Irish Gun Money images

danglen

Some forum members PMd me asking me to post the images of my Gun Money, so here goes..... By the way, they are a sixpence, shilling and half crown

Aethelred

I used to have a set of "Gunmoney" coins which I sold several years ago when I decided I needed to only collect English coins.

Nice examples!

MSD61

Outstanding images danglen!!!

AndyBruce

If you're after any more then we have a few Gun Money pieces that you might be interested in on the webiste.

Cheers

Andy

ColinCMR

The 1689 coin is amazing!

cosmicdebris

Cool pieces

PuddlePirate

Please forgive an ignorant pirate ... what exactly is "gun money"?

AndyBruce

Hopefully this will explain, PuddlePirate!




A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRISH GUN MONEY

By all accounts James II was initially a popular monarch, but in the space of 4 short years the populace had turned against the devout Catholic King. Parliament invited William of Orange to rule with Mary (daughter of James II) and James II fled to Catholic France to raise support to recapture the English Throne. Having raised a French army, James then landed in Ireland to round up further support from the large Catholic community. It is at this time that moves were swiftly put in place to issue the token coinage.

There were several good reasons why the token coinage was needed. Firstly, there was a distinct lack of Gold or Silver within Ireland because the protestant element within Ireland had been hoarding or exporting currency to England in the expectation of the brewing Catholic uprising. Secondly, the limited Gold and Silver that was collected was needed to buy arms from abroad and thirdly, the French army preferred Gold or Silver to future promises.

Without currency James' efforts in Ireland would quickly run out of steam and in June 1689 the first Gun Money coins rolled out of the mint. The token currency was traded at virtual parity with the conventional currency at a rate of 20s & 6d for every 20s of gold. The token coinage issued is notable because they show both the month of issue together with the year. This was probably intended to allow the gradual redemption of token coins at a later date as well as giving the impression that this was a temporary issue. Also of interest is the reverse legend containing FRA amongst James' titles, as this would surely have caused some offence to the French upon whom he was dependent.

However, problems with the new currency were quickly encountered. The first being a lack of skilled labour needed to produce the new coinage together with a lack of even the base metal needed for the mass coinage. Some brass was eventually sent from France and even some obsolete cannon from Dublin Castle were melted down to supply the demand for base metal. The coins that survive today are clearly made from a variety of base metals supporting the variety of sources and it was probably the use of the cannon from Dublin Castle that gave us the term 'Gun Money'.

Secondly, the brass currency was not universally accepted by all, particularly by protestant merchants that forced prices higher by not accepting the token currency at the official rates. However public confidence was probably not improved by James' own tax collectors not accepting the new token coinage as payment!

As the year passed the problems grew worse for the currency - cannons from Kinsale, Galway, Dublin, Limerick, Athlone and even Brest in France having to be melted to be coined. By June 1690 James had promised an interest rate of 10% to be paid when the token coinage was eventually redeemed. This had little effect and a decree was issued that 21s in Gold was worth no more than 38s in Brass. However there are contemporary records of 21s trading for as much as 90s in Brass at this time!

The problems grew still worse when in 1690 all the coin sizes were reduced with Crowns being struck on the flans of Half Crowns, Half Crowns from Shillings and Shillings from sixpences. If the token currency had started in 1689 as being this reduced size then it would have saved James some considerable expense but changing now wrecked public confidence still further. The currency also helped William of Orange as when he landed in Ireland the farmers were much more willing to supply his army as he paid in Gold and Silver. Indeed at this time so little was thought of the gun money currency that when William took Craven in 1690, the hoard of £4000 of gun money currency was left untouched!

On July 1st 1690 James was defeated at the Battle of Boyne and this marked an end to the Gun Money Coinage, although there are some extremely rare issues dated as late as October 1690. William revalued the token coinage as being worth the metal content with the older large Half Crowns being worth a penny hence at this time 21s in gold was now worth 630s of brass coinage!

Many people would have been ruined by this revaluation, particularly when currency represented the bulk of the wealth of a nation. However, the idea of a token coinage was a good one, and is one that we use today. So in some ways James was ahead of his time; after all, it took the UK until 1947 to remove all the silver content from circulating currency!


Cheers

Andy


PS If you would like to view some more Gun Money pieces, then click here: Gun Money for Sale