Gunmoney

Gunmoney is a numismatic term that refers to a coinage of James II minted from June 1689 to October 1690 during the conflict in Ireland with William III that followed the Glorious Revolution in Britain. James was short of the silver needed to mint money to pay his troops, and to pay for supplies.

He addressed this by issuing a token coinage made from obsolete cannon and other metallic scrap, to be redeemable later in silver. This coinage is referred to as gunmoney.

The coinage is unusual in a number of respects. The month of issue was shown on the coin as well as the year. Initially, gunmoney was issued in three denominations - sixpence, shilling (twelve pence) and half crown (two and a half shillings). Later, shillings were issued in the size of the original sixpence, half crowns were issued in the size of the original shilling, and crowns were issued in the size of the original half crown. (Crowns were exceptional in that they did not show the month of issue.) Many of the later issues were over-struck on the earlier lower denominations of the same size, and in many cases parts of the original design survived the striking process.

After the Battle of the Boyne, in July 1690, William's forces captured the Dublin mint, ending the issuing of gunmoney from Dublin. Subsequent issues were minted in Limerick. Gunmoney was demonetised by William III in 1691.