Medieval Irish Hammered Farthings - Edward III: Dublin mint

This online guide is designed to help

• Metal Detector enthusiasts
• Museum Curators
• Coin Dealers & Collectors

accurately identify and classify their Irish Hammered Farthings.

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Overview:

On 3 May 1336, John de Windsor, warden of the London mint, was ordered to have twelve pairs of dies made for halfpennies and a similar number for farthings and sent to Ellerker so that 'money of halfpennies and farthings shall be made at the Dublin Mint for the King and his people of these parts'.¹ There is clear evidence from contemporay records that in actuality no coins were struck in Ireland as a result of this order.

It is instead likely that coinage was struck by Edward III at Dublin under John Rees from some time after 25 March 1339 until some date probably not later than 12 August 1339. It was intended to have been a coinage of pence, halfpence, and farthings, and it is likely that the dies for all three denominations were made available for the new mint.²

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SECOND ISSUE, known as the STAR-MARKED coinage.

Date: 1339
Mint: Dublin
Type: 'STAR-MARKED' Coinage

Diameter: 11mm
Weight: 0.30g

Obverse: *EDW ARDV SREX
    Legend around the outside of a triangular frame which
    encloses the kings' head. Closed C & E.

Reverse: CIVI TAS *DVBL INIE
    Long-cross with three pellets in each quarter.

Reference(s):
  S.6267A
  W-VI.1a
Scarcity: Currently Unique

Guide Price:
  £250 (Fine)
  £600 (Very Fine)

Note:

• The only known example of this coin was recorded in the British Numismatic Journal 46 (1976, pl X, ill. C), and is now in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

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¹ DYKES, DW. 1976: The Anglo-Irish Coinage of Edward III, (BNJ 1976),
  pp 46

² ibid. pp 49

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