Ireland 2 shillings (florin) 1963 - Salmon

The coin's story

The florin, or two-shilling piece (flóirín in Irish), was worth one tenth of a pound. It belongs to the “Barnyard series”, the animal series designed by the English sculptor Percy Metcalfe for the first coinage of independent Ireland in 1928, and chosen by a committee chaired by the poet W. B. Yeats. The salmon, the emblematic fish of Irish rivers, also recalls the “Salmon of Knowledge” of Irish mythology. The first florins, from 1928 to 1943, were in 750‰ silver. Silver having become too expensive, it was abandoned, and from 1951 the coin was struck in copper-nickel, until 1968. After decimalisation in 1971, the florin continued to circulate as a 10 pence coin, until its withdrawal on 1 June 1994.