Groat - Henry VII Three crowns, Geraldine

The "Geraldine" designation here is the key to understanding why this coin exists. Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, controlled the Dublin mint as Lord Deputy and was the dominant political force in Ireland throughout the 1480s — loyal in name to whoever sat on the English throne but effectively running the island as his own domain. In 1487 he backed the Lambert Simnel imposture, crowning the pretender as "Edward VI" in Dublin, which places this issue in genuinely contested dynastic territory. Whether struck before or after that coronation farce remains debated among specialists.