212 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



red are usually designated as of the Irish type. On the other hand, coins of 

 this type, both bi-lateral and uni-lateral, of the rudest manufacture, and without 

 letters, are found abundantly in Ireland, and obviously claim a higher antiquity. 

 With .respect to these rude coins, we must therefore come to either of the two 

 following conclusions : first, that they were imitations by the Irish princes of 

 the better minted money of the Danes, and consequently of cotemporaneous or 

 later date ; or, secondly, that the type of the well-minted Danish and Irish coins 

 of the tenth century was derived from this ruder and more ancient original. 

 This latter conclusion appears to me to possess by far the greater probability, 

 because we cannot adopt the former without supposing the Irish, at the time 

 of the first Danish irruptions, not only to have been inferior to their invaders in 

 their knowledge of the arts of civilized life, but also, to have been unable to 

 keep up with them in the progress which they subsequently made, a conclu- 

 sion, which, though hitherto generally adopted, is utterly opposed to every thing 

 that history tells us respecting the civilization of the two nations. It should 

 also be borne in mind, that, from the intercourse carried on by the Irish with 

 the Saxons, whom they converted to Christianity, as well as with the French, 

 Belgians, and Germans, they must have been intimate with the various arts as 

 practised amongst these nations ; and that, as we know that they were at 

 least equally acquainted with literature and the fine arts, and that their very 

 celebrity in the former caused their country to be visited, for the purpose of 

 instruction, by many of the most distinguished in those nations for rank and 

 love of learning, it would be strange indeed if they should have been ignorant 

 of the use of minted money, then common amongst those nations, or that, know- 

 ing, they should have neglected to adopt it. 



I am aware that it may be objected that the Irish at this period used for 

 money rings of gold and silver, and ingots of various forms and degrees of weight; 

 and I am far from denying that this description of money, which was, no doubt, 

 derived from a very remote period, was continued in Ireland even to the close 

 of the twelfth century. This, indeed, is a fact established by all our ancient 

 authorities, and particularly by our authentic Annals and Brehon Laws, as an 

 example will sufficiently prove. Thus in the following record, in the Annals 

 of the Four Masters, the payment of fines by weight is distinctly recorded : 



" A. D. 1029. GrhlaoiB, mac Sfqiiocca, ci^eapna firM, DO epjabail DO macjarhcun Uu 



