Post your coins from Ireland

I don't have many Ireland coins and thought it would be nice see those coins. Here's what I have. Steve

 

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1805 Hibernia Halfpenny

1723 Wood's Hibernia Halfpenny (found metal detecting)

 

Very Cool. I love metal detecting and did all the time when I was healthy. I posted a 1786 New Jersey Colonial Copper I found metal detecting in C.T. It' in the U.S. forum.

 

The one of my favorite.

 

Love the animals

 

I love metal detecting. One of my bucket list coins is a state copper. Congrats on the NJ copper, I hope to find one in 2015

 

I have a lot of Irish coins but I don't have them scanned. My goal is to complete the set from 1928-2000 (that's when the modern state minted coins). I just got the last farthing and I only need one florin and about 4 half crowns to complete it. Many of the Irish coins are mintage of less than 1 million so it can be hard to find them.

 

Another animals and fish.

 

And yet...

 

I think collectors have a collecting "gene". I am essentially a stamp collector. But I live in Ireland (north) and now in my 60s.
Irish coins DID circulate in the North of Ireland up until the 1960s. As a child we often got them in change.
Most stores and all banks accepted them. It was all sterling. Of course they were never accepted in mainland Britain. In the old pre decimal coinage, 1928-1971 the halfpenny and penny, shilling, florin, half crown were same size as their English counterparts but the 3d and 6d were different.
After Ireland and Britain went decimal in 1971 both countries were still within Sterling but later Ireland adopted the Punt and so there had to be an exchange rate. With the rates variable, people organised to defraud cash machines/vending machines. And when bagging coins for banks.
You may notice that the first Irish decimal coins are sized like the British ones....but from about 1990 the silver coins were resized as smaller, to deal with the fraud problem.
I only really became interested in Irish coins as a sideline...when Euros were introduced. Its a nostalgia thing. I prefer circulated coins, just like the coins in my pocket in the 1960s right up to 2002.
I have most copper coins 1928-1971. Some silver.
I have most coins silver and copper 1971-2002.
A couple of weeks ago, I made a terrible mistake and tried to wash the decimal coins. Most were ruined.
I was in Dublin today and found a very good coin shop with good prices for circulated coins and I will be in a market in Belfast tomorrow. There are maybe five stalls there.
Pics to follow.

 

Thank you for sharing your coin collecting story

 

I think its fair to say Irish coins fall into three phases.
1 pre-decimal sterling 1928-1971
2 decimal (sterling later "Irish Punt") 1971-2000
3 Euro Coin 2002 onwards.
This is a photograph of my collection of Phase 1 (Pre Decimal era)
There are eight denominations but there was one unique commemorative issued at Ten Shillings in 1966. I dont have one.

I bought some 1960s Half Crowns today at £1 each. As a general rule, most copper coins are easily obtained. There are exceptions to this, such as a unique Penny.
Older Silver coins are more expensive. Emphasising again that Irish Coins is secondary interest to Irish Stamps, I list below the eight denominations....number of years available...and the number of years I have.
Farthing : 17 years issued...I have 2
Halfpenny: 16 years issued..I have 15
Penny: 24 years issued...I have 22
Threepence: 22 years issued...I have 21
Sixpence: 27 years issued...I have 25
Shilling: 19 years issued...I have 14
Florin: 23 years issued...I have 12
Half Crown: 23 years issued ...I have 6

The coins I have are circulated coins. For me, its about nostalgia and history. I was a child when these coins were being used. They bought Toy Soldiers, candy, comic books for me. And of course for adults bought groceries, cigarettes, bus trips.
These coins had adventures and are now in junk shops and its nice to "rescue them"

 

Well all I can add is st. PADDY DAY is in a short 11 days.
I do have a few Irish coins one of my favorite is a coin I received from my Irish brother Dave Mac. Dave always thinking of you, I hope speaking of the devil he'll show up.I need to image my Irish coinage and post it. Another good Welsh friend across the pond Bryan just sent me some nice Irish coins.
so Happy St. PADDY ' S day and Eirinn go brach the true Irish language....English corruption is Erin go Bragh!
For those of non Irish blood lines translation" Ireland until the end of time." However here in the states Every one is Irish come March 17.

