| Description |
I believe any coins dated 2011 or later and stamped IRA are actually issues of the former Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA). In 2011 RIRA reorganized its shattered organization by merging with two smaller Nationalist paramilitaries, ONH and RAAD. Though dubbed the New IRA by the media, the group branded themselves IRA. They thought themselves successors to an organization that no longer functioned militarily, but only politically as Sinn Fein. The look of this example, the first I've seen, exhibits the same characteristics as the old RIRA counterstamps. A heavy strike defacing the Queen's portrait applied on a 1-Pound coin. Very typical as nearly always seen. The last legitimate IRA stamp that I'm aware of is struck on a 1999 dated coin. The seller received this example in change in Northern ireland. Purchased from Christopher McDonnell / Havertown, Pennsylvania, USA. (Fb. 25, 2021) ($10). |
 2.JPG)