1776 Massachusetts Half Penny - Indian

Coin Details

Description

Unique among all American colonial coins, this 1776 Massachusetts Half Penny is the only known example of its type, residing in the collection of the American Numismatic Society. The obverse depicts a standing Indian figure with bow and arrow, accompanied by the legend "PROVINCE OF MASSA" — a critical inscription indicating the piece was manufactured before July 4, 1776, while Massachusetts was still a British province rather than an independent state. The reverse features a seated Liberty figure on a globe with the legend "DEFENSOR LIBERTATIS" ("Defender of Liberty"), creating a striking juxtaposition between the provincial status acknowledged on the obverse and the liberty-oriented symbolism on the reverse. Cataloged as Breen-702 and documented at PCGS CoinFacts, this copper pattern was struck over a 1747 George II Halfpenny — the host coin's remnants visible beneath the new design provide both a terminus post quem for production and evidence of the overstrike technique used. The Indian figure on the obverse draws on a visual tradition associating Native American imagery with New England that dates back to the colonial seal of Massachusetts Bay Colony, while the Latin reverse legend anticipates the revolutionary rhetoric that would formally emerge within months of the coin's likely production date. As a unique piece held in an institutional collection, this Massachusetts Half Penny represents the absolute pinnacle of colonial American numismatic rarity — a coin that can never be acquired by private collectors.