1/2 Penny - Edward I Second coinage, Class I, Dublin

Edward I's Irish recoinage of 1279 was a deliberate administrative intervention — the existing currency had been so heavily clipped and debased that trade was collapsing in the Dublin markets. The Crown recalled and restruck at a uniform standard, with Dublin operating as the principal Irish mint under appointed wardens answerable directly to the English exchequer. Class I pieces are distinguished from later classes by their rounder, more carefully produced flans, a byproduct of the stricter early supervision that loosened as the recoinage volume ramped up.