1785 VT 1/2P Immune Columbia Half Penny

Coin Details

Auction Record

$28,200 • VF30 • 01-2015 • Heritage Auctions

Description

Cataloged as RR-2 and Whitman 2180, this rare 1785 Vermont copper is a muling that combines a Vermont VERMONTS obverse die bearing the sun, plow, and mountains landscape design with an Immune Columbia reverse depicting a seated Liberty figure and the legend IMMUNE COLUMBIA ("Columbia/America is free"). This die combination provides compelling physical evidence that the same minting facility or die sinkers were involved in producing both Vermont's authorized copper coinage and the experimental Immune Columbia series — two ostensibly separate coinage programs linked by shared manufacturing resources. The Vermont obverse die with VERMONTS (a Latinized form of the state name) represents the earliest phase of Vermont copper production under the franchise granted to Reuben Harmon Jr. of Rupert in 1785, featuring the pastoral landscape imagery that characterized the first year's coinage before the shift to portrait-type obverses in 1786. The Immune Columbia reverse, with its seated Liberty and freedom legend, connects to the broader group of 1785 Immune Columbia patterns being produced by various private operators hoping to secure government coinage contracts. Very rare and of considerable historical importance, this muling documents the interconnected web of private minting operations during the Confederation period, when the same workshops, die sinkers, and equipment might service multiple coinage programs simultaneously — producing authorized state coppers, experimental national patterns, and sometimes counterfeit British halfpence from the same facilities.

Rarity Notes

Very rare. An important muling connecting Vermont and Immune Columbia coinage.

Cross References

RR-2; Whitman 2180