(sold for $43.0)

1690, Ireland, James II. Large "Gun Money" 1/2 Crown Coin. Civil War Issue!

Mint Place: Dublin or Limerick Mint Year: 1690 (Apr. - for April)   Denomination:  1/2 Crown ("Gun money")  Condition: Minor deposits, otherwise a nice VF+ References: SCBC 6579N, KM-95 ($65 in VF!). R!  Material: Bronze or Brass (so-called gun metal) Weight: 12.83gm Diameter: 30mm

Obverse: Laureate, draped bust of king James II left. Legend: IACOBVS • II • DEI • GRATIA   Reverse: Shillings value as a roman numeral (XXX) above crossed scepters behind crown. Initials (J-R) in fields. Month (Apr.) below. Legend: MAG • BR • FRA • ET • HIB • REX • 1690 •

In 1688 James II fled from England to France and the   English crown passed to his daughter Mary and her husband William of   Orange. After drumming up Catholic support on the Continent, James   landed in Ireland in March 1689 to continue his struggle to regain   control. Having insufficient funds to underwrite his war efforts, a plan   was devised to issue official base metal token coins which would be   exchanged for sterling silver once the war was won. Shortly after the   inception of their issue, months were added to the dates to facilitate a   staggered redemption plan once the war was over. The coins were made of   brass from old cannon, bells, and other scrap metal. They would later   become known as 'Gunmoney' coins. After William III seized the Dublin   mint following the Battle of the Boyne, the coins were demonetized.

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James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England, Scotland,   and Ireland from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to   reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Some of   James's subjects were unhappy with James's belief in absolute monarchy   and opposed his religious policies, leading a group of them to depose   him in the Glorious Revolution. The Parliament of England deemed James   to have abdicated on 11 December 1688. The Parliament of Scotland on 11   April 1689 declared him to have forfeited the throne. He was replaced   not by his Catholic son, James Francis Edward, but by his Protestant   daughter, Mary II, and his son-in-law, William III. William and Mary   became joint rulers in 1689. James II made one serious attempt to   recover his crowns, when he landed in Ireland in 1689 but, after the   defeat of the Jacobite forces by the Williamite forces at the Battle of   the Boyne in the summer of 1690, James returned to France. He lived out   the rest of his life under the protection of his cousin and ally, King   Louis XIV.

James is best known for his belief in absolute   monarchy and his attempts to create religious liberty for his subjects.   Both of these went against the wishes of the English Parliament and of   most of his subjects. Parliament, opposed to the growth of absolutism   that was occurring in other European countries, as well as to the loss   of legal supremacy for the Church of England, saw their opposition as a   way to preserve what they regarded as traditional English liberties.   This tension made James's three-year reign a struggle for supremacy   between the English Parliament and the Crown, resulting in his   deposition, the passage of the English Bill of Rights, and the   Hanoverian succession.