MITRE is used by the writers of the Irish history for a fort of base money, which was very common there about the year 1270, and for 30 years before and as many after.

There were besides the mitre several other pieces, called, according to the figures impressed upon them, rofaries, lionades, eagles, and by the like names. They were imported from France and other countries, and were so much below the proper currency of the kingdom, that they were not worth so much as a halfpenny each. They were at length decreed in the year 1302, and good coins struck in their place. These were the first Irish coins in which the sceptre was left out. They were struck in the reign of Edward, the son of our Henry III., and are still found among the other antiquities of that country. They have the king's head in a triangle full faced. The penny, when well preserved, weighs 22 grains; the halfpenny 10½ grains.