Introduction: Strictly speaking, the 1st Lord Baltimore wasn’t really Irish, although he was a member of the Irish peerage, had an Irish title and and resided on his Irish estates shortly before travelling to the Americas to set up his first colony in Newfoundland. He died just after acquiring the charter for Maryland. However, the…
Bandon in 1641 The rural counties of Leinster, Munster and Ulster were sparsely populated by Protestant settlers that had been given land in recent plantations. In many places, the Catholic tenants that had previously worked the farms were still in the locality and subsisted as landless outlaws (woodkerne, or tories). When rebellion broke out, some…
Introduction In the older literature, these coins are referred to as ‘Kilkenny Money’ but are now, more properly referred to as ‘Confederated Catholic Coinage’ or ‘Rebel Money.’ There are two opinions re who actually these enigmatic coins – one thinks they might have been minted by the Catholic Confederacy in Kilkenny from as early as September 1642…
Background After a brief hiatus of experimentation with a pseudo-republican government under Oliver Cromwell, the English monarchy was reinstated in 1660 but Charles II began his reign with vastly reduced powers, especially in the realm of taxation – responsibility for which had been transferred to Parliament. This was a major restriction on Charles II and…
Background By the mid-17th century, the goldsmith bankers had a virtual monopoly on banking and had made extensive loans to King Charles II. The king was able to do this and circumvent parliament completely via the use of ‘tally sticks’ but there was a natural limit to this debt expansion, i.e. the amount of gold held…
Background The Great Stop of 1672 caused five of the leading London Goldsmiths to go bust, drastically affected nine others, and ‘financially embarrassed over 10,000 wealthy families in England. The Great Stop effectively ended the ‘cosy relationship’ between the king and a small clique of private bankers that thrived on the Crown’s inability to generate…
It is every metal detector’s dream to find something worth a million, although most of them do it for the exercise, the fresh air and the fun they have in researching their smaller finds. Its about the history. I was very surprised and impressed to discover that most detectorists donate their finds to local museums…
Introduction On 23rd October 1680, letters patent were granted to Sir Thomas Armstrong and Colonel George Legge) to manufacture copper halfpennies for use in Ireland for a period of 21 years. They were to be dated 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684 and 1685 but, since Charles II died in 1684, no coins dated 1685 have…
Introduction When James II succeeded his father in 1685, he continued to issue copper halfpennies, albeit via a ‘patent’ like his father did before him. This maintained the flow of small change but the same ‘decades old’ problem persisted with the large proportion of under-weight ‘clipped’ silver in circulation. This might have sufficed for transactions…
Introduction On 6th June 1680, the Lord Lieutenant (The Earl of Arran) issued a proclamation that a new table for the calculation of foreign coin values. This was done in response to the large amount of foreign (non-English) coins that were circulating in Ireland at this time but the monetary challenges that faced Charles II…
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