Nova Constellatio Patterns

About This Coin

Among the most intellectually ambitious experiments in early American monetary history, the Nova Constellatio Patterns represent Gouverneur Morris's visionary attempt to create a rational decimal coinage system for the fledgling nation. Struck in silver with plain edges, these pattern coins were produced under the direction of Morris, who served as Assistant Superintendent of Finance, with dies possibly engraved by Benjamin Dudley or Robert Birch. The series proposed denominations of 5 units, 100 units (Bit), 500 units (Quint), and 1000 units (Mark), establishing a mathematical framework that would replace the chaotic mixture of British, Spanish, and French coins then circulating throughout the states. The obverse features the eye of providence surrounded by thirteen stars within rays bearing the legend NOVA CONSTELLATIO, meaning "New Constellation," while the reverse displays the denomination and date. Though Congress ultimately adopted Thomas Jefferson's refined dollar-cent system rather than Morris's unit-based proposal, the Nova Constellatio patterns directly influenced the decimal foundation that became American monetary law through the Coinage Act of 1792. Surviving examples rank among the supreme rarities of American numismatics, with each denomination represented by only a handful of known specimens that document the intellectual architecture behind the nation's monetary founding.