The fifty pence (50p) ( ga, caoga pingin) coin was a subdivision of the Irish pound. It was introduced in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 17 February 1970. It replaced the ten-shilling coin and ten-shilling note when decimalised, and due to this conversion was introduced a year before Decimal Day in 1971. It is a seven-sided coin, an

equilateral curve A Reuleaux triangle is a curved triangle with constant width, the simplest and best known curve of constant width other than the circle. It is formed from the intersection of three circular disks, each having its center on the boundary of the ...

heptagon In geometry, a heptagon or septagon is a seven-sided polygon or 7-gon. The heptagon is sometimes referred to as the septagon, using "sept-" (an elision of ''septua-'', a Latin-derived numerical prefix, rather than '' hepta-'', a Greek-derived nu ...

of constant breadth (3 centimetres) and mass 13.5

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to th ...

s. The sides are not straight but are curved so that the centre of curvature is the opposite apex of the coin – this is an equilateral curve which allowed the coin to roll freely in

vending machines A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...

. It was of the same shape and size of the British coin of the same denomination, as both nations' pounds were pegged until 1979. The coin used the

woodcock The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...

design from the pre-decimal farthing coin, introduced to the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

in 1928. On 31 May 1988 a special design was circulated for the "

Dublin Millennium In the 1980s and 1990s, a number of areas in the Republic of Ireland held year-long festivals commemorating historic anniversaries. The country was in an economic depression at the time and these were excuses for some civic pride; the anniversari ...

", although Dublin is thought to have been founded by the Vikings in around 841 – the issue was regarded for publicity and collectors only. The millennium coin was the first decimal to feature words on it, the word in

Roman script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Ital ...

and in

Gaelic type Gaelic type (sometimes called Irish character, Irish type, or Gaelic script) is a family of Insular script typefaces devised for printing Classical Gaelic. It was widely used from the 16th until the mid-18th century (Scotland) or the mid-20th ...

, its equivalent in the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

. The coin was designed by Tom Ryan who would later design the Irish pound coin. About 5 million of these were produced, with 50 thousand proof coins also being produced. Production of fifty pence coins ceased between 1988 and 1996 because of previous oversupply and because of reduced demand following the introduction of the twenty pence coin. The coin was withdrawn on the advent of the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

in 2002, with its last minting issue in 2000.

References

External links

Irish coinage website – catalogue – decimal fifty pence
{{Irish currency and coinage fifty pence (decimal coin) Fifty-cent coins