This was in a batch of coins that got me started collecting last month.... Any ideas?? The pics are bad but it actually has rainbow toning in hand. Thanks in advance Coin Gurus
It is an Irish penny. The harp is the giveaway. And EIRE is Irish for Ireland. Check out this web site. Your coin is shown about a quarter of the way down.
Oh well, nothing special I guess I'll just keep it since it was part of the start of my collection...
As a geographic term, Éire is Irish for the entire island which would of course include Northern Ireland. As a political term however - and thus on this coin as well - it refers to the republic. And by the way, in the initial post the obverse (harp) is depicted upside down. Christian
:smileLOL How would I know, I didn't even know what is was :smile Any value???? Prob not right (war time era though...)
Nothing Special? This is one of the coins which fits in the catagory of "Lucky Pennies". There are more decendant of the Iris in the USA then exist in Ireland Itself. I have 2 or 3 of these left. I have given to a few friends as good luck piece. Love the Hen and Chicks.
I just checked and it looks like it's "chickless" variety(no body of 2nd chick) It's worth a couple bucks Anyone want to take a shot at the grade you think it is????
-> Eire is now in the European Union, but their coins still have the Harp as their national symbol, though the animals are gone. The coin pictured at the top from CW5000 is lovely with luster in the fields, definitely a keeper. Transcript No. 1161 March 17, 1997 IRELAND'S POET LAUREATE by Michael Marotta William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. He was regarded as the greatest poet of his time. What you may not know though is that Yeats was also in charge of the committee that designed Ireland's present series of coins. Yeats was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. At that time Ireland was completely under the control of England. While working in England, Yeats joined other Irish patriots who eventually won independence for the Emerald Isle. A world-renown playwright and poet, Yeats was elected to the Irish Senate. He chaired the committee that chose the designs for the coins of the new Irish Free State. Yeats had seen classical Greek coins while studying and writing in Italy during the late 1800s. He arranged for all of the artists on this project to receive ancient Hellenistic coins, so they could see for themselves the powerful images he wanted to bring to Ireland's coins. But, the committee and the artists who would be designing the coins were limited by two things. In the words of Yeats: "Our coins must pitch and spin to please the gambler, and pack into rolls to please the banker." William Yeats died on January 28, 1939, at the age of 73. After seventy years, Ireland's coins have changed little from the winning designs of Percy Metcalf, a young sculptor recommended by the British School in Rome and selected by Yeats' committee. The horse, bull, salmon, hound and other animals of Ireland's eight circulating coins were all joined by a common symbol of Ireland's poetic tradition: the Celtic harp. Today's program was written by Michael Marotta. Take a tour of ANA's virtual Money Museum on the web at www.money.org. "Money Talks" is a copyrighted production of the American Numismatic Association, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903, 719/632-2646, a...@money.org, http://www.money.org.
Hmm, the country has been an EEC and later EU member for more than 35 years, and during most of those years their coins were quite a bit more imaginative than what they opted for in the late 1990s. They still (or again) have eight denominations, but for the country specific sides they picked eight identical designs. Fairly dull, and much worse in my opinion than the nice piece depicted in the initial post ... Christian
I dont know anything about those. I did know the harp tells you its from Ireland though. But I will grade this as VF
I love these big bronze Irish 1 penny coins & have a few of them. Oh to have one in BU condition! Can someone please give me a link on how to tell the "chickless" variety? :hatch: The Op's coin has rim damage @ 9:00 both sides. However the fields are fairly clean, free of any deep scratches or gouges. Looks to have an original skin on it as well, uncleaned. Still a good example. I'd call it a Very Fine with rim damage. Not enough of the detail on the harp (and the hens left wing and face are worn) to go EF. (Unless this is a bad scan) KM#11 in Krause and valued at .50 cents for VF and for $2.00 EF. Keep the coin and don't clean it!! If you have any like it that say SAORSTAT EIREANN (1928 to 1937 Irish Free State pennies) on the obverse in stead of EIRE, you have a more valuable coin than those of 1940 and up.
http://www.irishcoinage.com/MODCAT.HTM#modpe http://www.irishcoinage.com/MODCAT.HTM#4stars Try these..... CW