1723 4.85- Gc.23 R-3 I've been waiting on just the right example to come along and it did. Seller was able to accept a fair offer it's a wrap. Should arrive this coming week. I'll slide this in my Colonial collection. Feel free to grade. Just curious what others think of this example. Very proud of this one for some reason. I think I will name her Edward Scissor Hands. Also I am starting a poll. My first ever. Please comment and participate!
I never grade from pictures or join in guess the grade posts. I have explained why, before. There are times, though, when my respect and recognition of certain pieces and their historical usage deserve recognition. Woods is an example of such a piece. The condition of this example, and the colonial status, deserves to be considered an XF, on that basis. I would not have any problem or criticism of the coin at that classification, or of any person thinking it is. So, because of this, my self abstention rule is set aside, and I vote XF. Very nice example. Congratulations. Signed EAC guy and member.
Surfaces look to be mid to high VF but I would net it down to F for the pitting. Not sure if it would grade straight.
I'm at VF on this one. I want more detail for XF. Perhaps this is a die pair that's always weak in the center, but I don't know these that well. The pock mark in front of George's chin might not condemn the coin, but it's not a positive for it.
They did in fact smooth dies so the coins would look somewhat already circulated. This was so they were accepted more by the puplic.
That was on some of the counterfeit halfpennies, not Hibernias. The Wood coinage was very well made. Syd Martin wrote a great book on the series with the complete history, and identification of varieties if you are interested.
I voted "other" which means "no grade" because the corrosion and pitting. Although these coins are old, a fair amount of the surviving population is nice. This farthing might not grade because of cleaning.
Actually circulation and appearing to have circulated had very little to do with their lack of acceptance. It all had more to do with the fact that the coins were inferior in weight and composition vs. their contemporary English and then British brethren circulating in Great Britain. Inasmuch as there was a general coin shortage everywhere in the British Isles then, Ireland was at the very bottom of the feeding scale when it came to securing new coinage. The last decent amount of bronze coinage for Ireland was struck in 1685, there was a small issue during the reign of William and Mary ca. 1694 then literally nothing until the Wood's Hibernia pieces in 1723. So coinage circulating in Ireland was often either very old and worn, or foreign like French or Dutch bronze, similar to Scotland. Whereas in Great Britain there was a minimal effort and circulating small denomination coinage, Ireland was totally left out. The problem with the Wood's coinage is that it was underweight and the composition was less bronze, more tin etc. So the coins were unpopular due to that fact, so much so that William Woods' agents had many of them shipped off to those s-hole colonies in North America - where they were just as unpopular and were even banned in colonies such as Massachusetts-Bay and New Jersey.
Thanks for your input. What are those Brittish coins you posted exactly? I suspect they are the half pence I keep seeing brought up that circulated here in America? Either way I'm interested in a few nice examples of those. Not sure I will display directly in this colonial bin I am building ....but close by. Not sure if my thinking is appropriate or not...but as I read they seem to have circulated alot around here. Why not sorta include a few in my colonials? Open to comment on that front. Nice Woods btw.
These are all halfpennies, all Irish. This is what a Scots "halfpenny" actually a bawbee until 1707 and continued to circulate late into the 18th century due to a shortage of small denomination coin in Scotland. The Scots referred to halfpennies as bawbees until the halfpenny was demonetised in 1971. Despite the fact that I literally own thousands of English, then British halfpennies - none are imaged.