325 
“In the month of April, 1852, a few coins were found 
near Pettigoe, in the County of Fermanagh; Mr. Barton, on 
whose property the coins were discovered, left them with Mr. 
Clibborn, who placed them in my hands, and informed me that 
Mr. Barton would be obliged by any information respecting 
them. 
‘The lot consists of fourteen coins—three groats of 
David II., along with nine groats and two half-groats of 
Robert II.; all the groats are of the type of the Edinburgh 
mint, and the half-groats are from the mint at Perth. 
** Scotch coins of an early period are frequently found in 
Ireland, and though many hundreds of them have passed 
through my hands, I never met with or heard of any similar 
to the coins I am about to describe. Ten of those coins are 
forgeries of a very peculiar kind, fabricated with a degree of 
ingenuity well calculated to impose on the rude and ignorant 
people of the fourteenth century. Two of the groats, and the 
two half-groats, are genuine silver coins. The specific gravity 
of one of the groats is 10°6. Each of the false groats consists 
of two very thin discs of silver, having interposed a piece of 
- copper of somewhat smaller diameter, and much thicker than 
the silver, and they seem to have been struck between dies in 
the usual manner. As to the means by which the different 
metals were made to adhere, I found on attempting to separate 
one of the discs of silver from the copper, that it was detached 
without much difficulty, and that the metals had been united 
by solder, which has been corroded at the margin so as to ex- 
‘pose the mode of fabrication. 
o 
ail 
“The dies from which these coins were struck, though 
well executed and bearing a very close resemblance to the 
dies of the genuine coins, retain the marks as if of a file, and the 
surface of the coins has a,streaked appearance. The letters 
are not sharp and well defined like those on the genuine silver 
coins, a defect owing to the want of solidity arising from the 
different metals not being perfectly soldered together. 
¢ 
