1787 Cent Massachusetts

Coin Details

Description

Produced at Massachusetts's own state mint in Boston — one of the few purpose-built state coining facilities in the Confederation period — the 1787 Massachusetts cent represents a systematic approach to state coinage that contrasted with the decentralized contract-based production used in New Jersey and Connecticut. Struck in copper at 10.2 grams with a 28 mm diameter and plain edge, cataloged as PCGS #302 with Ryder reference numbers and Whitman 6040, this moderately scarce coin belongs to the Post-1776 States Coinage (1776-1788) series. The Massachusetts cent features a distinctively American obverse design: an Indian with bow and arrow, accompanied by the word "COMMONWEALTH" — a deliberate republican statement replacing monarchical imagery with indigenous symbolism and democratic language. The reverse displays a heraldic eagle, predating the federal eagle design by several years and making the Massachusetts cents among the earliest American coins to feature this national bird. Massachusetts authorized its copper coinage in 1786, and production continued through 1788, with the mint producing both cent and half-cent denominations. The Ryder reference system catalogs the die marriages for Massachusetts coppers, and the variety of die combinations documented within the 1787 date alone demonstrates the substantial die inventory maintained at the state mint. The Massachusetts coinage is historically significant as a bridge between colonial-era monetary improvisation and the systematic federal coinage that would begin at the Philadelphia Mint in 1792.

Rarity Notes

Moderately scarce.

Cross References

Ryder; Whitman 6040