196 years ago today the good ship Pheasant arrived in the Port of Cork Ireland with the new imperial currency.

196 years ago today the good ship Pheasant arrived in the Port of Cork Ireland with "the new currency".

An Act of the British Parliament was passed in 1825 in order to "Assimilate the Currencies and Monies of Account throughout the United Kingdom". The purpose of the Act was to do away with the old Irish copper coinage and replace it with the new imperial currency.

The new coins were to be worth twelve pennies to the British silver shilling. The old Irish copper coins, as long as they remained current, were to pass at the existent rate, thirteen to the British silver shilling.

An announcement was made that a British ship, the Pheasant, had left London for Cork with a consignment of the new coins and would arrive in the city before the day decreed for the change over, 5 January 1826. This news caused great excitement as it was thought that it could lead to a run on the banks.

The change in the rate of exchange would affect the value of goods in the shops as well as the wages of the workers. It meant that labourers' wages, static at eight shillings per week for some time, would be reduced in value to seven shillings and four pence halfpenny. However, in a letter to the newspaper, a shopkeeper pointed out that, while the wages might be reduced, the cost of the goods would remain the same. The labourer would, accordingly, suffer. The problem was resolved when landowners and manufacturers agreed, at a meeting in the Commercial Buildings, to continue to pay the rate of eight shillings per week to the labourers.

The Pheasant and the new coinage, arrived in Cork on 4 January 1826.