From the silver pennies a Norse king of Dublin struck in the 990s to the harp on today's euro coins: 25 turning points in a thousand years of Irish money, each taken from the articles linked under it.
Timeline
c. 997· Hiberno-Norse The first coins struck in Ireland. Hiberno-Norse pennies were first produced in Dublin under the authority of King Sihtric (Sigtrygg) Silkbeard. The first were local copies of the coins of Æthelred II of England, changing design every six years as the English coinage did. They bore the king's head and name and the word Dyflin, Dublin. All were pennies. One article dates the first coins to about 997, another to about 995.
after 1014· Hiberno-Norse The long cross pennies. After the Battle of Clontarf the Dublin coinage stopped following English designs and went back to the earlier 'long cross' type, struck in falling quality for more than a hundred years until the coins were illegible, debased and too thin for practical use.
after 1169–75· Anglo-Irish Norman coinage to the English standard. After the Norman conquest, farthings, halfpennies and pennies were minted to the same standard as England's; a chief purpose was to export silver from Ireland. John de Courcy issued baronial coins in Ulster. Parity with sterling was set by King John around 1210.
1460· Anglo-Irish A separate, lighter Irish standard. A parliament at Drogheda summoned by Henry VI devalued Irish coins: they now weighed three-quarters of their English equivalents, and the two currencies diverged. The groat (4d) came in at the same time, and half groats in 1483.
after 1535· Anglo-Irish The harp on the coins. Irish coins had carried the title Dominus Hiberniae (Lord of Ireland); after 1535 Henry VIII took the title King of Ireland. It was in Henry's reign that Irish coins first bore the harp, and later the year. Edward VI issued the first Irish shillings.
1561–1607· Anglo-Irish Elizabeth's copper, and a stop. Elizabeth I briefly raised the silver standard in 1561 before returning to a base one, and introduced copper halfpennies and pennies. James I resumed higher-standard issues, but all Irish issues stopped in 1607.
1689–1691· Gun money Gun money. James II, deposed in England, struck an emergency coinage in base metal (copper, brass, pewter) during the Williamite War. The coins carried the month of striking as well as the year, so they could be redeemed for silver in stages after a Jacobite victory, which never came. The name comes from melted-down guns, though church bells and other brass were used too. A second emergency issue was made in 1691 for use in Limerick.
1722–1724· Anglo-Irish Wood's halfpence. William Wood was licensed to strike up to 360 tons of halfpence and farthings for Ireland. The coins were deeply unpopular, attacked by Jonathan Swift in the Drapier's Letters, and were recalled; Wood was compensated with a pension.
1701 and 1737· Anglo-Irish Thirteen Irish pence to the English shilling. A 1701 proclamation set the English shilling at 1s 1d Irish; in 1737 the gold guinea was fixed at 21s English or 22s 9d Irish, pegging the Irish pound at 12/13 of the English pound.
1804–1813· Anglo-Irish Bank of Ireland silver tokens. The Bank of Ireland issued 6-shilling silver tokens overstruck on Spanish dollars, followed by tokens in Irish pence.
1823–1826· Union The end of the first Irish pound. The last Irish halfpennies and pennies, with the crowned harp, were struck in 1822–23. In 1826 the Irish pound was merged with sterling, and standard British coinage was used throughout the island. Some Irish banks kept issuing paper notes, but in sterling.
1926–1927· Saorstát pound A currency for the Free State. The Coinage Act 1926 and the Currency Act 1927 created the Saorstát pound, pegged one-for-one to sterling and overseen by the Currency Commission. A banking commission chaired by Professor Henry Parker Willis of Columbia University had recommended it in January 1927.
10 September 1928· Saorstát pound The Lady Lavery notes. The Series A notes went into circulation, printed in London by Waterlow and Sons. Each carried Sir John Lavery's portrait of his wife Hazel as Kathleen Ní Houlihan; the reverses showed river heads from the Custom House, Dublin. The original painting hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland on loan from the Central Bank.
12 December 1928· Saorstát pound The animal coins. The Free State's first coins went into circulation: a harp on one side, and on the other Percy Metcalfe's animals, chosen by a committee chaired by W. B. Yeats, which judged the entries with the artists' names removed. That article names seven competing artists; the article on Metcalfe says he was chosen out of six. The coins were struck at the Royal Mint in London.
1937–1938· Irish pound Éire on the coins. After the Constitution of 1937 the coins read Éire instead of Saorstát Éireann, and from 10 May 1938 the currency was called the Irish pound.
12 April 1966· Irish pound The ten-shilling coin. Issued for the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, it was the only modern circulating Irish coin without the harp and the only one to show a real person, Pádraig Pearse; the reverse shows the death of Cú Chulainn.
15 February 1971· Decimal Decimal Day. Ireland and the UK decimalised on the same day: the pound kept its value and was divided into 100 new pence. Gabriel Hayes designed ornamental birds for the bronze coins; Metcalfe's bull, salmon and woodcock stayed on the 5p, 10p and 50p.
1976–1982· Decimal Series B notes. Designed by Servicon for the Central Bank, on the theme of Irish history: Queen Medb, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Jonathan Swift, W. B. Yeats and Turlough O'Carolan. No £100 note was issued. Lady Lavery stayed on as the watermark.
