Sommer Islands Coins

About This Coin

Commonly known as "Hogge Money" after the wild hog on the obverse, the Sommer Islands coinage represents the earliest English coinage struck for use in the Americas. Produced circa 1615-1616, possibly at the Royal Mint in London, these coins served the tiny English colony on the Sommer Islands (present-day Bermuda), named after Sir George Somers whose 1609 shipwreck inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest. Struck in copper-tin alloy (approximately 80% copper, 16-22% tin) with a silver wash, the obverse features feral hogs introduced by earlier Spanish visitors, while the reverse depicts a three-masted sailing ship. Four denominations were produced — twopence, threepence, sixpence, and shilling — distinguished by Roman numeral value marks. The Sommer Islands coins predate the New England shilling by over three decades and occupy a position of unparalleled historical significance as the foundational issue of English colonial American numismatics. Each surviving specimen is individually tracked by scholars, and appearances at major auctions generate significant attention from specialists in the earliest colonial coinage.