The pound ( Irish: ) was the

currency A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general ...

of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

until 2002. Its

ISO 4217 ISO 4217 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines alpha codes and numeric codes for the representation of currencies and provides information about the relationships between individual ...

code was IEP, and the

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

was £ (or IR£ for distinction). The Irish pound was replaced by 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 . ...

on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin circulation until the beginning of 2002.

First pound

The earliest Irish coinage was introduced in the late 10th century, with an

£sd £sd (occasionally written Lsd, spoken as "pounds, shillings and pence" or pronounced ) is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe, especially in the British Isles and hence in several countries of the ...

system of one pound divided into twenty

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

s, each of twelve silver pence. Parity with sterling was established by King John around 1210, so that Irish silver could move freely into the English economy and help to finance his wars in France. However, from 1460, Irish coins were minted with a different silver content than those of England, so that the values of the two currencies diverged. During the Williamite War of 1689–1691, King James II, no longer reigning in England and Scotland, issued an emergency base-metal coinage known as gun money. In 1701, the relationship between the Irish pound and sterling was fixed at £13 Irish to £12 stg. (The

Pound Scots The pound (Modern and Middle Scots: ''Pund'') was the currency of Scotland prior to the 1707 Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was introduced by Da ...

had yet another value; it was absorbed into sterling in 1707 at a ratio of 12 to 1.) This relationship made it possible for Irish copper coins to circulate with English silver coins, since thirteen Irish pence had the same value as one shilling sterling. In 1801, the

Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label= Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...

became part of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, but the Irish pound continued to circulate until January 1826. Between 1804 and 1813, silver tokens worth 10d were issued by the Bank of Ireland and were denominated in pence Irish. The last copper coins of the Irish pound were minted in 1823, and in 1826 the Irish pound was merged with the pound sterling. After 1826, some Irish banks continued to issue paper currency, but these were denominated in sterling, and no more distinctly Irish coins were minted until the creation of 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 the 20th century.

Second pound

pound

From continuing to use sterling after its independence (1922), the new

( ga, Saorstát Éireann) introduced its own currency from 1928. The new Free State pound was defined by the 1927 Act to have exactly the same weight and fineness of gold as did the

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'. The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...

at the time, having the effect of making the new currency pegged at 1:1 with sterling. rather than parity with sterling was maintained for another fifty years. As with sterling, the

system was used, with the Irish names (plural: ), (plural: ) and (plural: ). Distinctive coins and notes were introduced, the coins from 1928 (in eight denominations: d, d, 1d, 3d, 6d,

(1/–),

florin The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purc ...

(2/–), half crown (2/6) and in 1966 a 10/– coin, a commemorative piece not meant for circulation) all but the 3d and 6d had the same dimensions as their British counterparts, the Irish coins being thicker nickel coins in contrast to the thin silver ones issued in the UK. However, sterling specie generally continued to be accepted on a one-for-one basis everywhere, whereas Irish coin was not generally accepted in the United Kingdom.

Irish pound

The name of the state was officially changed to "Ireland" ( Irish: ) on the coming into force of the Constitution of Ireland on 29 December 1937. On 10 May 1938, the name of the currency became the Irish pound.

Decimalisation

The ''Report of the Metric System and Decimal Coinage Committee'' (1959) was amongst the first formal reports on

decimalisation Decimalisation or decimalization (see spelling differences) is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by powers of 10. Most countries have decimalised their currencies, converting them from non-decimal ...

of the currency, discussion continued into the 1960s on the topic. When the British government decided to decimalise its currency, the Irish government followed suit. The Decimal Currency Act 1969 replaced the traditional shilling and penny with a centesimal subdivision, the "new penny" (symbol: p). The pound itself was not revalued by this act and therefore banknotes were unaffected, although the 10/– note was replaced by a coin due to spiralling inflation. The new five pence coin correlated with the old 1/– coin, and the new 10 pence coin correlated with the old 2/– coin. New coins were issued of the same dimensions and materials as the corresponding new British coins. The Decimal Currency Act 1970 made additional provisions for the changeover not related with the issue of coins. Decimalisation was overseen by the Irish Decimal Currency Board, created on 12 June 1968. It provided changeover information to the public, including a pamphlet called ''Everyone's Guide to Decimal Currency''. The changeover occurred on

Decimal Day Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was Monday 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pounds, shillings, and pence. Before this date, the British pound sterling (symbol "£" ...

