William Wood's halfpence
E682397
William Wood's halfpence were a controversial early 18th-century copper coinage for Ireland that sparked widespread public outrage and political opposition, famously condemned by Jonathan Swift in the Drapier's Letters.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| William Wood's halfpence canonical | 1 |
| Wood's Halfpence scheme | 1 |
| Wood’s halfpence | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7703517 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: William Wood's halfpence Context triple: [Drapier's Letters, mainSubject, William Wood's halfpence]
-
A.
Westminster Quarters
Westminster Quarters is the famous melodic clock chime sequence, best known for ringing from the clock tower housing Big Ben in London.
-
B.
threepence
Threepence is a former British coin worth one-fortieth of a pound sterling, historically used as a small-denomination piece in everyday transactions.
-
C.
Irish penny
The Irish penny was a medieval silver coin used in Ireland under English rule, reflecting the economic and political influence of the English crown on the island.
-
D.
Saxon thaler
The Saxon thaler was a large silver coin and monetary unit used for centuries in Saxony, influential in the development of the thaler and later the dollar across Europe and beyond.
-
E.
imperial chrysobulls
Imperial chrysobulls are formal Byzantine imperial decrees, typically issued on gold-sealed parchment, granting privileges, rights, or properties to institutions or individuals.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: William Wood's halfpence Target entity description: William Wood's halfpence were a controversial early 18th-century copper coinage for Ireland that sparked widespread public outrage and political opposition, famously condemned by Jonathan Swift in the Drapier's Letters.
-
A.
Westminster Quarters
Westminster Quarters is the famous melodic clock chime sequence, best known for ringing from the clock tower housing Big Ben in London.
-
B.
threepence
Threepence is a former British coin worth one-fortieth of a pound sterling, historically used as a small-denomination piece in everyday transactions.
-
C.
Irish penny
The Irish penny was a medieval silver coin used in Ireland under English rule, reflecting the economic and political influence of the English crown on the island.
-
D.
Saxon thaler
The Saxon thaler was a large silver coin and monetary unit used for centuries in Saxony, influential in the development of the thaler and later the dollar across Europe and beyond.
-
E.
imperial chrysobulls
Imperial chrysobulls are formal Byzantine imperial decrees, typically issued on gold-sealed parchment, granting privileges, rights, or properties to institutions or individuals.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
copper coinage
ⓘ
early 18th-century coinage ⓘ token coinage ⓘ |
| associatedWork | Drapier's Letters ⓘ |
| authorizedBy |
King George I of Great Britain
ⓘ
linked to:
George I of Great Britain
|
| category |
British colonial coinage
ⓘ
Irish numismatics ⓘ |
| compensationAmount | £3,000 per year for eight years ⓘ |
| controversial | true ⓘ |
| country | Kingdom of Great Britain ⓘ |
| criticizedBy | Jonathan Swift ⓘ |
| denomination |
farthing
ⓘ
halfpenny ⓘ |
| economicImpact | feared inflation of Irish small change ⓘ |
| endDate | 1724 ⓘ |
| faceValueCurrency | pound sterling ⓘ |
| famouslyCondemnedIn | Drapier's Letters ⓘ |
| geographicScope | Kingdom of Ireland ⓘ |
| grantedBy | royal patent ⓘ |
| grantee | William Wood ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
important episode in Irish political history
ⓘ
symbol of Irish resistance to English economic control ⓘ |
| intendedForUseIn | Ireland ⓘ |
| issuer | William Wood ⓘ |
| legalStatus | royal patent coinage ⓘ |
| material | copper ⓘ |
| maximumAuthorizedMintage | £108,000 face value ⓘ |
| mintingLocation | England ⓘ |
| monarchDuringIssue | George I of Great Britain ⓘ |
| notableFor |
major public agitation in Ireland
ⓘ
sparking the Drapier's Letters controversy ⓘ |
| opposedBy |
Irish Parliament
ⓘ
linked to:
Parliament of Ireland
Irish landowners ⓘ Irish merchants ⓘ |
| opposedIn | Ireland ⓘ |
| perceivedQuality | inferior ⓘ |
| period | Georgian era ⓘ |
| politicalContext | Anglo-Irish constitutional tensions ⓘ |
| publicReaction | widespread public outrage in Ireland ⓘ |
| reasonForOpposition |
alleged debasement of Irish currency
ⓘ
fear of economic exploitation of Ireland ⓘ lack of consent from Irish Parliament ⓘ |
| region | British Isles ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Anglo-Irish relations
ⓘ
linked to:
British–Irish relations
Drapier's Letters controversy ⓘ
linked to:
Drapier's Letters
Irish coinage ⓘ |
| resultedIn |
compensation to William Wood
ⓘ
partial withdrawal of the patent ⓘ |
| startDate | 1722 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: William Wood's halfpence Description of subject: William Wood's halfpence were a controversial early 18th-century copper coinage for Ireland that sparked widespread public outrage and political opposition, famously condemned by Jonathan Swift in the Drapier's Letters.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Third Letter to the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom of Ireland
→
mainSubject
→
Wood’s halfpence
ⓘ
linked to: William Wood's halfpence
linked to: William Wood's halfpence