tdbcelts.org

There is no evidence that the Celts of Ireland struck coins in our period. It seems more likely that their portable wealth was in the form of ornaments for personal adornment (torcs, arm-bands, rings, necklaces, cloak pins, etc.). The first evidence for native coinage in Ireland dates to the coming of the Vikings sometime after 950AD. However, the Celts of the continent did strike coins which appear to have been made on the model of Macedonian coinage like the gold stater of Philip II of Macedonia.

Clann Law authorizes the production of the silver coin and states its value.

The stamping of official Clann coinage is now almost a mandated practice for our group. The coins have value since you must buy them from the Clann, or receive them as compensation in lawsuits. They are used as entry fees to certain games at events, and they are accepted as payment for services rendered at some of our neighboring groups. They are perfect for gambling with, and are coveted by all.

This page will serve as an online library page to catalog the various Clann coin stampings over the years. The smiths in our group are urged to stretch their memory back far enough to help improve this page by providing photos and comments. The goal is to take photographs of the various coins the Clann has produced over the years (at least the ones we have been lucky enough not to lose gambling) and attempt to place them in time and describe them a bit. Some of the early coins are getting quite rare and it's possible that we might end up creating a system of relative value for the various types as we identify them and perhaps realize their relative scarcity.


There are no specific Clann laws relating to how the Clann coin should look. It is my hope that cataloging them will create incentive to obtain new dies every so many years, perhaps to stamp as commemoratives for certain events, maybe in different metals and perhaps upon the election of a new Chieftan or another important event. A member with claim to an Aristocratic position might decide to sponsor the creation of a new die to commemorate his own position in society and aggrandize himself.

I have added a Norseland Mark in the book because it is a currency that we recognize.

What thinks the Clann on these suggestions?

Take two minutes you say?
A) nothing takes two minutes
B) especially not when you ask for my input.

I believe I have some of the first clan coins ever attempted… prototypes more like, and made prior to any research. I would have to find them though. The striking of coins is a concession to convenience. Coins were not struck natively in Ireland till the Viking age. The cow was the basic using of currency and all things figured in worth in relation it it. That is not to say coins were unknown – they are found in our period, just of foreign import. The worth of the coin was based on the metal it was made of rather than an abstract concept of credit. Anyway… we cant carry around cows with us to trade and gamble.. so the obverse of our coins were made to represent cattle by way of a celtic style bull on them. The reverse had the clan symbol on it.


The coin you call a duck – is supposed to be a raven, personally, I think it looks like a penguin. That was an attempt to make a smaller denomination in copper so we could make change from the original bronze coins. It was determined that the amount of effort for the smaller denominations was just not worth it, considering the relative small amount of coins in circulation at the time anyway. The first prototype had a bull obverse and sword on reverse (the sword was the original clan symbol) – done by Otto long ago – there were impractical for production both in size and method he used.


The first coins in circulation had a bull and sun – done by me. The “penguin” was done by Brogan. The triskel was done by Vollund and is out of silver. We have moved coin production to silver to be more in line with history. There was a unit of worth at our time called a “screpple”. It is a borrowing from the Roman “scruple” – a weight or measure – rendering the modern word “scruples” as morals and fair play are a type of balance or weight. Anyway, a screple was defined as 1/24th of an ounce (unga) of silver. We had thought to just use measured lumps of silver for trade... we had also thought to try and recreate coins that actually were found in Ireland during our time.. however, no one was thrilled with lumps, though I kinda like the idea – especially if we made “rings” that were striated in 1/24 of an ounce segments that could be broken off… but we were not confident we could pull it off to well nor did we think we could do justice to replicate a coin of the time period well enough (at the time anyway – that has changed I believe). Anyway – the solution was to make our own coins of silver that weigh 1/24th of an ounce. We were able to find blanks just about that weight and that’s what we continue to use. We gave Volund creative license to design what he thought best for the surface area he had to work with, hence the trickle.