1 Shilling - Philip and Mary

Philip and Mary's Irish shilling of 1555 belongs to a brief and politically fraught coinage program launched after Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain in 1554. The Irish issues were struck at a markedly lower silver fineness than their English counterparts — a deliberate policy reflecting the Tudor administration's long-standing habit of debasing Irish currency relative to sterling, a practice stretching back to Henry VIII's aggressive debasements of the 1540s that had already eroded confidence in Dublin-struck coin.

The Spink reference 6500 places this among the rarer Philip and Mary issues. The marriage itself lasted only until Mary's death in 1558, giving this entire coinage type a window of under four years.