2018 Market Values Ireland (Éire) US Grades G VF 20 XF40 AU50 MS61 YEAR Mintage Good Fine Very Fine Ex. Fine Uncirculated 1971 100,500,000 face face face face €1.00 1974 10,000,000 face face face face €5.00 1975 10,000,000 face face face face €5.00 1976 38,200,000 face face face face €2.00 1978 …
Introduction The first phase of the Hiberno-Norse coinages were imitations of contemporary Anglo-Saxon coins. They were produced in Dublin but closely copied the style of the silver pennies of Aethelred II of England and his successor Cnut. Since the English coin designs changed periodically, the dating and sequence of their Hiberno-Norse equivalents can be identified…
2018 Market Values Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) US Grades G VF 20 XF40 AU50 MS61RB YEAR Mintage Good Fine Very Fine Ex. Fine Uncirculated 1928 9,000,000 face €0.75 €1.50 €7.00 €20.00 proof €40.00 1931 2,400,000 face €1.25 €2.25 €15.00 €35.00 proof €1,250.00 1933 1,680,000 face €1.50 €2.75…
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…
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…
William Wood was the owner of several copper and tin mines in England and he hoped to make a large profit via the production of coins for use in Ireland and America. During the first half of 1722 King George I’s mistress (who had followed him over from Germany), the Duchess of Kendal, obtained a…
The ‘chickless’ variety is probably a die flaw caused by normal ‘wear and tear’ on the dies during the minting process. This variety has become very popular with collectors over the past decade and some claim to have evidence of “progressive wear across several examples of 1968 pennies” leading to a chickless coin. The most…
The first locally produced Irish coinage was the so-called Hiberno-Norse coinage which was first minted in Dublin in about 995-7 AD under the authority of Sihtric III (aka Sihtric Silkenbeard), the Norse King of Dublin. There is no evidence for the native Irish producing coins before this, so it is likely that their economy was not coin-based. The…
The penny (1d) (Irish: pingin) coin was the third smallest denomination of the pre-decimal Irish pound. There were 12 to a shilling, 24 to a florin and 240 to a pound. To express an amount, penny was abbreviated to “d”, e.g. shortened from dwt, or pennyweight. The penny is one of the longest circulating coin denominations in Europe –…
In 1937, a new constitution declaring Ireland a free state was established and the old designs for the coins of Ireland that featured the legend “Saorstat Eireann” or Irish Free State were changed to “Eire” to reflect the new constitution. The only known 1938 coins to feature that revised legend are: one halfcrown (currently unique…
The Old Currency Exchange is a specialist dealer and valuer of Irish & GB coins, tokens and banknotes 