Irish Coinage
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Detail Image

© 2000 - Copyright
John _ Stafford-Langan
Version 1.07f
25 Nov, 2000

This coin is an example of a type III penny of Henry III struck by Ricard of Dublin. This coin has the standard characteristics of type III coins ; a cinquefoil to the right of the bust, a single triange, pellets in the corners of the obverse legends.

This specimen has pellets at the ends of the band of the crown, and has clear shoulders made from lines - note the entry error on the right shoulder.

The legends are clear with no blundering and read:
(obverse) . h ENR I. CVS R EX III (reverse) RIC AR D O N D IVE
Which translates as HENRY III KING / RICARD OF DUBLIN
Ligating (joining) of lettering as illustrated by the underlining above is normal for these coins.

Dublin (normally DIVE or DIVELI) was the only mint operating in Ireland at this time. There were two moneyers RICARD and DAVI - Ricard's coins making up about 70% and Davi's the remainder. The entire output was of pennies (which were cut in halves or quarters to facilitate change when necessary).

As with the earlier coinage of John as King this coinage was produced for export, to fund Henry's French campaigns and is commonly found in European hoards. The Bruxelles hoard of 1908 which comprised 80,000 sterling pennies contained 1,800 of these coins.

The coin is in Extremely Fine condition. Henry III pennies of Ireland are commonly found in Fine to VF condition, type III coins are do not often occur quite as nice as this one.

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