Post-1776 States Coinage (1776-1788)

About This Series

Under the Articles of Confederation, which granted no exclusive coining power to the central government, individual states exercised their sovereign authority to produce copper coinage addressing the chronic shortage of small change that plagued post-Revolutionary America. Connecticut led in volume, authorizing copper coinage in 1785 and producing over 350 die varieties cataloged in the Miller reference across four years of production. Massachusetts struck copper cents and half cents in 1787-1788 at a Boston mint. New Jersey's copper coinage (1786-1788) featured a horse head and plow design with NOVA CAESAREA, while Vermont authorized Reuben Harmon Jr. to produce coppers that evolved from landscape to portrait designs. New York's copper coinage program operated in a gray area between authorized state coinage and private token production. These state coinages document a decentralized monetary system — a situation the Constitution's framers remedied by granting exclusive coining authority to the federal government in Article I, Section 8. Die variety collecting is a major pursuit, as the proliferation of dies across multiple contractors created hundreds of distinct combinations. Post-1776 states coinage represents the intersection of monetary necessity, political sovereignty, and private enterprise during America's formative decade.