Rosa Americana Coins

About This Coin

A series of halfpennies, pennies, and twopence pieces produced from 1722 to 1724 under a patent granted by King George I to William Wood, an English manufacturer. Struck in a distinctive alloy called "Bath metal" (a brass-like mixture of copper, zinc, tin, and silver), these coins feature a crowned rose on the reverse with the motto ROSA AMERICANA UTILE DULCI ("American Rose — The Useful with the Pleasant"). The obverse portrays King George I. Wood's patent was deeply controversial in the colonies, where merchants and colonists largely rejected the coins as debased, much as they rejected his companion Hibernia coinage in Ireland. Despite this resistance, the Rosa Americana series represents one of the most ambitious British attempts to provide an official colonial coinage, and the coins themselves are beautifully designed.