Metcalfe is probably most famous for creating the obverse and reverse designs of the first coins of the Irish Free State, issued in 1928. This circulation set portrayed various Irish barnyard animals and has become known as the Barnyard Set. Royal Mint engraver
George Kruger-Gray had produced an innovative set of coin designs for South Africa in 1923, some of which carried thematic designs, for instance sparrows and a sailing ship, but most of them were still rather traditional in style. Metcalfe’s Irish set, by contrast, with its unity of theme, completely broke the mould. It must have looked thoroughly modern and ahead of its time in 1928. I cannot imagine it appearing or being accepted even ten years earlier, but society had changed rapidly after the horrors of the Great War, which smashed four empires.
Ireland itself was still a rather narrow-minded and inward-looking country in the 1920s. It had been oppressed first by the British and then by its own priests, who wielded great influence in the land. It is to the credit of the committee, headed by poet W B Yeats, that they had the courage to choose such radically novel designs, which were predictably criticised as “pagan” by the Irish Catholic Church, who would have preferred religious subjects to be depicted.
¼d. Woodcock.
½d. Pig and piglets.
1d. Hen and chicks.
3d. Hare.
6d. Irish wolfhound.
1s. Bull.
2s. Salmon.
2/6. Irish hunter (horse).
Designer: Percy Metcalfe.