, 15 February 1971.

Breaking the link with sterling

The European Monetary System was introduced in the 1970s. Ireland decided to join it in 1978, while the United Kingdom stayed out. The

European Exchange Rate Mechanism The European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) is a system introduced by the European Economic Community on 1 January 1999 alongside the introduction of a single currency, the euro (replacing ERM 1 and the euro's predecessor, the ECU) as ...

finally broke the one-for-one link that existed between the Irish pound and the

pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and ...

; by 30 March 1979 an exchange rate was introduced. This period also saw the creation of the

Currency Centre The Currency Centre (also known as the Irish Mint) is the mint of coins and printer of banknotes for the Central Bank of Ireland, including the euro currency. The centre is located in Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland. The centre does not print the ...

at Sandyford in 1978, where banknotes and coinage could be manufactured within the state. Prior to this, banknotes were printed by specialist commercial printers in England, and coins were struck by the British Royal Mint.

1979–1999: Free-floating currency

Until 1986, all decimal Irish coins were the same shape and size as their UK counterparts. After this, however, all new denominations or redesigned coins were of different sizes to the UK coinage. The new 20p coin introduced that year and the £1 coin (introduced in 1990) were completely different in size, shape and composition from the previously introduced UK versions. When the UK 5p and 10p coins were reduced in size, the Irish followed suit, but the new Irish 10p was smaller than the new UK version introduced in 1992 and the new Irish 5p was slightly larger than the UK version introduced in 1990. The Irish 50p was never reduced in size (as it was in the UK in 1997).

Replacement with the euro

On 31 December 1998, the exchange rates between the

European Currency Unit The European Currency Unit (, ; , ECU, or XEU) was a unit of account used by the European Economic Community and composed of a basket of member country currencies. The ECU came in to operation on 13 March 1979 and was assigned the ISO 42 ...

and the Irish pound and 10 other EMS currencies (all but the pound sterling, the Swedish krona and the Danish krone) were fixed. The fixed conversion factor for the Irish pound was €1 = IR£0.787564. The initial sterling/euro exchange rate was £1 stg. = €1.42210, making £1 stg. about IR£1.12. By 1 January 2002, the day when euro cash was introduced, £1 stg. was worth about IR£1.29. Although the euro became the currency of the

eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU pol ...

countries including Ireland on 1 January 1999, it was not until 1 January 2002 that the state began to withdraw Irish pound coins and notes, replacing them with euro specie. All other eurozone countries withdrew their currencies in a similar fashion, from that date. Irish pound coins and notes ceased to be legal tender on 9 February 2002, although they are intended to be exchangeable indefinitely for euro at the

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a centra ...

. On 31 December 2001, the total value of Irish banknotes in circulation was €4,343.8 million, and the total value of Irish coins was €387.9 million. The Irish cash changeover was one of the fastest in the eurozone, with some shops illegally ceasing to accept pounds after the first week or two. With a conversion factor of 0.787564 Irish pounds to the euro,Of the 15 national currencies originally tied to the euro (also including the currencies of

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

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, the Irish pound was the only one whose conversion factor was less than 1, i.e. the unit of the national currency was worth more than one euro. 56%, by value, of Irish banknotes was withdrawn from circulation within two weeks of the introduction of euro banknotes and coins, and 83.4% by the time they ceased to have legal tender status. Withdrawal of coinage was slower, having a lower priority, with only 45% of coins withdrawn by 9 February 2002. All Irish coins and banknotes, from the start of the Irish Free State onwards, both decimal and pre-decimal, may be redeemed for euros (by bank transfer only) at the Central Bank of Ireland in Dublin.

References

External links

A guide to valuing all your old Irish coinsIrish banknotesIrish coinage website – history, images and catalogue.Overview of Irish pound from the BBCThe Irish Pound: From Origins to EMU
(734K PDF file, from Central Bank website).

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Pound Currencies of the British Empire Currencies of the Commonwealth of Nations Currencies with multiple banknote issuers Currencies of the Republic of Ireland Economic history of Ireland Modern obsolete currencies Currencies replaced by the euro 2002 disestablishments in Ireland 1928 establishments in Ireland Central Bank of Ireland