1978· Decimal Made in Sandyford. The Central Bank opened its Currency Centre at Sandyford, Dublin. Until then Irish notes were printed in England and coins struck at the Royal Mint.
30 March 1979· Decimal The break with sterling. Ireland joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and the UK did not; the one-for-one link with sterling that had held since 1928 ended.
1992–1996· Decimal Series C notes. Robert Ballagh won a limited competition among nine artists. The notes showed Catherine McAuley, James Joyce, Daniel O'Connell, Douglas Hyde and Charles Stewart Parnell. The £20 came first, rushed out after widespread forgery of the Series B £20.
1 January 1999· Euro The euro, on paper. The euro became Ireland's currency at a fixed rate of IR£0.787564 to €1. The Irish pound was the only one of the original currencies worth more than a euro.
1 January 2002· Euro Euro notes and coins. Euro cash arrived; Irish pound notes and coins stopped being legal tender on 9 February 2002. Irish coins and notes from 1928 on can still be exchanged at the Central Bank in Dublin.
In 1926 the government set up a committee to choose the coin designs: W. B. Yeats (chair), Thomas Bodkin, Dermot O'Brien, Lucius O'Callaghan, Barry Egan. It decided the harp would go on the coins, all lettering would be in Irish, nobody from "the present time" would appear, and religious themes would be avoided. Agriculture was chosen as the theme. The artists who competed were Jerome Connor, Albert Power, Oliver Sheppard, Paul Manship, Percy Metcalfe, Carl Milles, Publio Morbiducci, and the entries were judged with identifying marks removed. Metcalfe won.
Series A (1928–1977): Lady Lavery on every note, from 10s to £100, with river heads from the Custom House on the back. Between 1929 and 1953 the eight shareholding banks also had "Ploughman" consolidated notes, which were never legal tender.
Series B (1976–1993), on the theme of Irish history:
£1 · Queen Medb · Extract from Lebor na hUidre
£5 · Johannes Scotus Eriugena · Extract from the Book of Kells
£10 · Jonathan Swift · John Rocque's 1756 map of Dublin
£20 · W. B. Yeats · The Blasket Islands
£50 · Turlough O'Carolan · Carvings from the organ loft of St Michan's Church, Dublin
Series C (1992–2002), by Robert Ballagh, people who shaped modern Ireland:
£5 · Catherine McAuley · Children in a classroom, with Raifteirí's poem on the blackboard
£10 · James Joyce · A Custom House river head, believed to be the Liffey
£20 · Daniel O'Connell · A Repeal pledge of 1845, with the Four Courts
£50 · Douglas Hyde · An uilleann piper and the seal of Conradh na Gaeilge
£100 · Charles Stewart Parnell · Part of the Parnell Monument, O'Connell Street
All Irish euro coins carry one design, by Jarlath Hayes: a harp based on the Trinity College harp, with ÉIRE and the year in Gaelic type, inside the twelve stars of the European flag. Since 28 October 2015 cash totals may be rounded to the nearest 5 cent if both shop and customer agree; the 1c and 2c remain legal tender. (Irish euro coins ↗)
Northern Ireland: sterling, and bank notes
Northern Ireland has used British coins since partition; some UK £1 coins carried Northern Ireland designs, such as the flax plant (1986, 1991) and a Celtic cross with the Broighter torc (1996, 2001). Notes for use there have been issued by local banks since 1929. They are sterling, backed by deposits at the Bank of England: legal currency, but not legal tender anywhere in the UK.
The note-issuing banks in Wikipedia's article are Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank (formerly Northern Bank) and Ulster Bank, whose issuing right passed to National Westminster Bank in 2020. First Trust Bank stopped issuing in 2019, and its notes ceased to be legal currency after 30 June 2022. Northern Bank's millennium £5 of 2000 was the first polymer note to circulate anywhere in the UK.
Quick answersWhen were the first coins made in Ireland?
In Dublin, under the Hiberno-Norse king Sihtric (Sigtrygg) Silkbeard, in the 990s: Wikipedia's articles date the first pennies to about 997 and about 995. They copied the coins of Æthelred II of England.
Who designed the animals on the old Irish coins?
Percy Metcalfe, an English sculptor, whose designs were chosen by a committee chaired by W. B. Yeats; the coins went into circulation in December 1928. The animals were: woodcock (¼d), sow and farrow (½d), hen and chickens (1d), hare (3d), wolfhound (6d), bull (1s), salmon (2s), horse (2s 6d).
Who is the woman on the old Irish banknotes?
Hazel, Lady Lavery, painted by her husband Sir John Lavery as Kathleen Ní Houlihan. Her portrait was on the Series A notes from 1928 and stayed as the watermark on Series B and C until 2002.
How many Irish pounds to the euro?
The conversion rate was fixed at IR£0.787564 to €1. Euro notes and coins arrived on 1 January 2002, and the Irish pound stopped being legal tender on 9 February 2002.
Why do Northern Ireland banks print their own notes?
Some banks there hold a legal right to issue sterling notes, backed by deposits at the Bank of England. Notes for use in Northern Ireland have been issued since 1929. They are legal currency but not legal tender anywhere in the UK, though widely accepted.