With just seven Saturdays left to Christmas Eve, 2022, Thurles Shopping Centre, have begun displaying their new Christmas decorations.
Pic: G. Willoughby
“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha-penny will do.
If you haven’t got a ha-penny, then God bless you.”
N.B. The decimal halfpenny coin, latter the smallest denomination of our Irish pound, was first issued when the Irish currency was decimalised on February 15th 1971.
It was removed from circulation and demonetised some 16 years later, on January 1st 1987.
In the same year, 2.8 million of our halfpenny coins were melted down, leaving the halfpenny Irish coin (particularly the 1985 coin) now particularly rare, and of value to coin collectors; so give the ‘old man’ one Euro and save and keep your halfpenny’s dry.
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