Being born in 1960, I am very comfortable with currency changes since during my lifetime I have used three completely different currencies. Of course, there was a subtle change in 1978 when the money in our pockets stayed the same but the banknotes changed design. Although things went on as before in Ireland, our new…
Background From medieval to early modern times, the value of a coin was based on its precious metal content – usually silver. With Ireland split into numerous petty kingdoms, the local ruler would have his own mint with a local moneyer to produce coinage. If a moneyer used less precious metal than was required so…
Piedfort is a term used by numismatists to describe coins specially struck as either gifts or souvenirs by monarchs as far back as the twelfth century in France. In England, the monarchs being of French blood, continued the tradition – most notably by Edward I, who issued extra thick silver pennies. Since minting coins was…
The Old Currency Exchange is a specialist dealer and valuer of Irish & GB coins, tokens and banknotes 