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



Snelling, In his Supplement to Simon,* has published two halfpennies of this 

 coinage, but has omitted to state their weight. 



The Act of the first year of Richard the Third, which Simon speaks of as 

 defaced by time and vermin, and which, as Mr. Lindsay remarks, " is evidently 

 composed of parts of two Acts, and relate to coins of a very different descrip- 

 tion,"! enables me to fix the date of these coins in the year 1470. 



In the first year of Richard, the master of the mint was authorized to make 

 coins "in such manner and in such places, as is ordained by a Statute" of the 

 tenth year of Edward the Fourth.J Now there are groats of Richard which 

 correspond in every particular, except the king's name, with those of Edward ; 

 and my opinion as to their date, is supported by the fact of their deficiency in 

 weight, for in 1472, Germyn Lynch, master of the mints in Ireland, was indicted, 

 " for that when the Statute said, that every pound of bullion coined, should be 

 forty-four shillings in money, he coined out of every pound forty-eight shillings, 

 and that he coined at Drogheda one thousand groats, which being tried, it was 

 found that eleven weighed but three quarters of an ounce,"§ instead of an ounce; 

 so that the average weight of the groats was a little more than thirty grains, 

 which agrees nearly with the weight of those now in existence. 



There are several Dublin pennies which were probably coined about this 

 time ; they rarely exhibit the legends entire, but may be readily recognized by 

 their reverses, which bear a cross, having a small rose in its centre, and the legend 

 civiTAs DUBLIN. In the quarters of the cross, there are alternately two roses and 

 a sun, and two suns and a rose, instead of pellets, as in the coins of the next 

 section. — (PI. II. figs. 35, 36.) The former weighs nine grains, the latter only 

 six. 



The penny, fig. 37, is remarkable for the legend on its obverse, ed . . . di 

 GRA REX NGi F : it Weighs nine grains and a half. 



THE THIRD SECTION. 



The coins included in this section are similar in type to the English coins of 

 Edward. 



» 



Plate I. figs. 23, 24. f Lindsay, p. 47. 



X Simon, Appendix, No. XVIII. § Simon, p. 27, 



