Ireland ½ penny 1964 - Sow and Piglets

The coin's story

The Irish halfpenny belongs to the famous “Barnyard series”, the first coinage of independent Ireland, launched in 1928. A committee chaired by the poet w. b. yeats then chose farm animals rather than portraits or political symbols, to represent a rural and agricultural Ireland. The designs were entrusted to the English sculptor Percy Metcalfe. The halfpenny shows a sow and her piglets: at the time, most country families raised at least one pig, fed on kitchen scraps. After the Constitution of 1937, the legend SAORSTÁT ÉIREANN (Irish Free State) was replaced in 1939 by the simple ÉIRE, and this type was struck until 1967. The coin disappeared with decimalisation in 1971.