More than 300 bidders competed for items from the "Terenure Collection" of Irish coins, which were offered for sale recently at Whyte's of Dublin. A piece of Celtic gold "ring money" was sold for £2,800 to a London dealer, and an Irish institution paid £3,000 for a small hoard of Viking silver ingots found in Co Limerick in 1840.

A Hiberno-Norse Phase One silver penny of Aethelred surpassed its estimate of £450-£600 to make £850 and a Phase IV "helmeted" bust silver penny, expected to fetch £750-£1,000, was sold for £1,900.

Other well-performing lots included: £850 for a Henry VIII three farthing coin; £2,000 for a Mary Tudor Irish shilling of 1553; £2,600 for a 1643 Charles I crown issued in Dublin during the Great Rebellion; and £3,200 for a 1927 silver sixpence designed by Publio Morbiducci for the Irish Free State's currency competition.