Dr. Smith on the Irish Coins of Henry the Seventh. 71 



Fig. 36 has the legend henric dei gra rex anlie fr, and on the reverse 

 civiTAs dvbline; the motto appears to have been intended for posvi devm 



ADIVTORIVM. 



The legend on fig. 37 is henries dei gra ries anli, and on the reverse 



CIVITAS DVBILINI. 



On fig. 38 the legends are henries di gr — rex a e, and civitas 



DVBLINIE. 



I do not know of any half-groats of this type. 



The penny, fig. 39, has on the obverse a double-arched crown, and the letter 



H under it, the legend is henr ; reverse, a cross pierced at each extremity, 



and the legend civitvs , it weighs five grains and a half. 



The pierced cross on this curious little piece, connects it with the coins in 

 this section, but it is more particularly identified with them, by the form of the 

 H in the king's name, which seems to be identical with the first letter in the 

 legend on the obverse of fig. 38. 



It is difficult to account for the peculiarities of this penny. The artist per- 

 haps did not possess sufficient skill to execute a head on so small a scale, and as a 

 substitute for it, transferred the initial of the king's name from the reverse to 

 the obverse, the crovra on which, resembles that on the coins in the first section, 

 while the arches are the same as on the groat, fig. 34. 



The arched crown, the long hanging curls, and the cross fourchee on the 

 reverse, all concur in establishing the appropriation of these groats to Henry. It 

 is now admitted, that the plain cross was not abandoned on the English coins 

 until some time after the accession of Henry the Seventh ; and in the Scotch 

 series it does not appear, that the cross fourchee was adopted prior to the reign 

 of James the Fourth, who was contemporary with Henry ; nor does any instance 

 of it occur on the numerous coins struck in Ireland during the reigns of Edward 

 the Fourth and Richard the Third, while it invariably occurs, more or less 

 modified, on all the Irish coins of Henry the Eighth; hence I conclude that these 

 coins were struck subsequent to the arched-crown groats described in the second 

 section, and the idea of placing the initial of the king's name on the reverse may 

 have been derived from Rotherham's penny.* The rude manner in which they 

 are executed makes it probable that they were not the work of an English artist, 



* See p. 67. 



