Higley Copper Coins

About This Coin

Struck from copper mined at the Higley family's private mine in Granby, Connecticut, the Higley coppers stand among the earliest indigenous coinage produced in the American colonies. Dr. Samuel Higley, a physician and Yale-educated metallurgist, began producing these coppers around 1737, using copper ore from a mine he owned on Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury (the mine was technically in the Granby parish). The coins measure approximately 28 millimeters in diameter with a plain edge and feature a variety of obverse and reverse designs, most famously a standing deer (Connecticut stag) on the obverse and three hammers on the reverse, accompanied by the bold legend "VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE" — a pragmatic inscription reflecting the reality that these privately issued coins had no official legal tender status and circulated at whatever value the marketplace would bear. Earlier die varieties carried the legend "THE VALUE OF THREE PENCE" and a Roman numeral III, but local complaints about inflated valuation reportedly prompted Higley to replace the stated denomination with the more flexible "VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE." After Samuel Higley's death at sea in 1737, his brother John continued production for a brief period. Fewer than 70 genuine specimens are believed to survive across all die varieties, making Higley coppers among the rarest and most valuable of all colonial American coins. The crude but characterful engravings, the uniquely American copper source material, and the independent frontier spirit embodied in their inscriptions give Higley coppers an outsized significance in the narrative of pre-federal American numismatics. Collectors should be particularly vigilant about authentication, as the extreme rarity and value of genuine examples have attracted sophisticated forgeries.