Wood’s patent shows how a decision about everyday copper could acquire constitutional significance when authorised in London for Ireland. The article’s careful chronology is important: in 1722, before Swift’s pamphlets and parliamentary condemnation, the controversy was still developing. Concerns about reliable small change, prices and confidence may have intersected with resentment over limited autonomy after the Declaratory Act. Meanwhile, Dublin’s celebration of George I suggests that public loyalty and political unease were not incompatible. How should we weigh economic vulnerability against constitutional anxiety in explaining why Wood’s patent became so politically charged in its earliest phase within Irish society then?