1774 1774' 1/2P Machin's Mills Half Penny

Coin Details

Description

Bearing the pre-Revolutionary date of 1774 — the year of the First Continental Congress and the Intolerable Acts — this Machin's Mills copper halfpenny was produced circa 1787-1790 at Thomas Machin's private mint near Newburgh, New York, as a lightweight imitation of the British George III halfpenny. Thomas Machin, an engineer for the Continental Army who had built fortifications in the Highlands and laid the chain across the Hudson at West Point, set up a works on Machin's Pond near Newburgh, New York, that Crosby says opened in 1787 with coining copper as its main purpose; its machinery was taken out in 1792, and its work was done in secret. The pieces on these pages imitate the British halfpenny of George III with dates from 1747 to 1788, and NGC files them as Machin's Mills and related pieces; Vlack's die numbers are the standard reference. PCGS lists it as #454.