Ormonde Halfcrown. S.6545. Obv. Crown above C and R, a line circle around, and a somewhat crude blunt toothed outer border. Only cross of crown touches the inner line circle. Only the tail of the trailing R crosses the circle. A faint triangular pellet divides the C and R. The C has a near Roman top seraph, and no bottom seraph. Rev. Huge bold II, height 15.0mm, and shorter VI, height 11.3mm. All four corners of the IIVI cut across the inner line circle of 25.5mm diameter. Minute central pellet before V. An almost snakelike S with almost parallel Roman seraphs is centered above the II, and almost bisected by the line circle with bottom of top seraph of S just touching the outside of the inner circle. Well formed D, height 3.6mm, with a longer top seraph than bottom seraph, is above right side of V and closer to circle than to the V. Struck on an unusually round sterling plate flan, still showing part of original silver detail on obverse

O’Brien Coin Guide: The Ormonde Money of 1643-44

Introduction The 1642 ‘Lords Justices’ issues were followed in 1643 by a larger (fourth) emergency issue of better made, but still crude, silver coins. These are collectively known as ‘Ormonde Money’ since they were issued by the Lord Justice, the Earl of Ormonde (James Butler) some time between 1643-1644. Ormonde’s active career began in Ireland had begun…

Duke of Ormonde’s gold coinage of 1646-7, Pistole, Dublin, undated, stamped 4dwt 7grs both sides

O’Brien Coin Guide: Introduction to the Emergency Coinages of the Great Rebellion of 1641-52

Introduction Many people think of the Great Rebellion as a two-sided fight – the Irish Catholics versus the Anglo-Irish Protestants … but it was a lot more complicated than that. There were at least five opposing parties during the rebellion, which have been described by Carlyle as follows :- the Catholics of the Pale demanding…

Cork, under Commonwealth authority, Farthing token, overstruck on a Double Tournois of Louis XIII

The Proliferation of Unofficial Irish ‘Farthing Tokens’ in the 17th Century

By the first half of the 17th C, the copper coinage in both Britain and Ireland was in complete disarray. Neither James I nor his son, Charles I, took much interest in providing small denominations and ‘farmed out’ the Royal prerogative of minting copper coins to ‘favourite’ courtiers as patentees – Lords Harington, Richmond, Lennox and Maltravers were the principal…

The Irish Armstrong farthing legend reads as follows :- CAROLVS II D G M B FRA ET HIB REX which translates and expands to :- Charles II by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland

O’Brien Coin Guide: Armstrong’s ‘Patent’ Irish Farthings (1660-61) for Charles II

Upon his restoration to the crown in 1660, King Charles II granted a patent to Sir Thomas Armstrong to ‘coin farthings’ for the next twenty years and all other (unofficial) farthings were to be prohibited.   In 1661, two royal proclamations were issued prohibiting the issuing and use of brass or copper tokens In 1662,…