1/2 Crown Dublin Siege coinage

Produced during the Confederate Ireland period, when the Catholic Confederation held Dublin under siege and royal coinage supply had effectively collapsed, these pieces were struck from melted plate silver — Church plate, household silver, whatever could be requisitioned. The irregular weight and crude fabric are structural, not incidental: the mint was working under siege conditions with improvised tools and no access to standard blanks.

The authorization came from the Marquess of Ormond, commanding Royalist forces in the city, making this a crown-loyalist emergency issue caught between two enemies simultaneously — the Confederate besiegers and, increasingly, a Parliament hostile to Charles I.