The Earlier Middle Ages
It is an academic cliche that Ireland was a coinless society throughout the first millennium A.D. Small numbers of coins from the Roman world circulated in Ireland in the early centuries a.d., but were not used as currency and were probably kept as curiosities or for their bullion value. The cliche still holds good for most of the first millennium, but its applicability in the ninth and tenth centuries is increasingly questioned. Proper coin usage in 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, presumably 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 distribution of these hoards suggests that most were deposited by Irish, rather than Hiberno-Norse, hoarders.
Henry III penny.
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 evidence. Gerreits and Kenny question the assumption that the Irish did not use coinage, as such, even after Dublin began minting its own coinage. Kenny suggests that contact with the Hiberno-Norse may have created a "heightened awareness of coins and coin usage," especially in the kingdoms bordering Dublin—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 ordinary, 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 circa 997 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 continuing to imitate English issues, it quickly deteriorated 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 coinage of the new dispensation was issued under the authority 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 convenient 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 circulated 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 produced. This was a consequence of the fourteenth-century European economic depression, but also reflected the substantial outflow of silver from Ireland in the thirteenth century. In the absence of new coinage, old, foreign, debased, and forged coins circulated widely. Minting was revived under Edward IV (1461-1483) when the first attempt was made—at the insistence of the Anglo-Irish parliament—to develop a distinctive Irish coinage to a lower standard (i.e., containing less silver), which was less likely to flow out of the country. The first base-metal coinage—farthings and half-farthings of copper and copper alloys—was also introduced. Minting extended to towns such as Drogheda and Trim and continued until circa 1500, after which Ireland’s coinage tended to be minted in England. The first use of the characteristic harp on Irish coinage was under Henry VIII in 1534, and the first Irish shillings were minted under Edward VI (1547-1553). Henry VIII (1509-1547), perennially short of money for his campaigns, also began a serious debasement of the Irish coinage toward the end of his reign. It is estimated that in 1535 Irish pennies typically contained over 90 percent silver, while by 1560 this had fallen as low as 25 percent.
