(1616) Sommer Islands Sixpence - Large Portholes

Strike Type

Coin Details

Year

1616

Denomination

Colonials

Strike Type

Regular Strike

Series

Pre-1776 Private and Regional Issues (1616-1766)

Designer

Unknown (possibly prepared at the Royal Mint, London, c.1615-1616)

Composition

Brass, silver-washed

Edge

Plain

Auction Record

Price realized: $129,250
Sold: May 2014
Grade: AU50 NGC
Auction house: Heritage Auctions (Newman Collection)

Description

Produced circa 1616 for the Sommer Islands (modern Bermuda), this Large Portholes sixpence is among the earliest coins associated with English colonial presence in the Americas. Hogge money was the first coinage made for an English colony in America: shillings, sixpences, threepences and twopences for the Somers Islands (Bermuda), which James I authorized on June 29, 1615. The pieces are brass with a thin wash of silver and show a hog on the obverse; the shilling and sixpence show a ship on the reverse, while the two smaller values have a single ring of beads and no legend. They stood for amounts of tobacco, the money of the islands, and were given up by 1624. It is BMA Type I (Breen-3, W-11445), and the 1997 Bermuda Monetary Authority reference counts 19 examples. Cataloged as PCGS #5.