The fifty pence (50p) () coin was a subdivision of the

Irish pound The pound ( Irish: ) was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or £Ir for distinction.) The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin circulation unti ...

. It was introduced in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

on 17 February 1970. It replaced the ten-shilling coin and

ten-shilling note The Bank of England 10 shilling note (notation: 10/–), colloquially known as the 10 bob note, was a pound sterling, sterling banknote. Ten shillings in £sd (written 10s or 10/–) was half of one pound. The ten-shilling note was the smallest de ...

when decimalised, and due to this conversion was introduced a year before

Decimal Day Decimal Day () in the United Kingdom and in Republic of Ireland, Ireland was Monday 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pound sterling, pounds, Shilling (British coin), shillings, and pe ...

in 1971. It is a seven-sided coin, an equilateral curve

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 ''Wikt:septa-, septa-'' (an elision of ''Wikt:septua-, septua-''), a Latin-derived numerical prefix, rather than ...

of constant breadth (3 centimetres) and mass 13.5

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

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 dispenses 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 payment is otherwise m ...

. 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 sandpipers 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 (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

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 anniversar ...

", 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 the Roman script, is a 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 Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

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 Early Modern Irish. It was widely used from the 16th century until the mid-18th century in Scotland and t ...

, its equivalent in the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

. The coin was designed by Tom Ryan who would later design the

Irish pound coin The one pound (£1) () coin, worth one Irish pound, was used in Ireland from 20 June 1990 until the formal adoption of euro currency in 2002. The last issue was minted in 2000. The coin was the largest Irish coin since decimalisation: its diamete ...

. 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 (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

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