Publications on Irish Coins and Banknotes

Standard reference works

Coincraft
This catalogue updates some pricing on Irish coins and lists a few new varieties. Available from Coincraft ( www.coincraft.co.uk )

Krause & Mishler
A series of very extensive catalogs on World Coins - The Irish sections are quite limited, but they are the most commonly used reference for most of the series. Most of the prices for the Irish modern coinage are for coins at the top end of their grade range. The prices for pieces in F and VF (except the extreme rarities) are far too high - these coins are readily available for significantly less. The periods covered are 1600-2001.

Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands - Seaby - 1984
Still the standard reference for the coinage - There are some anomalies in the dating - (The heavy issue of Edward IV is still listed as dating from 1470 - the paper dating it to 1465 was published in 1940!). The valuations were still reasonably up to date until about 1997/8 except for the prices for high quality specimens of the rarer pieces which were too low. The pricing for the modern coins doesn't reflect the premium on choice specimens and is too high for medium / low grade modern coins which are generally available significantly below catalog prices in Ireland.

Coins and Tokens of Ireland - Seaby - 1970
This is the previous issue of the Seaby book. The prices are very out of date and of little use except as a reference of relative scarcity. However this book unlike the 1984 issue has a listing of the tokens as well as the coins, which is extremely useful

The Guide Book to the Coinage of Ireland - from 995 AD to the present day - Anthony Dowle and Patrick Finn - Spink - 1969
This book produced before the 1970 Seaby book is still a valuable reference - the prices are very out of date - but are still useful as a guide to relative scarcity. This book takes a different approach to varieties and it contains information not in Seaby about the varieties of some of the later Tudor and seventeenth century coins.

Legal Tender Banknotes - Derek Young - 1972
For a long time the standard reference for the Legal Tender Banknotes - The pricing is completely out of date and doesn't reflect the rarity of some of notes, especially the earlier higher value notes. The catalog stops at 1972. Updates were published by Derek in 'Irish Numismatics' for some years afterwards including the details of the next series of notes introduced between 1976 and 1982.

Consolidated Banknotes of Ireland - Derek Young - 1974
Similar to the publication above - except that it deals with the notes of the Consolidated Banks 'the ploughman notes'.

Irish Banknotes - Irish Government Paper Money From 1928 - Martin Mac Devitt - 1999
This book is a very comprehensive guide to the Banknotes of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland. Martin's book contains all the information that a dedicated collector of the series could want to know. Copies are available from Whyte's . Only 500 copies printed - unfortunately that probably amount to more than the number of serious collectors.

(General world catalogues such as Pick are extremely dangerous to use as a buying price guide for Irish notes because issues with a wide range of prices are covered as a single item meaning that a particular note could be actually worth much more or much less than is listed for its type. Particular care should be taken with low grade examples of high value notes which are often available at much closer to face value than the catalogues indicate)

Selected Bibliography

Roth, B. "The Coins of the Danish Kings of Ireland" - BNJ VI, 1909

O'Sullivan, W. "The Earliest Irish Coinage" - JRSAI LXXIX, 1949

Dolley, M. "The Hiberno-Norse Coins in the British Museum" - SCBI 8, 1966

O'Sullivan, W. "The Earliest Anglo-Irish Coinage" , 1964

Dolley, M. & Seaby, W. "Anglo Irish Coins in the Ulster Museum, Part I, John - Edward III" - SCBI, 1968

Dykes, D. "The Irish Coinage of Henry III" - BNJ XXXII, 1963