Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Loong Siew, post: 7769561, member: 75799&quot;]Ireland. James II. &quot;Gunmoney&quot;. Crown. Williamite Wars. June 1690. PCGS AU55. Rare.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1332373[/ATTACH]&nbsp; Horse and rider type Struck over a used and recycled bust styled Half-crown.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;These extraordinary crowns were minted during the war between the Catholic King James II of Ireland against William of Orange from 1689-1690. They were called &quot;gunmoney&quot; because many common utensils and metals were melted and recycled including old cannons and guns to mint the first series of coins during due resource limitations during the war. Remarkably, whilst Ireland was still in the silver standard, wartime financing saw these currencies issued in base metals with the belief that they can be exchanged with the equivalent of silver if James II won the war (which he never did).</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;In the beginning, denominations of sixpence, shillings and halfcrowns were minted. However in June 1690, it was decided to issue their largest denomination which was a crown. Given the representative fiat nature of these coins, the crown did not result in a matching increase in weight and size. Whilst blank planchets exists, some were overstruck on recycled crudely treated large sized halfcrowns. Perhaps befitting the chaos during the war, sloppy workmanship often saw details or reliefs from the base coin emerging on the new crowns. This specimen is quiet interesting for not just it&#039;s grade but by having quiet a lot of the underlying coins details prominent, adding character to the coin. With a recorded limited issue period of 1 month, these crowns are pretty rare especially in top conditions.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in