Sow into Cow

Children of the U. S. can count glibly, "five pennies are a nickel, two nickels are a dime;" but children of the Irish Free State must become even glibber. They must count in the following strange fashion:

"Two sows are a hen, three hens are a hare, two hares are a wolfhound, and two wolfhounds are a cow."

Such counting was actually studied last week by Irish tots, fingering and counting bright new Irish Free State coins, each adorned with a harp on one side and on the other animals as follows:

Denomination Approx. Value Animal

Florin $2.91 Salmon

Half Crown 60-c- Horse

Shilling 24-c- Cow

Sixpenny-bit 12-c- Wolfhound

Threepenny-bit 6-c- Hare

Penny 2-c- Hen

Halfpenny 1-c- Sow

Farthing 1/2-c- Woodcock

Throughout the week Irish Free State news-organs published hundreds of letters from irate citizens, most of whom wanted to know why neither St. Patrick nor the Shamrock appears on any of the new coins. The Committee on Coins, which chose the designs, is chairmanned by symbol-loving Poet William Butler Yeats, winner of the Nobel Prize. Shrewd Poet Yeats offered no explanation or defense of the coins, merely observing that the designs were made by Sculptor Percy Metcalfe of Yorkshire, England, who triumphed in competition with such Masters as Paul Manship and Ivan Mestrovic.