393 



"The study of coins and medals," says Doctor Walsh in his too short 

 notice of those that illustrate the progress of Christianity, (p. 5,) " is 

 recommended to our attention by many interesting circumstances, as 

 displaying the most unerring and best preserved monuments of ancient 

 art, as conveying to us the dress of the times to which they belong, as 

 bringing us acquainted with the features and character of the persons 

 they represent, and above all, as illustrating the events which occurred 

 at the period of their impression, and so being the standards of history 

 and the testimony of its truth or falsehood." The great length of this 

 Essay, however, compels us to be very brief upon a subject not strictly 

 within the limits of the question. 



,,. The earliest mints alleged by the Irish Annals were said to have 

 been erected at Armagh and Cashel in the time of Saint Patrick, and 

 there are very strong reasons to conclude that " there must have been 

 a great deal of wealth and treasure in Ireland, to have allured the 

 Ostmen and Normen to have invaded it so often ; it was * * * 

 money they most sought, for, as the Bua Saga expresses, they used to 

 enter into partnerships upon oath to exercise their piracies," " qu^ 

 pecuniam sibi honorifice qU(£siveru7itJ"* In this period it will be re- 

 membered the Ulster Annals speak of the plunder of Clonmacnois in 

 921 , as " praedam ingentem auri et argenti et pretiosa plurima.""!- Eirik 

 in 940 is said to have acquired much wealth and riches by plundering 

 Ireland, (" opes sibi €t divitias comparavit.")* The Annals of Ulster 

 in 950 mention the plunder obtained by the Danes from several Irish 

 churches, as " praeda boum equorum auri argenti que. "J In 962 a 

 charitable Irishman ransomed captives with his own money, {^^ pro- 

 priis pecuniis redemit,")§ while Sturlesonius remarks that all who wit- 



* Ante, p. 264. f -^w'*' P- 263. 



X Ante, f. 266. ^ Ante^p. 261. 



