14 Dr. Smith on the Irish Coins of Edward the Fourth. 



Ireland in 1467 ; and it is probable that so great a change was not suddenly 

 adopted, but was rather preceded by the reduction I have supposed. 



There is a small copper coin, of which only two or three specimens are 

 known, and it presents some difficulties in assigning it to its proper place in this 

 series. Obverse, a shield, bearing three crowns, two above, and one below ; 



mint mark, a rose ; legend, edwardvs d Reverse, a cross, having a small 



rose in its centre ; and in each quarter of the cross three rays, which, with the 

 four arms of the cross, present the appearance of a sun of sixteen rays, as on 

 the coins of 1465 ; legend, civitas dvblinie : it weighs nine grains. — (PI. I. 

 fig. 21.) 



A coin of this type, in the cabinet of the Dean of St. Patrick's, has on the 

 reverse civitas dvblin ; it evidently is not from the same die as the coin just 

 described. 



The value of this piece, concerning which no record has been discovered, 

 may be supposed to have been a farthing, for its weight corresponds with that of 

 the copper farthings minted in 1463. 



Mr. Lindsay conjectures that this coin was struck about the latter end of 

 this reign,* but the analogies of its type induce me to fix its date about the year 

 1467j the only period at which the sun, with a small rose in its centre, appears 

 on the reverse of the coins of this reign. The three crowns on the shield will 

 be explained in the fourth section. 



1467. The next coinage of which any record exists, took place in the seventh 

 year of this reign. Of this coinage, which comes within the second division of 

 the Hiberno-English type, only one specimen was known to Simon. — (PI. IV. 

 fig. 72.) Snelling, in his Supplement to Simon's Essay, published four more, 

 (PI. I. figs. 20, 21, 22, 25,) and remarked that we had no record of them, except 

 from the pieces themselves. Two pieces from the mint of Trim, and one of 

 Drogheda, have been recently discovered, and have added considerably to the 

 interest attached to this very remarkable coinage. 



Mr. Lindsay is of opinion, that the coins published by Snelling were struck 

 in 1467, as their reverses correspond with the description in the Act ; and adds, 



* View of the Coinage, p. 47. 



