Less warlike than either his father or grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years’ War that Edward III had started. There was war in Connacht between the O’Connors, in 1384, and fierce hostility continued for years after between the families of the O’Connor Don (Brown) and the O’Connor Roe (Red) In…
Introduction: Edward IV was the King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was the first Yorkist King of England and most of the Irish Norman families (most notably, the Fitzgeralds of Desmond and Kildare) seem to have supported him, despite the Lancastrian…
Introduction: At a meeting of his Irish Parliament in Drogheda in 1460, Henry VI declared (via his Lord Lieutenant, Richard, Duke of York) that a separate currency (silver coins) be struck in Ireland at the castles of Dublin and Trim and that it would be known as Irlandes d’argent (Irish silver). He further declared that the…
In 1530 Catholic Irish owned 100% of the land in Ireland. By 1703 they only owned 14% of the land in Ireland. Whether Gaelic Irish/Old English-owned, or New English-owned, the tenants were mostly subsistence farmers who struggled to pay predatory rents. Since the Elizabethan and various Stuart plantations and, more recently, the Cromwellian and Williamite…
Anne was the Protestant full sister to Mary II, wife of William III, and she was crowned shortly after William’s death on 8 March 1702. Her marriage to Prince George of Denmark & Norway was arranged in the early 1680’s with a view to developing an Anglo-Danish alliance to contain Dutch maritime power. Her uncle (Charles…
Introduction: Sir Isaac Newton is, perhaps, best known as an English physicist and mathematician who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, first published in 1687, laid the foundations for classical mechanics Newton made…
Introduction These items are unusual insofar as they fall into several categories, i.e. coin tokens, unofficial notes. Either way, they are ‘para-numismatic’ items and are also collected by those interested in militaria, republican memorabilia and banknotes. They were produced for use in the Ballykinlar Internment Camp in Co Down towards the end of the Irish…
Introduction The impending war in Europe was of major concern to Ireland and most politicians were worried that a war in Europe would re-open the wounds of our own Civil War of 1922-23. The 1930’s were difficult for Ireland :- There were pro- and anti-fascist movements in Ireland and the IRA continued to pursue its own…
Background It is generally agreed that the first coins used in Ireland for trade purposes were those imported by the Dublin vikings in the mid-10th C and that these coins comprised a mixture of mainly Anglo-Saxon, with some European and Islamic (Kufic) coins also turning up in hoards and single finds. However, one pound (240…
2018 Market Values Ireland / Eire The normal edge for these coins is a milled edge with an ‘engrailed’ pattern which is added after the milling. Coins exist without fully ‘engrailed edges’ for all years. Most of these have two small groves in the milling at two opposite points where the ‘engrailing’ machinery started but…
The Old Currency Exchange is a specialist dealer and valuer of Irish & GB coins, tokens and banknotes 