Da. Smith on the Irish Coins of Henry the Seventh. 57 



occurrence of the Roman n in three places in the legends of this coin, is very 

 remarkable, I have not seen any other Irish coin from the time of Edward the 

 Third, to that of Henry the Eighth, which has the Roman n in its legend, ex- 

 cept a Dublin groat of the third year of Edward the Fourth.* 



It is very doubtful, whether any money was coined under the authority of 

 the Act of ] 447, in which the provision for a new coinage depended on the 

 coiner being ready against a certain day; and the great scarcity of silver, together 

 with the daily increase of " the Irish money, called the O'Reyley's," mentioned 

 in the Act of 1 4.57, could scarcely have happened, had any legal money been 

 coined in the meantime. 



The Act of 1460 appears to warrant the inference, that if any money was 

 coined in Ireland previous to that time, it must have been similar in type and 

 standard to the penny already described ; for by the same Act, " a proper coyne 

 separate from the coin of England, was with more convenience agreed to be had 

 in Ireland." 



The type and weight of the coins ordered to be made in 1460, are so fully 

 described in the Act, that it would appear there could be little difficulty, in de- 

 termining which coins should be assigned to this date. 



The penny called the " Irelandes d'argent," has not hitherto been dis- 

 covered. The Act which ordered it to be made, came into operation on the 

 17th of March, and on the Monday after Trinity Sunday (8th June), the penny 

 called " Irelandes" was declared to " be utterly void." 



A few copper coins, of the type ascribed in the Act to the half-farthings called 

 " Patricks," have been found, but most of them exceed, by several grains, the 

 weight fixed by the Act. There is onef which I am inclined to appropriate to 

 Henry the Sixth, because it weighs only six grains, and the form of the cross 

 on the reverse is different from that on the heavier coins, which 1 believe were 

 minted early in the reign of Edward the Fourth. 



The type of the groat as described in this Act, agrees so far with some of 

 the coins of Edward the Fourth, that it is still doubtful which of them are to be 

 considered as belonging to Henry. 



Taking for granted that the groat published by Simon (PL III. fig. 61) is 



* See Irish Coins of Edw. IV. PI. I. fig. 18, Trans. R. I. Academy, vol. xix. 

 flbid. PI. I. fig. 15. 



VOL. XIX. h 



