Portrait of King Charles II, by John Riley

Monetary Crisis (1660), as Charles II Fixes Exchange Rates for Foreign Coins in Ireland

Introduction Though fresh attempts were being made in the reign of Charles II to strengthen Britain’s currency, these efforts did not prevent the monetary crisis of the 1680s which saw a fast decline of England’s currency on the international exchange markets. The basic unit of account was the pound sterling defined as the equivalent of 240 pennies…

1929 £10 Consolidated Banks - Provincial Bank of Ireland (front) Unc

O’Brien Rare Banknote Review: Ploughman Notes (Provincial Bank of Ireland)

Introduction The Provincial Bank of Ireland was established in 1825, pioneered branch banking in Ireland. The terms, rights and privileges of the Bank of Ireland allowed it to effectively strangle the development of banking in Ireland until the Irish Banking Crisis that followed the post-Napoleonic War Depression. The Bank of Ireland effectively held a monopoly…