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Eadhna Dearg above two hundred ahd fixty years before Chrift, 

 little dependance is to be had on them. If any fuch perfons 

 adually introduced the ufe and knowlcd2;e of money among the 

 ancient Irifh, the period muft have been thrown too far back by 

 fcveral centuries. Nor can we have any greater dependance on 

 the affertions of other Irifh hiftorians, that mints were ereded aX 

 Ardmagh and Cafhel in the time of Laogaire, about the year 

 436 or 460. 



The Irifli chiefs becoming acquainted with the filver money of 

 the Danes and Anglo Saxons, foon thought of ftriking coins for 

 themfelves ; and accordingly either procured their own people to 

 be inftruded in the art, or hired Danifh artificers for that purpofe. 

 Indeed no great abilities were required, the art of coinage during 

 the middle ages being extremely fimple, and v/ell adapted to the 

 convenience of men leading a vagrant and unfettled life ; a fmall 

 portable anvil, with the face of the coin funk en creux on the 

 top, and a hammer, on the face of which was funk the reverfe, 

 with a pair of pincers, compofed nearly the whole of the appa- 

 ratus, as appears from feveral Britifli coins on which the procefs 

 of coining is reprefented. The knowledge of coinage and the 

 ufe of money once introduced into the kingdom, not only every 

 king and chief or governor of a principality, but every dunaft 

 or chief of a canthred, procured money to be-ftruck in his name; 

 even fo late as the fifteenth century the O'Niels coined money in 

 their feveral diftrids, until prohibited by the Englifh. 



From thefe circumfiances there is the greateft probability that 

 no coins hitherto difcovered in Ireland, and of Irifh origin, are 



( T ) older 



