more abundant materials and with higher qualifications, to come forward and to do better. I have to express my deep obligations to Dr. Aquilla Smith for the drawings of all the coins engraved in this work, and also for allowing me to publish the coins in Plate 25, being part of an intended supplement to his Essay "On the Irish Coins of Edward the Fourth," and now first presented to numismatists: as also for drawing up the paper explanatory of the coins, the catalogue of the contents of the five plates of coins, and a translation of some passages from the De Antiquis Legibus Liber. No To another valued friend, John Lindsay, Esq. barrister-at-law, who is literally my standing counsel in all doubts and difficulties, I owe a counsellor's assizes-bagfull of obligations for advice and information of all sorts and kinds, I may truly say, "too numerous to mention." Since the appearance of the Olla Podrida, Mr. Lindsay has published a third contribution to the numismatic world, "A View of the Coinage of Scotland." work in any branch of numismatics was more wanting. Death prevented Snelling from bringing his good sense to bear on this intricate subject; and Cardonel's defects, who attempted to grapple with its difficulties, are well known. But the patient industry, untiring research, and acute perception which could bring light and order into the chaotic darkness and confusion of the HibernoDanish coinage, has rendered a similar service to that of Scotland, scarcely less puzzling and bewildering,—a coinage which, within a less extent of period, presents probably more difficulties than any other in Europe. And if Mr. Lindsay has left any of its coins not definitely appropriated, he has established an unbroken series, which is more than at present we can say of our own (the English), as I think we are unable positively to assign any particular or individual coin to Henry the Fifth, though we know he must have coined extensively. Edward the Fifth is likewise deemed a blank in the series in our cabinets, but I consider improperly; for I have not the slightest doubt but that those coins of an Edward with the mint-mark of a boar's head were coined for and during the short reign of Edward the Fifth, and I think it very probable that those very rare Irish threecrown groats with the letter E under the shield on the reverse (see Olla Podrida, Plate 13, No. 4,) were also coined during the short period that Edward the Fifth was on the throne. It would be a marked distinction from his father's coinage, without occasioning the loss of any dies that might have been engraved but were unused; and this we know was an object that was then much considered at the Mint, for we have Drogheda groats of Richard the Third, the letters "RIC" of which are evidently and clearly punched in over those of "EDW." Even so lately as Queen Elizabeth's reign this system was continued; for any person may frequently notice on her series of sixpences that a subsequent date has been punched in over that of a previous year. I have several; the latest is 1600 over 1599; and I have lately met with a shilling of George the First, the original date on the die, 1720, altered to 1721. Submitting these opinions as to the existence of coins of Edward the Fifth, with all the humility which becomes a provincial collector, to the consideration of the acknowledged Justinians of numismatics, and returning, after this digression, to my excellent friend, Mr. Lindsay, he must excuse my expressing a hope that he will not sit contented under the shadow of the laurels he has raised, triple though they be. There is another subject on which he may equally exercise his abilities-the coins of the Parthian kings; and, as it is now known that this inquiry has been abandoned on the Continent, there is the more necessity that it should be taken up by one whose extensive collection of the coins of the Arsacidæ, and long consideration of their difficulties, enable him "to take the bull by the horns," with every prospect of the same success that has crowned his laborious investigation of the coinage of Scotland, in which the number now published of hitherto unknown types is as remarkable as his elucidation of coins whose appropriation was uncertain or erroneous. I have to return my thanks to J. B. Bergne, Esq., to Sir Montague Chapman, Bart., to J. D. Cuffe, Esq. and to Major Moore of the 54th Regiment, for permission to engrave coins noticed in the description of the plates. Also to N. Carlisle, Esq. for his kind assistance in enabling me to obtain a copy of the important and interesting indenture of Edward the Fourth, by which Mr. Butler's discovery that three crowns were the ancient arms of Ireland is, I apprehend, confirmed beyond further dispute. To John Cuthbert Kearney, Esq. I have to return my best thanks for the very obliging manner in which, to gratify my antiquarian longings, he hunted up and dislodged the Collar of SS from its hiding-place perhaps of centuries; and to my friend Leonard Wyon, Esq. Second Engraver of Her Majesty's Mint, for the very able and correct drawing which illustrates my paper respecting this interesting relic, to which every justice has been rendered in the engraving by Mr. Martin. R. S. Cork, 1 September, 1846. PREFACE FOR 1853. JUST as I was prepared to publish a Supplement to my previous work the terrible visitation of 1846 fell upon Ireland, with its subsequent years of trial and afflictions, and the MSS. were laid by for "better times," which we still hope may come. But while I have been waiting for the return of "good times," time, such as it is, has been progressing and laying its heavy hand upon my shoulders, and reminding me that I have been cumbering the earth since 28th January, 1787, and therefore, in the common course of nature, if longer delayed this may be a duty devolved upon executors; and then suggesting a perusal of the caution on one of the Malvern encaustic tiles,*— Thenke. mon. pi. liffe Think, man, thy life May not ever endure, Of that thou art sure; If ever it avail thee, It is but a speculation. as well as that on the wall of Saint Edmund's Church, Lombard Street, London: * See Examples of Encaustic Tiles published by J. B. Nichols and Son, 1842, Part III. p. ii. |