Dr. Smith on the Irish Coins of Edward the Fmirth. 13 



The weight of these pieces may also be adduced as evidence in favour of the 

 date to which they are referred. It may be presumed that in 1465, when the 

 value of the gold noble was raised one-fifth, that silver was raised in the same 

 proportion in Ireland. And in the same year, the weight of the groat in England 

 was reduced from sixty to forty-eight grains.* 



The groat of 1463 weighed forty-five grains, and was afterwards probably 

 reduced to thirty-six grains. The penny which I have described is well pre- 

 served, and weighs eight grains and a half, which nearly corresponds in propor- 

 tion with the supposed weight of the groat ; and I have already shewn that in 

 the last year of Henry the Sixth the Irish groat was one-fourth less in weight 

 than the English, and that the same relative weights were continued during the 

 first three years of this reign. Hence the weight of the Irish groat of this year, 

 which I suppose to have been thirty-six grains, still bears the same proportion to 

 the English groat, and is exactly one-fourth less.f 



It will presently appear that the value of silver was enormously raised in 



* Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, vol. li. p. 358, 2nd edit. 8vo. 



f The rose was the badge of the House of York, and the sun was first introduced by Edward 

 upon the coins. This impress he adopted in commemoration of an extraordinary appearance in the 

 heavens, immediately before the battle of Mortimer's Cross in Herefordshire, (1461,) where three 

 suns were seen, which shone for a time, and then were suddenly conjoined in one. As Edward 

 was then victorious, he took a sun for his impress, which afterwards stood him in good stead at the 

 battle of Barnet. — Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, vol. ii. p. 359, 2nd edit. Svo. 



" And on Ester day in the mornynge, the xiiij day of Apryl, [1471,] ryght erly, eche of them 

 came uppone otbere ; and ther was suche a grete myste, that nether of them myght see othere 

 perfitely ; ther thei faughte, from iiij. of clokke in the mornynge unto x of clokke the fore-none. 

 And dyverse tymes the Erie of Warwyke party hade the victory, and supposede that thei hade 

 wonne the felde. But it hapenede so, that the Erie of Oxenfordes men hade uppon them ther 

 lordes lyvery, bothe before and behynde, which was a starre withe stremys, wiche (was) myche lyke 

 Kynge Edwardes lyvery, the sunne with stremys ; and the myste was so thycke, that a man myghte 

 not profytely juge one thynge from anothere ; so the Erie of Warwikes menne schott and faughte 

 ayens the Erie of Oxenfordes menne, wetynge and supposynge that thei hade been Kynge Edwardes 

 menne ; andanone the Erie of Oxenforde and his menne cryed 'treasoune ! treasoune !' and fledde 

 awaye from the felde withe viij. c. menne. — And so Kynge Edwarde gate the felde." — Wark- 

 worth's Chronicle, p. 16; edited by J. O'Halliwell, Esq.; printed for the Camden Society: 

 London, 1839. 



