Post-1776 Private and Regional Issues (1778-1820)

About This Series

Filling persistent gaps in America's federal coinage supply, privately produced tokens circulated alongside official Mint issues from the Revolutionary period through the early 19th century. The category encompasses diverse issues from merchants, speculators, and commercial ventures on both sides of the Atlantic. Prominent examples include Talbot, Allum & Lee cents (1794-1795), struck in England for a New York importing firm; Myddelton tokens advertising a Kentucky colonization scheme; Castorland medals commemorating a French settlement venture in upstate New York; and various Kentucky, Franklin Press, and other merchant tokens. Many were manufactured in Birmingham and other English industrial centers where sophisticated token-making infrastructure served Britain's own copper shortage, then exported to America where demand for small change remained insatiable. The designs frequently feature patriotic imagery — eagles, Liberty figures, and national mottoes — reflecting their intended American audience despite foreign manufacture. These private issues document the reality that the Philadelphia Mint's early production was insufficient for the growing nation's needs.