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



The first objection is to the workmanship, of which he says, "comparing 

 those groats assigned by Simon to Henry V., with the undoubted coinages of 

 Edward IV. and Henry VH., I should say that the design and workmanship of 

 the former is so very poor, imperfect, and barbarous, that coming from the same 

 mint of Dublin, I cannot conceive them subsequent to Edward IV., and still less 

 suppose them contemporaneous with those of the arched crown of Henry VII. 

 To me they are evidently the first groats in the Irish series, the workmanship of 

 very rude, ignorant artists, who had very imperfect command of the graver, could 

 design little, and execute less."* 



The appearance of the bust — the form of the letters — the blundered legends 

 — the flat crown — the circle round the head, are all noticed ; and he adds, " I 

 cannot but repeat, that their appearance and fabric appear to me to exclude them 

 altogether from the coinage of Henry VII." 



The appearance of the bust and the workmanship on these coins is certainly 

 very rude ; yet the difference between the coins, " coming from the same mint 

 of Dublin," may, in some measure, be accounted for, by the fact, that Nicholas 

 Flint, who was " sculptor de et pro ferris," in the mint of London, in I486, was 

 made " overseer of the mints of Dublin and Waterford" in 1491j and was suc- 

 ceeded in his office in Dublin, in 1506, by Thomas Galmole alias Archibold, a 

 goldsmith in Dublin. 



" The letters are thin and uncertain" yet when they are compared with those 

 on the rude coins of Henry the Seventh, with the arched crown (see figs. 36, 

 37, 38), it will be admitted, that if they are not identical, they bear a very close 

 resemblance to them. 



" The erroneous legends," are not more remarkable than the blunders which 

 occur on some of the Irish groats of Henry the Eighth,f and are very similar 

 to the legends on figs. 42 and 47, which, in my opinion, are identified with the 

 time of Henry the Seventh, by having the hair in long hanging curls. 



" The crown is quite level," but it is identical with that on the tressured 

 groat (fig. 45), and bears a close resemblance to the crowns on some of the groats 

 described in the first division of the second section. 



" The head is encircled by a mere line, ana not a dotted circle," such, no 

 doubt, appears to be the case on a few of these coins, but on most of them which 



• Lindsay, p. 34. f Ibid. PI. VII. figs. 147, 148. 



