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…
![17th century Irish tradesmens' tokens - Dublin, Lazey Hill, Nic[holas] Delone, Penny](https://oldcurrencyexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/dublin-lazey-hill-nicholas-delone-penny.jpg?w=220&h=126&crop=1)
Although manufactured and used over 350 years ago, many of these tokens were issued with pretty much the same form of English as we use nowadays, with a few notable exceptions to their alphabet and spelling, e.g. The letter “U” is always represented by the letter “V”, e.g. DVBLIN There was no letter “J” in…
Kosovo is a fertile region lying just to the northeast of Albania, in central former Yugoslavia. It is one of the earliest settlements by the Slavic people who later became the Serb nation – one of the reasons the hard-line nationalists in Serbia were so determined to include it as part of a Greater Serbia during…
In 1971, Ireland decimalised its currency in parallel with the UK. We did this because we were tied to the UK Pound at that time and, of course, all of our coins were minted at the Royal Mint in the UK. Decimalisation also brought all of our coins back in line with the UK coin…
The one euro coin (€1) is the new basic unit of currency for the Euro Zone – an area where a common currency (the Euro) is used. This new economic area was implemented on 1st January 2002 when 12 national currencies of varying values were replaced with new coinage and banknotes. The rates of exchange were…
These sets are similar to the coins that circulate but are struck on specially produced, highly polished flans (also known as blanks, or planchets). The Central Bank of Ireland has maintained their conservative approach to the issue of proof sets and, to date, only seven sets have been made available for collectors to purchase. The…
At present, in Ireland, it is illegal to use a metal detector without a license and these licenses are very difficult to obtain + very restrictive in terms of where one can use a metal detector. At face value, it is a common sense law designed to protect Ireland’s rich archaeological heritage from vandals, looters…
The Central Bank of Ireland acts as agent for the Minister for Finance in issuing all Irish coin, both circulating and commemorative and has been actively involved in the issuance of Irish collector coin products to mark specific events in Irish history of significant national importance or celebrate national treasures. They usually issue just one…
In 1971, Ireland decimalised its currency in parallel with the UK. We did this because we were tied to the UK Pound at that time and one of the more unusual mathematical aspects of decimalisation was that both countries set the conversion rate for the new penny at 2 or 3 old pennies. One new…
In 1971, Ireland decimalised its currency in parallel with the UK. We did this because we were tied to the UK Pound at that time and one of the more unusual aspects of decimalisation was that both countries adopted a ‘non-decimal’ fraction of the basic unit (100 new pence = one pound), i.e. a decimal…
The Old Currency Exchange is a specialist dealer and valuer of Irish & GB coins, tokens and banknotes 