Irish Coinage
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Decimal Catalogue

Catalog of Irish Coin Prices

Irish Decimal Coins 1969 - 2000

Index

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© 2010 - Copyright
John _ Stafford-Langan
Version 1.17a
19th September, 2010

The 1971 coins are generally common as are the 2000 coins. The years in between are generally available but some of the later 1970s and early 1980s dates are difficulto to obtain in brilliant uncirculated condition.

There is one extreme rarity in the series :

• The 1985 trial production 20p

The 1985 halfpenny was produced in circulation quantities but many of these did not get to circulation and were returned to the Central Bank and melted when the coin was demonetised in 1987.  But some coins did escape  and fortunately some of these were used to make up private souvenier sets of the coinage so the coins are not as scarce as was though some years ago and  they are available in bright uncirculated condition. 

In 1986, to coincide with the introduction of the 20 pence piece, the Central Bank issued a 7 coin set of polished specimen coins (sometimes called proofs).  These sets are scarce, and important because three of the coins they contain were not issued in full circulation quantities in 1986.  These are the halfpenny, the 10 pence and the 50 pence.  There appears to have been an over-run in production of the halfpenny and 10 pence as a consequence of which the 1986 10 pence was occasionally found in circulation, the halfpenny had effectively ceased circulating by 1986 so the over-run was probably melted (see the 1985 halfpenny above).  The 1986 50p seems just to have been produced for the sets and does not normally turn up in circulation (and presumably the very few that have been encounterd are from broken sets).

Note : Except for the extreme rarity the decimal coins are generally only of value in Brilliant Uncirculated condition - In US terms that means about MS63 or better. The bronze coins are of little value in Brown Uncirculated condition.

** In 1986 the Central Bank produced a specimen set of normally struck uncirculated coins (often incorrectly referred to as proofs) to coincide with the introduction of the 20 pence coin. As not all denominations were required in circulation quantities the halfpenny, the 10 pence and the 50 pence were only minted in small quantities to facilitate the production of these sets. These denominations and the sets containing them are consequently scarce. Many of the 1986 sets sold into the Irish tourist industry for sale to visitors looking for souvenirs before the local collecting community was aware of their existence - consequently many turn up in the US and Europe.

*** In 1985 prior to the introduction of the new twenty pence piece in 1986 a quantity of coins dated 1985 were struck for testing. Some of these coins escaped being melted down and are in private hands.  I have heard of only a very small number of exchanges of these coin and the prices I have heard for them have varied widely.   I believe that the minimum number identified in collections  (as opposed to sitting gathering dust somewhere without its value being understood but its owner) is four.  I suspect thate the number is somewhat higher than this but certainly the coin is extremely rare and because the original production run was apparently very small with only perhaps 50 coins being released for vending machine testing etc. it is unlikely to turn up in significant quantitiies which is always the 'danger' with assigning high prices to modern rarities.

The mid 70s fifty pence peices (1974-1977) are quite difficult to find in nice uncirculated condition and they are not particularly common in good EF condition, but as with all modern coins with normal mintages it not difficult to find normally circulated specimens.  For this reason I have not allocated a price to the coins below EF grade, but it is certainly possible that one may see them offered for a few euros as 'space fillers'  for collectors who are keen to fill the gap while waiting to find a nicer example.   This is most true of the 50 pence and much less true of the circulated example of the lower denominations.

The 1982 50 pence is surprising difficult to find in nicer grades and even in circulated grades it  appears to be less common than its mintage figures suggest, so there may have be some misreporting of mintages between 1981 and 1983.  This can happen when a mint reports the number of coins struck in a year  but if in the actual circumstances of production some of the coins struck were from older dies (in this case ones dated 1981)  because the dies were still serviceable or if  later dies (in this case dated 1983) were introduced into production early because of  poor performance (i.e excessive cracking) of the correctly dated batch of dies.

The 50 pence also illistrates another (and in this case opposite) example of a circumstance where mintage figures can be misleading.  With the introdution of the 20 pence in 1986 and to a lesser extent the pound coin in 1990 the circulation requirement for 50 pence piece was reduced.  This meant that there was over supply of the coins and the commercial banks did not call on the Central Bank for additional quantities.  In fact they tried to return quantities, with apparently little success.  So a lot of the mint production of 50 pences dated 1988 remained unissued  for quite a long time and even after mintage of 50 pieces began again in 1996 coins dated 1988 were still being issued.  So the 1988 coins of both types are less scarce in uncirculated grades than the mintage and date would suggest.

1990 Proof Pound Coin
 

**** The normal edge for these coins is a milled edge with an an engrailed pattern which is added after the milling. Coins exist without fully engrailed edges for all years. Most of these have two small groves in the milling at two opposite points where the engrailing machinery started but failed to complete. The normal engrailing also shows its two start points quite clearly as short plain sections within the engrailing.

Pieces without fully engrailed edges command a significant premium over normal coins. These coins are not particularly rare, but uncirculated specimens are difficult to obtain.
 

Decimal Sets

The decimal coins were produced from 1969 onwards - the coins were dated no earlier than their introduction date so the all the bronze coins were dated 1971 even though many were produced in 1969 and 1970. The 5p and 10p were introduced in 1969 and dated that year. The 50p was introduced in 1970 so the 1969 production were all dated 1970.

Introductory sets were available from mid 1969 - these sets in a green card folder are easily identified as pre introduction sets because the wording on the back page begins "Ireland will change to decimal ..." despite this these folders were used until at least 1975. The coins are inserted in holes cut in the card and a plastic slip covers both sides - the sets is easily opened and many now have bronze coins with tarnish from being handled.

In 1971 a set of polished specimen coins was issued - these are sealed in a plastic slip and in a green plastic wallet - these sets were available from the Central Bank of Ireland until late 1999 - at their original issue price of £3.50.

In 1978 a card similar to the pre-introductory sets was used but with a new black design - these cards like the preceeding ones were apparently used with whatever coins were available :- usually 1978 or 1982 complete sets - but I have seen several with some 1979 coins and usually in these cases the halfpenny is a 1971 example - however this may be a result of someone replacing tarnished coins with better examples and it is not possible to be sure what combinations of dates were originally issued - except for the 1978 and 1982 sets.

The 1986 set was a departure in that the set is sealed so the coins cannot be readily removed - unfortunately the glue used tends to remain sticky and many sets have been impaired by glue leaking out of either the top or the botton of the folder.

The 1996 and 1998 sets are similarly sealed but a slipcase was added and the glue does not seem to leak in the same way. The plastic insert which hold the coins is often poorly produced and sometimes has holes or flaws. There was little or no attention paid to the quality of the coins used so some of these sets contain coins with heavy bagmarking or scratches.

The millennium set contained only 7 of the 8 2000 coins - for some reason the Central Bank of Ireland decided to produce pound coins of both the regular design and a special millennium design but not to include both pounds in the sets. These millennium sets sold out very quickly as did all the outstanding stocks of 1996 and 1998 sets early in 2000.