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- From jmkleeberg@yahoo.com Sat Feb 17 16:25:57 2001
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Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 16:25:56 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Why counterfeit Irish farthings?
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From: John Kleeberg <jmkleeberg@yahoo.com>
Counterfeiting a farthing was a lot of work for
comparatively little return, and that applies all the
more to Irish farthings, but if it was worthwhile to
counterfeit Irish halfpence, it was worthwhile to
counterfeit Irish farthings. One interesting
phenomenon I noticed is that as the quality of the low
denomination circulation medium in the British isles
and North America deteriorated, the British/Irish
differential collapsed, so that the British and the
Irish pieces mingled in circulation. Irish coppers
even circulated to a small extent on the British
mainland - hoard evidence shows this. I discussed
this in my article on the Faithful Steward, which is
in the COAC on Coinage of the Confederation Period
that Phil Mossman edited.
Now, did farthings circulate in the North American
plantations? We had a discussion about this in the
CNL a few years ago. My feeling is - up through the
reign of George II, yes, certainly, we can prove it
through hoard evidence, although they never composed a
large proportion of the coins in circulation. George
III - not certain, hoard evidence is lacking, but my
feeling is yes, given that the Massachusetts mint and
the US Mint later decided that there was a need for
that type of denomination (the half cent). Of course,
the half cent also served another purpose - it helped
smooth out the rough edges between the Federal decimal
coins and the Spanish-American octal system (12 1/2
cents).
It is interesting that the Irish pieces that Byron
showed were both from George II.
John Kleeberg
jmkleeberg@yahoo.com
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