Date: 1643-44

Description:

Ormonde Money Groat, small lozenge between CR; with tall, thin numerals and medium-sized ‘D’ on the reverse.

• Weight: 1.73 g

References: S. 6548. D&F 304

Well-struck on a partial flan. Lots of wear & tear, plus a few knocks – suggesting substantial circulation. Despite the substantial wear and damage, this coin is a good representation of its type.

• Near Very Fine (aVF)
• Toned.

Obverse:

• Crowned C·R (for Charles Rex) within a double circle
  • Small lozenge between the ‘C’ and ‘R’
  • Crown: small, taller than usual with cross at top crossing the inner circle.
  • C: small, somewhat cruder and connected by a die break to the crown.
  • R: smaller, the leg is very light

Reverse:

• Roman numeral IIII (denoting four pence, or groat) within a double circle
  • Tall, thin numerals, with medium-sized ‘D’ above
    
  • IIII: thin unequal numerals that are not entirely parallel or in line; the serifs all join.
  • D: mid-sized, centered above the denomination, slanted slightly left.

Country:

• Ireland

Category:

• Anglo-Norman
  • House of Stuart
• Charles I
  • Ormonde Money
  • Also known as:
    • Coins of Necessity
    • Siege Money
• Hammered

 

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Notes:

The ‘Ormonde money’ is so called because it was supposed to have been issued during the Viceroyalty of James, Marquis of Ormonde, who first received his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on the 17^th November, 1643, and was sworn into office the 21^st January following. He was later created Duke of Ormonde and was considered a Royalist – therefore being the enemy of both the Confederate Catholics in Ireland and Cromwell’s Parliamentarians in England during the (simultaneously fought) Great Irish Rebellion and the English Civil War, respectively.

On the 25^th May, 1643, a letter was issued at Oxford by the King, in which he directed his Lords Justices in Ireland to encourage his Majesty’s loyal subjects to bring in their plate to the treasury that it might be coined

“into small peeces, to the value of five shillings, halfe-crowns, twelve-pences, six-pences, or of any less value, which several small peeces they shall make of the same weight, value and allay, as our moneys now currant in England of those value respectively are, and shall stamp the same on the one side, with these letters, C. K. for Carolus King, with a crown over those letters, and on the other side with the values of the said several peeces respectively.”    

This broke with the traditional ‘best practise’ whereby Irish silver was valued at less than its English equivalent in order to stop it from flooding out of the country.

 

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Other Coins in the Series:

• The Old Currency Exchange: Checklist of Tudor & Stuart Irish Coinages

Further Reading:

• Irish Coinage during the reign of King Charles I
• Patent Farthings:
• O’Brien Coin Guide: Richmond ‘Patent’ Farthings (1625-34)
• O’Brien Coin Guide: Maltravers ‘Patent’ Farthings (1634-36)
• O’Brien Coin Guide: Maltravers ‘Rose’ Farthings (1636-49)
• Emergency Issues / Siege Money / Coins of Necessity:
• O’Brien Coin Guide: Introduction to the Emergency Coinages of the Great Rebellion of 1641-49
  • Timeline 1640 – Prologue to Rebellion in Ireland & Civil War in England
  • Timeline 1641 – The Great Rebellion breaks out in Ireland
  • Timeline 1642 – The Great Rebellion in Ireland & Civil War in England
• O’Brien Coin Guide: The Ormonde Money of 1643-44
• O’Brien Rare Coin Review: The Confederate Catholic ‘Rebel Money’ Coinage of 1642-43
• O’Brien Rare Coin Review: The Ormonde Gold ‘Pistole’ of 1646
• O’Brien Rare Coin Review: Coinage of the Cities of Refuge (Bandon 1646-49)
  • Blog Post – Selected Biographies of the Great Irish Rebellion & English Civil War
  • Blog Post – The Proliferation of Unofficial Irish ‘Farthing Tokens’ in the 17th Century