Proposed National Issues (1776-1787)

The Continental Currency pieces of 1776. In 1776 the Continental Congress was paying for the war with paper money and had almost no silver. Eric Newman found that Congress stopped printing $1 notes in the issue of July 22, 1776 and did not print them again until 1779, and he argued that a dollar coin was meant to take their place. The pieces dated 1776 copy the designs of the fractional notes of February 17, 1776: a sundial under the sun with FUGIO and MIND YOUR BUSINESS, and thirteen linked rings bearing the names of the states. Most were struck in pewter, a few in brass and silver. No act authorizing them has been found, and an article in The Numismatist in 2018 argued that they were souvenir tokens made in Britain Newman had concluded that they were made in America about July 1776.

The Nova Constellatio patterns of 1783. Robert Morris became Superintendent of Finance in 1781. In January 1782 he sent Congress a plan, worked out by his assistant Gouverneur Morris, for a mint and a decimal coinage built on a unit equal to a quarter grain of silver. Benjamin Dudley, an English craftsman, prepared the mint, and in early 1783 John Jacob Eckfeldt and Abraham Dubois made dies in Philadelphia. On April 2, 1783 Dudley brought Morris the first silver piece, and on April 22 several pieces as patterns, which Morris laid before Congress. Congress took no action, and in August Morris told Dudley the mint would not go ahead. The patterns passed to Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress, and to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote his own proposal for a decimal coinage based on the dollar.

The Fugio cents of 1787. On April 21, 1787 Congress authorized the Board of Treasury to contract with James Jarvis for copper coin of the federal standard, and on July 6 it fixed the design: thirteen linked circles around UNITED STATES and WE ARE ONE, and a sundial under the sun with FUGIO, 1787 and MIND YOUR BUSINESS. Jarvis had bought into the Connecticut coining company, and Newman places the striking at New Haven; Charles Bushnell, quoted by Crosby, named Abel Buell as the die maker. In 1788 the Bank of New York put a keg of Fugio cents in its vault, and when the hoard was examined in 1948, 1,641 coins remained.

Immune Columbia and Confederatio. In the same years a group of coppers with national themes appeared whose purpose is not recorded. The 1785 IMMUNE COLUMBIA pieces pair the eye-and-stars die of the Nova Constellatio coppers with Liberty seated, holding scales; the CONFEDERATIO pieces of 1785 and 1786 show thirteen stars in a glory. Crosby believed Thomas Wyon of Birmingham cut most of these dies and thought some were offered as patterns for state or national coppers.

Continental Currency. The legend around the sundial reads CONTINENTAL CURRENCY 1776, and Newman sorted the pieces by its spelling: the first obverse reads CURENCY, a second CURRENCY, a third adds EG FECIT, and a fourth reads CURRENCEY, an error copied from the one-sixth dollar note. When the CURRENCEY die was corrected, an ornament was punched over the old Y. The edge has a design of twin olive leaves. Several later copies exist, among them one credited to the dealer Thomas Elder; they are listed separately.

Nova Constellatio patterns. One side has an eye in a glory with thirteen stars and NOVA CONSTELLATIO, the other U.S. and the number of units inside a wreath with LIBERTAS JUSTITIA 1783. The units name the coin: 1,000 (the mark), 500 (the quint), 100 (the bit) and 5 (a copper piece). One quint has a plain ring instead of the legend.

Fugio cents. Collectors sort them by three features. The sun's rays are pointed or club-shaped, and club rays end round or concave. Beside FUGIO and the date stand small five-petaled cinquefoils, except on Newman's first obverse, which has a cross after the date and no cinquefoils. The band on the reverse reads UNITED STATES, STATES UNITED or, on one die, UNITED above STATES. The patterns read AMERICAN CONGRESS on the band and name the states on the links. Eric Newman's numbers, such as 1-B or 10-G, give the obverse and reverse.

Immune Columbia and Confederatio. The IMMUNE COLUMBIA reverse shows Liberty seated facing right with scales and a staff with cap and flag. The CONFEDERATIO side has thirteen stars in a large or a small circle within a glory; it was paired with an Indian and INIMICA TYRANNIS AMERICA or AMERICANA, GEN. WASHINGTON, an eagle with E PLURIBUS UNUM, IMMUNIS COLUMBIA and a shield.

1776 Continental Currency. The CURENCY piece in silver, in brass, the corrected CURRENCY in pewter, the EG FECIT pewter and silver pieces, the CURRENCEY error and the ornament after the date are listed with the later Elder copy and others.

1783 Nova Constellatio. The mark of 1,000 units, the quint with the legend, the plain obverse quint, struck first according to evidence reported since 2017, the bits with a plain and a decorated edge, and the copper five, which went to London in 1784 and came to light again in Europe in the late 1970s.

1787 Fugio cents. The cross-after-date dies are Newman 1-B with UNITED STATES, 1-L with STATES UNITED, 1-Z with raised rims on the band and 1-CC with the AMERICAN CONGRESS reverse. The cinquefoil types include UNITED STATES, STATES UNITED, UNITED above STATES (Newman 11-A), the eight-pointed stars and the dies with a 1 cut over a 1 laid sideways in the date, Newman 10-G and 10-T. Among the club rays are the rounded ends, the FUCIO misspelling (Newman 2-C) and the concave ends with UNITED STATES or STATES UNITED. Die and hub impressions such as hub DD show how the dies were made, and the New Haven restrikes of about 1860 are listed apart from the coins of 1787.

Immune Columbia, Immunis Columbia and Confederatio. The 1785 IMMUNE COLUMBIA pieces include the gold piece, which Crosby saw in the Mint cabinet, struck over a guinea, the silver pieces with reeded edges, the coppers with blunt rays or an extra star, and mules with a VERMON AUCTORI head and a GEORGIVS III head. The 1787 IMMUNIS COLUMBIA pairs Liberty on a globe with an eagle. The CONFEDERATIO coppers include the INIMICA TYRANNIS with small stars and large stars, the Washington mule and the eagle mule. A copy of the Immune Columbia by F. S. Edwards is listed with them.

The Nova Constellatio coppers of 1783 to 1786 are in the private and regional issues tree, and the state coppers are in post-1776 states coinage.

The Continental Currency pieces are mostly pewter, an alloy of tin with some lead; Newman gave average weights of about 250 grains in pewter, 224 in brass and 378 in silver. The Nova Constellatio mark and quints are silver with leaf-work edges, Crosby weighing the mark at 270 grains and the quints at 135 and 110 grains, and the five is copper. Fugio cents are copper; the restrikes are found in copper, brass, silver and gold. The IMMUNE COLUMBIA pieces were struck in copper, silver and, for one piece, gold. No mint record gives a number struck for any piece in this series, so the pages carry no mintage figures.