For fans of Gunmoney, I present to you my first Crown!

Clio

Please ignore my terrible editing/cropping.

Beautiful photos by @FadeToBlack

TwoKopeiki

Neat - were these also over-struck? It looks like some kind of design "bleeding through" on the reverse.

Clio

@TwoKopeiki said:
Neat - were these also over-struck? It looks like some kind of design "bleeding through" on the reverse.

Yes sir you are correct! This one is over-struck on a 1690 Half Crown piece of Gunmoney. They were running out of material and decided to up the value of existing coins. You can see at 9 o'clock on the reverse the numbers "169" Which are part of the original coin showing through. In addition there's of course the crown design in the center of the reverse showing through under the newer crown.

asheland

Nice one!

asheland

@TwoKopeiki said:
Neat - were these also over-struck? It looks like some kind of design "bleeding through" on the reverse.

I love the avatar!

TwoKopeiki

@asheland said:

@TwoKopeiki said:
Neat - were these also over-struck? It looks like some kind of design "bleeding through" on the reverse.

I love the avatar!

Thanks

asheland

@TwoKopeiki said:

@asheland said:

@TwoKopeiki said:
Neat - were these also over-struck? It looks like some kind of design "bleeding through" on the reverse.

I love the avatar!

Thanks

I'm glad it's a chosen picture and for real!

Aethelred

As someone who doesn't collect Irish, I only own one example of Gunmoney, this Shilling of June 1690 that is graded AU-55 by PCGS:

Clio

@Aethelred said:
As someone who doesn't collect Irish, I only own one example of Gunmoney, this Shilling of June 1690 that is graded AU-55 by PCGS:

Stunning example you have there Very nice.

hookedoncoins

Nice example! I have always liked the history behind these coins. The overstrike adds some character as well. Out of curiosity, how does an overstrike work since the crown is larger than the half crown? In other examples I have seen, they overstruck one coin with another of the same size. Also, I never noticed that the month isn't present on the crown like it is on the other denominations.

Clio

@hookedoncoins said:
Nice example! I have always liked the history behind these coins. The overstrike adds some character as well. Out of curiosity, how does an overstrike work since the crown is larger than the half crown? In other examples I have seen, they overstruck one coin with another of the same size. Also, I never noticed that the month isn't present on the crown like it is on the other denominations.

As far as size goes, the original series didn't include a crown coin. So when they overstruck the half crowns that became the size of the crown coins. Numista lists them as a slightly different diameter 32mm for the half crown and 33mm for the crown. I'm not sure if this is just planchet variation or perhaps the crown coins weren't as thick from a second strike and effectively grew a mm as they were flattened?

As far as the month goes this was the original reason:

"he also suggested that including the ‘month’ would “show how seriously the King took his promise to pay”
the date in months allowed for a gradual replacement,
plus allow soldiers to claim interest on their wages"

This was the original intent and while I can't find a direct reason the second series didn't include the month, my best guess would be that the writing was effectively on the wall at that point and due to the change in size it was easy to tell when they were struck. The Battle of the Boyne was on July 1st and ended production of gunmoney at the Dublin mint shortly after. Limerick was able to continue producing coinage past that as with the crown I've shown here. Some of this can be confusing to put into a timeline since some articles on it don't mention whether they use the Gregorian calendar or not.

https://oldcurrencyexchange.com/2014/06/15/james-ii-gunmoney-a-photo-blog-of-the-known-variations/

This page is very insightful on the subject if you'd like to read more.

Cheers!

Namvet69

Great read. The need for money is a mother of invention. Peace Roy

SaorAlba

Here is a gunmoney halfcrown with a redemption of May 1690

And a shilling redeemed in May 1690:

And another for redemption in the following month:

A sixpence or tanner for June 1689 redemption:

And then finally after the Battle of the Boyne largely defeated James II's forces and they retreated to Limerick in the SW of Ireland and he flew off with his lieutenants to exile in France, gunmoney was again overstruck into the Limerick halfpenny of 1691:

Clio

@SaorAlba said:
Here is a gunmoney halfcrown with a redemption of May 1690

And a shilling redeemed in May 1690:

And another for redemption in the following month:

A sixpence or tanner for June 1689 redemption:

And then finally after the Battle of the Boyne largely defeated James II's forces and they retreated to Limerick in the SW of Ireland and he flew off with his lieutenants to exile in France, gunmoney was again overstruck into the Limerick halfpenny of 1691:

Excellent collection. Lots of very nice pieces I dig it.