Dr. Smith on the Irish Coins of Henry the Seventh. 51 



here, had not Simon remarked, that "this last Act (15 Edw. IV.) seems to hint, 

 that some kind of money was coined here In this reign, (Henry IV.,) as well as 

 in that of Henry V."* He also conjectures that the great scarcity of money in 

 England seems to have been a reason for coining the more money in Ireland, 

 and therefore believes that the groats, figs. 56, 57, 58, 59, 60 in his 3rd Plate, 

 belong to Henry the Fifth. 



The Act of 1475, from which Simon drew his Inference, ordains " that the 

 coin called the gross, made in the reigns of Edward the Third, &c., not clipped, 

 shall be of the value of six denlers. The gross made in England in the time of 

 the present king, not clipped, shall pass for five denlers, and all the moneys struck 

 in Ireland to be of the same value as they now are^-f 



The latter part of this extract Is the only passage in the Act which could 

 give any support to his opinion ; but it appears to me to have reference only to 

 the numerous coins of various types, " struck in Ireland" in the first fifteen 

 years of Edward's reign, during which period his Irish money was considerably 

 less in value than his English.J 



In 1421, the ninth year of Henry the Fifth, in a parliament held at Dublin, 

 before James Earl of Ormond, the Lords and Commons agreed to send a peti- 

 tion to the king, praying for the redress of several grievances. The petition 

 contains nineteen articles, the third of which prays, " that certain money be 

 struck in Dublin as in England, and that the necessary officers, moneyers, &c., 

 be appolnted."§ 



From this evidence it is probable, that no legal money was coined in Ireland 

 for some time previous to the date of the petition, and it leaves no grounds what- 

 ever for Simon's appropriation of any Irish coins to Henry the Fifth, who died 



* Essay on Irish Coins, p. 19. f Simon, Appendix, No. XIV. 



J I am indebted to my learned friend, the Rev. Richard Butler, of Trim, for directing my atten- 

 tion to several important records of the reigns of Henry the Fifth and Sixth, which have hitherto 

 been unknown to writers on Irish coins, and which may be found in the " Rotulorum Patentium et 

 Clausorum Cancellariae Hibernise Calendarium," vol. i. pars I. 



§ " Art. 3. Petunt quod certe monete cudantur in Dublinia sicut in Anglia, cum omnibus 

 officiariis, monetariis, &c., necessariis." — Rot. Pat. 9, Hen. V. cap. 111. 



In the extracts from the Calendar, the words in full have been substituted for the contractions, 

 which it would be useless and inconvenient to retain. 



g2 



