Opposition is Aroused By Irish Coinage

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 580, 5 February 1929, Page 12

Opposition is Aroused By Irish Coinage

Currency Commission and Government Ignore Criticism

The stark realism of the new Irish coinage has aroused some opposition in certain circles where religious or historical or cultural emblems are considered more suitable to a coinage than hens, pigs, bulls and horses.

The coins are denounced as “pagan” and “materialistic,” but the currency commission and the Government quietly ignored the criticism and made arangements for the public issue of the coins before Christmas. And now there is a tremendous demand at the banks for the advance sets, which are being sold in cardboard and leather cases. Many View Exhibits of Coins in Museums Great numbers of people also visit the Metropolitan School of Art every day to see the exhibition of coins and designs there. In the adjoining case to that containing the designs and accepted coins of Percy Metcalfe, of Yorkshire, art, designs and a complete set of coins by Professor Public Morbiducci, of Rome. These were too late for the competition. Had they been received in time they might have stood a good chance of acceptance, though the Metcalfe series would be hard to excel. The figures are beautifully drawn, with a suggestion of freedom in some of them, especially in those of the woodcock and salmon, that makes them lifelike. There w T ere two American competitors, Paul Manship and Jerome Connor, New York; two Irish, Oliver Sheppard and Albert Power, both of the Royal Hibernian Academy; one Swedish, Carl Milles, and one Russian, Ivan Mestrovic. Jerome Connor’s designs are mostly allegorical, and Ivan Mestrovic sent in a beautiful design of a harper playing, but these subjects missed the point the committee of selection wanted to drive home, namely, that Ireland should turn its back on the past and face the future with the present as the starting point. W hen critics talk of “farmyard coins” and “Paddy and the pig,” they are met with the answer that agriculture is li'eland’s main industry. Pictures of Coins Set Tongues Wagging The harp on the back of all the coins is supposed to give all the poetry and art and music that is good for us, and the animals on the other side are intended to remind us of our daily round of duty and prevent us from indulging in daydreams. The conception of the coinage is frankly materialistic. Thus far the- coins have not been in general circulation, but the pictures of them and the special sets have set the tongues of the wags in motion and stories in abundance are going the rounds of Dublin.

Young and old are calling the coins by the names of the objects represented and not by the denomination of penny, shilling, etc., -which are in Irish only on the coins. There is a good time coming for the comic papers in Dublin!