Pre-1776 States Coinage (1652-1774)

Before 1776 only a few colonies, or their proprietors, had coins made for them, and each case had its own story. This series holds three of them; the Massachusetts silver of 1652-1682 has its own series.

Maryland. Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, took his 1632 charter, which did not mention coinage, as allowing him one and had shillings, sixpences and fourpences (groats) made in England for his colony some time before October 1659. The coins carry his bust and his crowned arms. They were of sterling silver but about a quarter lighter than English coins of the same value. On October 4, 1659, after a complaint by an officer of the Tower Mint, the Privy Council ordered Calvert's arrest as a false coiner, and he was heard the next day; no penalty is recorded. In April 1662 a Maryland law told each householder to exchange tobacco for the new money, which suggests an issue of about £2,500. A few copper pennies (denarii) are known and are thought to be patterns.

New Jersey. The St. Patrick coppers are older than their American story. Their maker is unknown: writers have placed them in the 1640s under Charles I or the Irish Confederates, while Michael Hodder dated them to about 1672-1675, and the Dublin arms on the larger piece point to Ireland. In 1681 the Quaker merchant Mark Newby left Dublin for West New Jersey with a quantity of the larger pieces, and in May 1682 the West Jersey Assembly made them current as halfpence. Newby died the next year, and his estate redeemed £30 of the coppers.

Virginia. Virginia asked for copper coin many times from the 1640s on. A royal warrant of May 20, 1773 finally allowed up to twenty-five tons of halfpence at the Tower Mint, 60 to the pound, and Eric Newman called them the only fully authorized coinage made for any of the colonies that became the United States. About five tons, some 672,000 coins, arrived in February 1774. The colony's treasurer held them back until a royal proclamation of November 16, 1774, and they were put out in 1775. A few proof pieces of 1773 and silver pieces dated 1774 come from the same work.

Lord Baltimore coins. The obverse shows Calvert's bust facing left with his name and title as lord of Maryland; the reverse shows a crowned shield with the value in Roman numerals and a Latin motto that Mossman translates as "Increase and be Multiplied." The shilling, sixpence and fourpence are silver; the penny is copper. The coins are undated and are listed as (1659).

St. Patrick coppers. The obverse shows a figure of King David playing a harp under a crown, often with a spot of brass on the crown, and the legend FLOREAT REX. The farthing's reverse shows St. Patrick with a cross driving out serpents and the legend QVIESCAT PLEBS. The larger piece, called a halfpenny, shows the saint holding out his cross to the people beside the arms of Dublin, with ECCE GREX.

Virginia halfpence. The obverse has a bust of George III and GEORGIVS III REX; the reverse has the arms of Virginia with VIRGINIA and the date 1773. Check the obverse for a period after GEORGIVS or none. The 1773 proof, called a penny, is broader, heavier and has a proof surface; the 1774 silver piece has a larger bust and reads GEORGIVS III DEI GRATIA.

Maryland. The MVLTILICAMINI sixpence comes from a reverse die that drops the P of the motto. The copper shilling is a shilling struck in copper instead of silver, and its purpose is not recorded. A hoard of 19 sixpences found at Fulbeck Hall in England and sold in 2002 accounts for many of the sixpences now known.

St. Patrick farthings. Besides the copper farthing, the series includes a halo variety with a nimbus around the saint's head, the No C die that reads QVIESAT (Martin 4d.1-Gg.1), and strikings in silver and gold. The die pairs are cited by John Martin's numbers, such as Martin 1c.1-Aa.1 for one halo farthing.

Virginia. Newman listed 22 die varieties of the 1773 halfpence, from 17 obverse and 20 reverse dies. His 1-A pair, struck with proof surfaces on heavier planchets, he took for trial pieces made before the regular coinage. He knew four of the 1774 silver pieces, all brilliant proofs, and suggested they might better be called a pattern halfpenny in silver.

The Lord Baltimore shillings, sixpences and groats are silver of sterling fineness (.925); at three quarters of the English standard the shilling should weigh 69.82 grains, though Mossman's illustrated example weighs 64.2. The Maryland penny is copper. The St. Patrick pieces are copper with a small brass splasher set on the crown, which Mossman reads as both decoration and a guard against copying; strikings in silver and gold are also known. The Virginia halfpence are copper at a legal 116.7 grains, 60 to the pound, and Newman found most of them between 115 and 120 grains; the 1-A proofs weigh about 135 grains. The 1774 pieces are silver. None of these coins has a recorded mintage, except that the five tons shipped to Virginia amounted to about 672,000 halfpence.