IRISH COINS

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 January 1929, Page 2

IRISH COINS

NEW ISSUE DETAILS An event unparalleled in the modern history of numismatics —the issue of an entirely novel series of eight coins - now provides the people of the Irish Free State with a new currency. Dr. Thomas Bodkin, one of the committee responsible for them, in conversation With the London correspondent of the “New York Times,” said that the designs are symbolical of the natural wealth of Ireland. The obverse of every coin shows a harp, but the reverses are representations respectively of an Irish hunter, a salmon, a bull, an Irish wolfhound, a hare, a hen with chicks, a sow with a litter, and a woodcock. The pattern of each coin was chosen separately, but in every case the committee unanimously chose designs which were afterwards found to be the work of one man, Percy Metcalf, a young Yorkshire sculptor. The designs themselves are the motives which made the committee select them represent a delightful blending of wit and humour. Upon the half-crown, the most valuable of the series, it was decided to show the Irish hunter, a horse famous throughout the world. The florin, similar to the half-crown in size, is made as unlike as possible by the choice of the salmon, which, apart from the beauty of its form, has an important

place in Irish legend. It was decided to place the bull upon the shilling-to face in the opposite direction from the horse. As the sixpence and threepenny bit are both of nickel and otherwise com- ’ monly associated, their association is emphasised by putting the hound on the sixpence and the hare on the threepenny bit. To the penny, since it is the coin most frequently used by the woman of the house and her chil- ' dren, the committee gave the representation of the hen with her chicks. i For the halfpenny, despite unfair ridicule with which that noble and ■ useful animal is often associated, the committee decided to favour the pig, which is depicted with a litter. For the farthing, Mr. Metcalf designed an ' exquisite woodcock —a bird beloved of sportsmen, shy, scarce, and elusive, like the farthing itself. As the Government had ruled that the inscription on the coins must be Irish only, the denomination of each coin has been indicated by numerals as well as words. Criticism of the lack of religious symbols upon the' coins was met by Dr. Bodkin with this phrase: — “Imagine two loafers at the bar of a public house tossing as to which of them should pay for drinks according to whether the image of St. Bridget dame uppermost or not.”