the series.
Details of both books are on the bottom of the page of the Numismatic Society's website.
The last society activity, in July 2018, was a recreation of a 1968 "Numismatic Pub Crawl", which visited pubs which had issued tavern tokens in the 19th century. The intrepid pioneers of 1968 visited at least 11 pubs (the chronicler of the expedition lost count), while our 2018 edition only managed 4 pubs, finishing with the presentation of a framed token to the proprietor of Brannigan's - known as the General Post Office Tavern when it issued tokens.