The First Coins Minted in Ireland It is fairly well accepted that Sihtric, Hiberno-Norse King of Dublin was the first to mint coins in his own name in Ireland. To date, all 7 phases of Hiberno-Norse coin production in Ireland have been attributed to Dublin rulers. But, who brought the first coins into Ireland and…
Long before the introduction of struck coinage into ancient Celtic Europe, copper and gold rings were used as currency by Celtic tribes and were often worn on clothing or tied together by ropes. These particular rings, often referred to as “proto-currency”, were created in ancient Moesia (now Bulgaria) as long ago as 7th century BC.…
In order to understand the ‘situation’ of the Irish Celts and, therefore, theorize as to “why they did not produce coins like their English cousins”, we first need to understand the situation of the English Celtic tribes. By the 2nd century BC (the Late Iron Age in Britain) the locals were trading iron “currency bars”…
Celtic coinage is the most intriguing and varied of all the British coins since no one knows specifically for whom, when or where they were produced. To date, over 45,000 of ancient British and Gaulish coins have been discovered in Britain and all of these have been recorded at the Oxford Celtic Coin Index, but…
The Year of the Five Emperors (AD 192 – 193) Pertinax The ‘Year of the Five Emperors’ refers to the year AD 193, in which there were five claimants for the title of Roman Emperor – Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus. The year opened with news of the murder of Commodus…
The Nervan-Antonine Dynasty (96–192) The Nerva–Antonine dynasty was a dynasty of seven Roman Emperors who ruled over the Roman Empire from 96 AD to 192 AD. These Emperors were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus. They are probably of great interest to fans of the Gladiator movie but the real history…
The Year of the Four Emperors (68–69) and the beginning of the Flavian Dynasty The suicide of emperor Nero, in AD 68, was followed by a brief period of civil war – the first Roman civil war since Mark Antony’s death in 30 BC. Between June and December of AD 69, Rome witnessed the successive rise and…
The Old Currency Exchange is a specialist dealer and valuer of Irish & GB coins, tokens and banknotes 