Connecticut Copper Coins

About This Coin

Connecticut granted Samuel Bishop, Joseph Hopkins, James Hillhouse and John Goodrich leave to coin coppers on October 20, 1785, up to 10,000 pounds in value, each weighing six pennyweight like a British halfpenny, with a head and AUCTORI CONNEC on one side and Liberty seated with an olive branch and INDE ET LIB on the other. The grantees formed the Company for Coining Coppers at New Haven, and a committee of 1789 reported that its owners had coined until about June 1787 and that 28,944 pounds of coppers had passed the state inspectors. Crosby, quoting Charles Bushnell, names Abel Buell of New Haven as a maker of the dies. The busts are mailed or draped and face left or right, and the many hand-cut dies, some with misspelled legends, are listed by Henry C. Miller's numbers.