Irish “Rebel Money” has long been a numismatic enigma, as no record of its production survives. This note highlights that the encircled cross potent on the obverse of the coinage was the emblem on the battle flag of the Confederated Catholics, and attributes the production of the coinage to Eoghan Ruadh Ua Néill, the only Irish general since the advent of firearms to defeat a regular British army on an open battlefield; and dates the coinage to the immediate aftermath of the battle of Binn Bhorb (Benburb) in June 1646, two months after Ua Néill received approximately £10,000 in silver from Rome.
Ireland
Seeking the Provenance of an Unusual Hiberno-Scandinavian Coin – Robert Page
Hopefully a reader may be able to assist with the quest to discover where the interesting coin illustrated above came from. The earliest appearance of the coin that the author is aware of is the 2001 Spink auction containing coins of the Chown collection, and it is hoped that any reader with earlier auction catalogues containing Hiberno-Scandinavian coins may be able to locate it, and determine it’s original provenance.
A sixth Cork groat of the readeption of Henry VI – Gregory Edmund, Christoffer Gompakis and Oisín Mac Conamhna
This article describes a new specimen of a Cork groat of Henry VI, found recently in Pembrokeshire, with novel features that advance understanding of the chronology of the Desmond coinages of the 1470s.
An Unpublished Waterford Penny Type of Edward IV – Oisín Mac Conamhna
The purpose of this brief note is to record a type of Waterford penny of Edward IV that has not been published before.
An Edward IV Dublin (?) penny with cinquefoils by neck – Oisín Mac Conamhna and James Mayer
A fifth Cork groat of the readeption of Henry VI – Oisín Mac Conamhna and Jack Pope
Very recently, one of us wrote about the four Irish groats then known from the second reign of Henry VI, all from Cork, in the political and numismatic context of the contemporary earldom of Desmond. Even more recently, the other of us has acquired a fifth newly-found specimen of this coinage. The purpose of this note is to record and describe this addition to the corpus.
The Kilkenny West, Co. Westmeath, Hoard of Coins of Eadgar – Hugh Pagan
Image: Colonel Sempronius Stretton, a painting by Thomas Barber This note has two primary purposes. The first is to draw the attention of the numismatic community to John Sheehan’s reassignment of the Eadgar hoard’s find spot from Co. Kilkenny to Co. Westmeath. The second is to provide an updated listing of the coins of Eadgar and of other tenth-century Anglo-Saxon rulers offered in the 1855 Stretton sale.
Aodh Mór Nach Glacadh Airgead, d. 1407: a strictly amonetary medieval chieftain of West Connacht – Oisín Mac Conamhna
An unusual article in that rather than being about coins, it is about the absence of coins – specifically about an Irish chieftain, recorded as Aodh Mór Nach Glacadh Airgead (Aodh the Great Who Did Not Accept Money) who lived as late as 1407. He appears as a late, if not the last, holdout as a monetary refusenik Irish chieftain. And by him, the final adoption, or at least the final acceptance, of coinage throughout Gaelic Ireland may be dated to 1407 at the earliest.
A Mis-Struck Limerick Halfpenny of 1691- Gary Oddie
This note presents an unusual mis-struck Limerick halfpenny of 1691 on a March 1689/90 shilling. Though only half of each of the overstrike and host coin is visible, it is still possible to identify all four dies in the Wither & Withers Gunmoney corpus and die study.
BNS Research Blog 