William Wood

” William Wood, an English manufacturer, had been authorized to mint coins for Ireland; the outcry against this alleged exploitation by the arbitrary creation of a monopoly became so violent that it could be terminated only by withdrawing the concession from Wood.

…granted to the English entrepreneur William Wood to mint a debased Irish coinage, derisorily termed “Wood’s halfpence.” Under pressure from, among others, Jonathan Swift, the satirist, whose “Drapier’s Letters” furiously attacked him, Wood revoked his patent in 1725 (see below Coins of the United States). Irish coinage was discontinued in…

…Rosa Americana pieces, struck by William Wood of Wolverhampton under royal patent dated July 12, 1722, received a disappointingly small circulation in New York and New England. Another coinage by Wood in 1722–24, intended for Ireland but rejected there because of scandalous circumstances surrounding his purchase of the royal patent,…