 

The farthings are quite hard to track down. Most have mintages of less than 500,000. They exist but they will sell for $10 or more each. I'm having the most trouble with the half crowns. It's hard to find some of the dates for sale and when I do the bidding gets too high. I've purchased a lot of Irish coins from Britain or Ireland. Most of my other foreign coins I find from U.S. sellers, but I have to go abroad for these.

 

Ireland has one of the most conservative euro commemorative coin programs and it attracted me as a starting point with collecting euro uncirculated and proof sets. My best find was a pristine official 2002 uncirculated set for the bargain price of just US$60. This set often sells for more than US$100. I have all the euro proof and uncirculated sets in my collection and nearly all the 5-, 10- and 15-euro silver commemoratives. The James Joyce 10-euro coins are particularly sought after.

Another set I found for a bargain price was a beautiful 1966 uncirculated set in the hinged green case complete with the 10/- silver 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. From what I have read, the silver 10/- was designed to circulate but rarely did so and many of these half-pound coins were sent to the melting pot.

It should be interesting to see what Ireland decides to issue next year with the centennial of the Easter Rising upcoming.

To complement any American Kennedy half dollar collection, Ireland issued a proof 2013-dated 10-euro piece, in the old crown standard of .925 silver, 28.28g weight and 38.61mm diameter, for the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's visit to Ireland.

Irish coin designs are always dignified and classically understated.

 

I am almost 63 and in the 1950s and 1960s, I never actually saw a farthing in real use. I recall my curiousity at seeing my first one. (It was probably British).I mentioned this to a coin dealer in Dublin (he is slightly younger than me) and he DOES recall farthings in use. So Irish farthings circulated longer than British ones.
I live in the North of Ireland where the British and Irish coins circulated together (they also did in the Republic) as it was all sterling.
Then and now I sometimes find I have coins from Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man in my change.
(banks in "Northern Ireland"....Danske (formerly Northern Bank), Ulster, First Trust and Bank of Ireland....print their own sterling notes. As a general rule these locally printed notes are what comes out of most ATMs,
In England these notes are not accepted so ATMs at Belfast Airport etc always have Bank of England notes. Anyone travelling to England and needing currency usually changes these local notes for Bank of England notes before travelling.

I suppose for a serious collector of coins, everything is done thru a dealer. For a casual collector like myself, I prefer coins to be circulated. They can be picked up at markets easily enough....the exceptions are farthings and early silver which really only a dealer can supply.
For my own information I have sprea sheet with the cheapest price (worst condition coins) but I am not actively pursuing early half crowns etc as stamps are the priority.

 

I recall a teacher showing us the Ten Shillings coin in 1966. Most were souvenirs. All Dealers seem to have some. It is (so far as I am aware) the only commemorative coin in the pre-decimal era. I have always wanted one and will try and find a reasonably priced coin before 2016 as prices will surely rise.
The whole question of commemorating 1916 is a "hot" question and I wont go into here as it would be inappropriate but I have covered it on my own Blog elsewhere.
From a purely "Coin" perspective, it seems ironic to have a Euro coin, which is about Independence.
I am in Dublin once every six weeks or so checking change ("shrapnel") is always interesting as it will always show Euro coins from other countries.
Probably 20 per cent of 50cents, Euros or Two Euros that I come across are "foreign" (usually German, French, Spanish or Italian). I came across a Two Euro that was new to me on Thirsday and for curiousity I asked my dealer-friend. It was from Finland.
The smaller coins are nearly always Irish.

As for commemorative Euros. I did not even know they existed until a few months ago. I have never actually seen one in circulation. It seems to be a collector thing.

 

these two coins are two of my favorites. As stated before my Irish buddy Dave mac sent them to me years ago.

 

I also have this 1962 Floirin