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



portions of four, two, and one, or in other words, groats, half-groats, and 

 pennies. 



The groat of this tjrpe rarely exceeds thirty, and never, I believe, thirty-two 

 grains, a circumstance which cannot be reconciled with the Act of 1483, by 

 which the penny was ordered to be made of the weight of twelve grains, or in 

 the proportion of 450 to the pound Tower. Groats are not mentioned in this 

 Act. 



The coins without the Fitzgerald arms, were probably minted in the Castle 

 of Trim, during the administration of Henry Lord Grey, in 1478; and those 

 with the Fitzgerald arms were coined at the same place in the following years, 

 under the authority of Gerald Earl of Kildare. The half-groat of Dublin, fig. 

 87, was probably minted by Germyn Lynch, in 1479. 



It now only remains to offer some explanation of the meaning of the device 

 of the three crowns, which has given rise to various conjectures. 



Fynes Moryson, when enumerating the old coins which circulated in Ireland, 

 says, "Also they had silver groats, called Cross- Keale groats,* stamped with 



• As the meaning of this word, in its application to the groats, has not, I believe, been hitherto 

 accounted for, I venture to offer an explanation of it. Reflecting on the subject, it occurred to me 

 that the term was applied by the native Irish to the coin in reference to some peculiarity in the 

 device, as several instances are well known in which coins obtained popular names, having a relation 

 to their type, e. g. Rial or Royal, Angel, Harpers, &c. 



As soon as I had made this conjecture, I expected to find its explanation in the Irish language ; 

 and on asking an Irish scholar the meaning of Cross- Keale, (cpoc caol,) he without hesitation 

 informed me it was " slender cross." The fitness of this name will be evident, on contrasting the 

 cross on one of the three-crown groats with any of the coins of the English type, or those described 

 in the first and second sections. 



About this time, my attention was directed to a paper published in volume xv. of the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Irish Academy, by Mr. Hardiman, in which I found that the term " Cross- 

 Keale money" was used in Ireland so early as 1419, in the reign of Henry the Fifth : " 18 marks 

 Cross- Keale money, with a penny addition in every groat," being mentioned as part of the payment 

 of a mortage. — Hardiman, p. 50. 



This circumstance at first appeared to set aside the reasonableness of my conjecture, but when 

 I compared several groats belonging to the Henrys, I found those of Calais, with the " cross-cross- 

 let" mint mark, were remarkable for the slender cross on the reverse, which served well to distin- 

 guish them from others as well as those of Edward the Third, which have a much broader cross, 

 and they are all found in abundance in Ireland. The accompanying outlines of the reverses of two 



