The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

ON THE IRISH COINS OF RICHARD III. 321
The first type of Richard's coins is the one with VILLA
DROGHEDA on the reverse.
FIRST COINAGE.
GKOATS.
1. Obv. King's head crowned, a small sun at the right side
of the crown and left side of the King's neck, a
small rose at the left of the crown and right of
the neck, surrounded by a tressure of nine double
arches within a beaded circle. Mint mark, a
rose. Legend, KldTTRDVS x D6U GE7T DRS
EICC7T punched over the letters 6CDW7T, the out-
lines of which are visible.
This coin was struck from an altered die of Edward
IV. ; its type corresponds in every particular with
Edward's Drogheda groat, engraved in Smith's Irish
coins of that king, PI. II.
fig. 29, published in the Transactions
of the Royal Irish Academy, 4to, vol. xix. 1840.
This coin is of so much importance in the present
inquiry I may relate how it came to my knowledge. It
was as a duplicate in the cabinet of James D. Cuff, Esq.,
and passed in exchange to the Rev. J. W. Martin, who
when I
sent it to me for my opinion as to its genuineness,
at once detected the alteration of the die. At the sale of
Mr. Martin's coins it was purchased by the Rev. Henry
Christmas, by whom it was presented to me in 1859, and
now it rests in the Royal Irish Academy.
jfot,. In the centre a large rose surmounting a plain cross
the arms of which extend to the outer circle.
Legend a rose POSVI Dff VJH7V DIVTOR | | |
|
axmeCV ,
|
in the inner circle VILL |
|
OGJ} | GCDA |
. Weight 80 grains.
* 7fDR|
Two groats from the same dies as No. 1 are in the
cabinet of William Gillespie, Esq., Dublin.
VOL. I. THIRD SERIES. T T