 William Wood was authorised in 1722 to produce up to 360 tons of halfpence and farthings for Ireland at 30 pence to the pound over a period of fourteen years for an annual fee of £800 paid to the king.These coins were unpopular in Ireland, largely due to Jonathan Swift's polemical "Drapier's Letters", and Wood lost his patent though compensated with a pension.After the end of the English Civil War, copper farthings and halfpennies resumed production, and pennies were added in 1805.