Irish Coinage
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Detail Image

© 2004 - Copyright
John _ Stafford-Langan
Version 1.12
5th October, 2004

This is a penny struck in Dublin in about 1300. It is from the sixth and final issue of Edward I's second Irish coinage.

The legends are mostly clear with no blundering and read:
(obverse) EDW R' ANGL' D NS hYB'
(reverse) CIVI TAS DVBL INIE
Which translates and expands to (obverse)Edward King of England, Lord of Ireland
(reverse) Citizen of Dublin

Note that the legend includes the apostrophe ' for abreviation and the bar for contraction (above the NS) but does not include the pellet separators typical of the three early issues.

The sixth issue was a fairly substantial one. Michael Dolley in his paper on the Irish Mints of Edward I estimates the three later issues (fourth - sixth) at about 10,000 pounds (2.4 million coins) and therefore at about 20% of the coinage as a whole - the vast majority of this being made up of sixth issue coins as teh fourth and fifth issues were small and those coins are now rare or at best very scarce.

The key characteristic which distinguishes the coins of this issue is the presence of a pellet at the base of the obverse triangle.

There are several varieties within this issue which may have been used to distinguish different periods of production within the mint.

- The obverse is sometimes marked with an initial pellet (this coin is without the pellet).

- The reverse features both the later and smaller lettering type and the earlier and larger lettering type (this coin has the larger lettering type).

Note that the reverse lettering still has several 'late' characteristics compared to the early issues

- Most notably that the S is from a fully engraved punch rather than the crescent an wedges S with a narrow waist seen on earlier issues - see A penny of Edward I of Dublin (second issue)

-The E on both sides is not fully closed and has a prominant cross bar, but it is quite different from the earlier crescent and 3 wedges type seen on the first three issues.

This coin is in Good Fine condition. There is some striking weakness in the upper right area of the obverse and the portrait is not very well struck up.

Overall this is an average specimen of the issue, examples in similar condition are readily available. However this issue is quite difficult to obtain in better grades and examples with all the features well struck and sharp are quite scarce.

Compare this coin's lettering with an early coin of Edward I :

A penny of Edward I of Dublin (second issue)

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