56 Dr. Smith on the Irish Coins of Henry ike Seventh. 



struck in silver, having the weight of the fourth part of the new gross of Ireland, 

 to be imprinted and inscribed as the new gross."* 



From the grant to Cobbham, in the year 1425, which provides that the money 

 to be made in Dublin shall be of the same weight, allay, and assay, as the silver 

 money made in London, and the appointment in the following year of a moneyer, 

 with an annual salary of one hundred shillings, it is more than probable that some 

 money was coined in Dublin about that time. 



I know of only one coin which I can venture to assign to Henry the Sixth, 

 during the early part of his reign. It has on the obverse, the king's head with 

 an open crown fleury, within a circle of pellets, a star of six rays at the left side 

 of the neck, mint mark a cross, legend henricvs dns hibnie, an annulet at the 

 end of the legend ; reverse, a plain cross with three pellets in each quarter, legend 

 civiTAs DVBLiNiE ; there is an annulet after civi. It weighs twelve grains and a 

 quarter. 



This interesting coin, which is of the highest rarity, and in fine preservation, 

 is in the cabinet of the Rev. J. W. Martin, of Keston, to whom I am indebted 

 for the loan of it and several other Irish coins of great rarity. 



That this coin, which on account of the absence of the tressure on the ob- 

 verse, I believe to be a penny, was struck in the early part of the reign of Henry 

 the Sixth, is very probable ; evidence is now, for the first time, adduced, which 

 proves that in 1425 Irish money was ordered to be made of the same standard 

 as the English money, and the weight of this piece, which is equal to many of the 

 English pennies of Henry the Sixth, and considerably more than the fourth part 

 of any of the Irish groats of Henry the Seventh, which Ibelieve never exceed thirty- 

 two grains, and rarely weigh so much, shows clearly that it must have been 

 coined during the reign of Henry the Sixth. The mint mark is similar to that 

 which occurs on some of the English coins usually assigned to Henry, the annulets 

 also, and the star, are marks which connect it with the same reign. The 



• Simon, Appendix, No. V. 



