COINAGEin Ireland begins with the Vikings, culminating in the
first minting of Irish coins, in Dublin around 997. The
main evidence for Hiberno-Norse coin usage in the
ninth and tenth centuries consists of hoards of coins,
deposited for safekeeping. These coins, mainly Anglo-
Saxon but including coins from further afield, presum-
ably reached Ireland through Viking activity. Most
Viking-age coin hoards, however, occur in areas that
would have been under Irish, rather than Scandinavian,
control—notably the powerful midland kingdom of
Mide (Meath). Analysis of the occurrence and distribu-
tion of these hoards suggests that most were deposited
by Irish, rather than Hiberno-Norse, hoarders.
This, in turn, raises obvious questions about the
use of coins among the Irish, at least in those areas
that have produced the preponderance of hoard evi-
dence. Gerreits and Kenny question the assumption
that the Irish did not use coinage, as such, even after
Dublin began minting its own coinage. Kenny sug-
gests that contact with the Hiberno-Norse may have
created a “heightened awareness of coins and coin
usage,” especially in the kingdoms bordering Dub-
lin—Mide, Brega, and north Leinster. It is still
assumed that in most cases Dublin, or another of the
Scandinavian port towns, was the point of entry or
production of the coins, which then passed into Irish
hands through trade, or as tribute or booty. How this
coinage was used by the Irish remains to be fully
explored. It should be remembered, however, that
even outside of Ireland coins were used at this date
only for a restricted range of functions, such as major
trading transactions, payment of taxes or tribute, or
payment for military service. It was probably not
until the thirteenth century and later that coinage was
in sufficiently common supply to be used for ordi-
nary, daily transactions.
Hoard evidence suggests a marked increase in the
amount of coin circulating in Dublin at the end of the
tenth century, paving the way for the first Irish coinage,
minted in Dublin from circa997 under the authority
of Sitriuc III. This coinage was a direct (and relatively
good) copy of the contemporary English silver penny
of Aethelred II. Hiberno-Norse coinage continued to
be minted until the mid-twelfth century. Although con-
tinuing to imitate English issues, it quickly deterio-
rated in quality, culminating in the bracteates of the
twelfth century—discs of silver so thin that they could
be struck only from one side. Inscriptions become
unintelligible and eventually disappear altogether, so
that it is impossible to be certain where, when, or by
whom the later coinage was minted. Production of this
series seems to have ceased before 1170, but even this
is uncertain.The Later Middle Ages
After the English invasion of Ireland the volume of
coinage in circulation, and its usage, gradually increased
as part of wider economic changes. The first Irish coin-
age of the new dispensation was issued under the author-
ity of John, as lord of Ireland, from the late 1180s.
Besides Dublin, mints operated in Waterford, Limerick,
Kilkenny, and in Carrickfergus and Downpatrick, where
John de Courcy briefly issued coinage in his own name
at the end of the twelfth century. These early mints
struck silver halfpennies and farthings; it was not until
after John became king (1199) that pennies were
minted. These coins were minted to the full English
standard, and the pennies, in particular, seem to have
circulated freely in England and beyond. Indeed, it has
been suggested that the real purpose of the large-scale
minting of the thirteenth century was to provide a con-
venient mechanism for exporting silver from Ireland, to
help pay for English military expeditions elsewhere. The
Irish production of halfpennies and farthings was
unusual, if not unique, and these coins probably circu-
lated mainly within Ireland.
There is little evidence for minting in Ireland between
around 1210 and 1250. In 1251 to 1254, Henry III
resumed the minting of silver pennies, to the full
English standard, in Dublin. This prolific issue was
particularly widely circulated and frequently turns up
in European contexts. No halfpennies or farthings were
minted until after 1279, however. The need for smaller
denominations was made up, partly by cutting pennies
into halves and quarters, and by the use of unofficial
base-metal coinage—such as the hoard of over 2,000
pewter tokens found in a late-thirteenth-century pit
excavated at Winetavern Street, Dublin, and clearly
intended for use in the taverns there. In 1279, Edward I
reformed the coinages of England and Ireland, and
large-scale minting of good-quality silver pennies,
halfpennies, and farthings resumed in Dublin, Waterford,
and (in 1295) in Cork.
Minting ceased again after circa 1302, and for the
following century and a half very little coinage was pro-
duced. This was a consequence of the fourteenth-centuryHenry III penny. © Courtesy of John Stafford-Langan.