The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

198 HENRY SYMONDS.
the crown, is found on groats and half-groats which
bear the initials of the three Queens. The smaller
denomination does not occur without I or A or K
on the reverse, and it must have been struck in very
limited quantities, as these half-groats are among the
rarest of the Tudor series of Irish coins. (Cp. Handbook,
p. 228, no. 52.)
An interesting question arises as to whether the
English gold crowns and half-crowns, and the George
noble and its half, bearing I, A, or K should necessarily
conform to the sequence which I have suggested for
the Irish silver, but the point is outside my present
subject. With regard to the initials H R, I presume
that they denote the periods when Henry VIII was
without a consort ; for example, the King was a
widower for more than two years after the death of
Queen Jane in October, 1537.
Before leaving the first coinage I will state the
results of an assay of two groats, which tend to show
that the prescribed standard of fineness was about
10 oz. in the pound Troy, the contemporary standard
of the English silver moneys being 11 oz. 2 dwt. fine.
Irish groat, "Dominus" H I mint-mark Crown,
10 oz. 2 dwt. 6 grs. fine silver in the pound Troy. A
similar groat, with H A, proved to be 10 oz. 4 dwt. grs.
fine. I have noticed that the quality of the silver
coins in the sixteenth century is often slightly better
than the respective standards ;
on the other hand the
weights of the pieces generally exhibit a deficiency.
The weight of the first-issue groats when in fine con-
dition averages about 38Jgrs. each, and the half-groats
in proportion.
Apparently the Irish currency was not included in