silvervigilante.com / By SV / January 31, 2013
A hoard of gold coins dating back nearly 400 years
has been found in the foundation of a Tipperary pub…and then reported to the government by the construction worker(s) who found it. The value of the 81 gold coins (hopefully for the workers’ sake there were a few more beforehand, although the Irish government could use all the help it can get against its European partners) has yet to be released, the coins date from the 1630s and early 1700s. The hoard was found in one of Carrick-on-Suir’s oldest public houses, and has been called the most significant discovery in then region in 32 years. There are in the set 35 Charles II coins, 25 James II coins, 19 William III and two William III and Mary III coins. South Tipperary County Museum curator Marie McMahon said the artefacts were stacked in tube-shaped bundles. Irish law states that all artefacts found belong to the State and must be reported.
The coins stem from a time of conquest and rebellion. From 1536, Henry VIII had decided to conquer Ireland and bring it under crown control. From the mid-16th to the early 17th century, crown governments carried out a policy of land confiscation and colonization known as Plantations. Scottish and English Protestant colonists were sent to the provinces of Munster, Ulster and the counties of Laois and Offaly. These Protestant settlers replaced the Irish Catholic landowners who were removed from their lands. These settlers formed the ruling class of future British appointed administrations in Ireland. Several Penal Laws aimed at Catholics, Baptists and Presbyterians, were introduced to encourage conversion to the established.
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