The Associated Irish Mine Company operated the Cronebane copper mines in County Wicklow, one of the most productive copper workings in late eighteenth-century Ireland. The token was issued to address a chronic shortage of small change — a problem endemic across Britain and Ireland during this period, when the Royal Mint had effectively abandoned copper coinage for decades. Private traders and industrial concerns filled the void themselves.
Dalton & Hamer 51 is among the more frequently encountered Wicklow pieces, suggesting the mine issued in substantial quantity. The Cronebane series was struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by Boulton's Soho Mint.
The Associated Irish Mine Company operated the Cronebane copper mines in County Wicklow, one of the most productive copper workings in late eighteenth-century Ireland. The token was issued to address a chronic shortage of small change — a problem endemic across Britain and Ireland during this period, when the Royal Mint had effectively abandoned copper coinage for decades. Private traders and industrial concerns filled the void themselves.
Dalton & Hamer 51 is among the more frequently encountered Wicklow pieces, suggesting the mine issued in substantial quantity. The Cronebane series was struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by Boulton's Soho Mint.