PART I.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

INTRODUCTION.

The scarcity of money in the colonies of North America, except the Spanish settlements in the Southwest, was a cause of constant distress, for not only was the incipient foreign commerce of the colonies greatly hampered thereby, but, what was even more annoying, the domestic trade was carried on with the greatest difficulty for the want of money, especially coins of small denominations. This made itself felt immediately on the advent of prosperous conditions in the colonies early in the seventeenth century, and at no period for the ensuing two centuries was there any relief from the embarrassing question. In their endeavors to solve the problems of a standard of values and circulating medium the colonists resorted to nearly every means which had been known to primitive man prior to the invention of the coin. Among these makeshifts, barter must have been the most common method of disposing of and procuring goods. The use of staple products as a means of expressing values and also as money in ordinary business transactions soon became of necessity a general practice throughout the colonies.

The product most extensively employed in the place of coined money was the tobacco of the southern colonies, especially of Virginia. For several years nearly all of the business of that colony, both domestic and foreign, was carried on by means of tobacco, until the enormous production of the plant made restriction on its use as money necessary. Powder and bullets were also used as money throughout the colonies, in some of which the legal tender of bullets in payments was limited to a small number. In Massachusetts, and among the New England colonies generally, grain, fish, and furs were in common use as means of exchange; and not only in the settlement of private debts but they were receivable for taxes as well. An order of the General Court of Massachusetts in 1642 (Mass. Records, II, 22) prescribes the valuation per bushel at which wheat, rye, barley, and corn should be received "for the payment of the rate," and then adds, "in these at these prices, or in beaver money, or wampam pay is to bee made." The use of furs, especially beaver skins, as money obtained throughout the colonial period. And wampum, which served the Indians in nearly all their business transactions, was early recognized in New England and valuations placed upon it from time to time by the General Court. Thus in 1636 an order of the court fixed the value of wampum, without mention of color, at six to the penny; in 1642 four white pieces. or two blue ones, were fixed as the value of the penny. Evidently this

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apparently trifling wampum afforded the colonists an excellent substitute for small change, inasmuch as there was always ready acceptance of it among the Indians in exchange for articles of substantial value.

With the view of relieving to some extent the money stringency of the colony, Massachusetts in 1651 projected a mint for the coinage of silver. Preliminary arrangements were speedily made, and in the following year the mint was opened at Boston and began operations by striking the almost plain "New England Shilling" (Pl. I, 1), the Sixpence and Threepence. The standard of fineness of the new coin was the same as the corresponding English coin. It is very improbable that there was any intention to continue long such a simple form of coin as this piece is, being in fact but little more than a plain disk. For it must have been apparent at once that the coins could be easily clipped and also fraudulently "washed" until their weight and value were seriously reduced. It is very likely that the exceedingly simple form of the first issue was the result of great haste to get the mint into operation, and that the preparation of other and more suitable dies was begun at once on the opening of the mint, and that they were put into use as soon as completed. At any rate, in the same year of 1652, the series with a tree on the obverse and on the reverse NEW ENG. LAND ANO. with the date and value within a beaded circle, was begun.

This first colonial mint was established without authority from the Crown. The General Court of Massachusetts, which authorized it, evidently proceeded with the expectation that the pressure of necessity would outweigh in the minds of the royal ministers considerations of the infringement of the royal prerogative of coining the money. And in fact the operations of the mint went on unnoticed, or at least undisturbed, for several years, an apparent connivance due perhaps to the troubles Cromwell and Charles II were having at home. And while no well-founded and serious objections to the Boston mint were ever brought forth, yet when a grievance against the colony was desired this usurpation of one of the prerogatives of the Crown was ready at hand, and in 1683, after an existence of thirtyone years, the mint was closed, but rather "upon mere prudential considerations" than for political reasons. Efforts were made to have the mint reopened, the ground of the petition being the benefit the coinage had been to the colony, but they were ineffectual. It is doubtful whether the mint could have continued in successful operation much longer than it did, even if it had not been disturbed, for the Spanish silver which before had reached Boston through West Indian commerce and West Indian pirates was rapidly being diverted to the better markets in Europe, thereby cutting off the chief supply of bullion. At any rate all requests to reopen the mint were refused by the Crown, which thus contracted the responsibility that in time would almost certainly have been properly credited to economic causes.

In 1658 Lord Baltimore projected a plan to issue coins for Maryland, and a beginning of a coinage was made in England, specimens of which reached America that year. The series embraced a Shilling, Sixpence, Fourpence, and a small copper coin called Denarium. They have for obverse type a rather refined portrait of Lord Baltimore, the proprietary lord of Maryland (Dominus Terrae-Mariae), and on the reverse his family

arms for the silver coins, a ducal coronet on the copper piece. The low weight of 66 grains for the Shilling, with the Sixpence and Groat in the same proportion, suggests that the project, while perhaps intended to supply the great want of money in Maryland, was planned with a view of benefiting Baltimore himself. But he had hardly got his plans under way when his activities were suppressed by the Government.

Following these unsuccessful efforts to establish special coinages for the American colonies, in order to provide a substitute for barter and the variety of commodity moneys before in use, Spanish-American silver was legalized at prescribed rates in terms of the Shilling, and this, together with copper tokens struck chiefly by speculators, formed the currency of the colonies until after they became independent. In the class of speculators was one William Wood, who received a royal grant to make copper tokens L. for Ireland and America. Under the terms of this grant, Wood produced the copper pieces (No. 17) known from their reverse type as the "Rosa Americana." But the Irish people objected to the tokens floated among them, and the prospects of enormous profits which Wood was certain to secure at the expense of the Irish and Americans prompted the Government to induce Wood to surrender his grant in lieu of a pension of three thousand pounds a year. This is but one of a large number of speculative ventures in making copper tokens for circulation in America, though the others lacked authority; but to discuss them here would require going far beyond the plan of this brief sketch.

NATIONAL AND STATE COINAGE PRIOR TO THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

After the American colonies had achieved independence the provision of a coinage became their own sovereign right. The problem was promptly attacked by both the National Congress and by some of the States, the latter of which, if not laying claim to the right of coining money during the period of their loose confederation prior to the adoption of the Constitution and the formation of the Union, at least considered it their duty to relieve their citizens of the pressing necessity of an ampler supply of small coin, and likewise to eliminate from circulation the vast amount of light-weight and spurious coppers then commonly current.

On April 21, 1787, a congressional committee made a report in favor of the coinage of copper, and accordingly a contract was entered into with a Mr. James Jarvis to coin for the National Treasury three hundred tons of copper, the contractor agreeing to coin an additional forty-five tons and deliver the coins therefrom to the Treasury for the privilege of coining. Before this contract was carried out there arose a difference of opinion in Congress regarding the wisdom of parts of it; but there is no record of how the difficulty was finally adjusted, and it seems probable that Jarvis insisted on having the terms adhered to and struck the coins.

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The devices for this the first coin struck by authority of Congress were prescribed by a committee of that body in the following terms: "* On one side of which piece * *

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thirteen circles linked together, a

small circle in the middle, with the words United States around it; and in

the center 'We Are One;' on the other side of the same piece the following device, viz, a dial with the hours expressed on the face of it; a meridian sun above, on one side of which is to be the word 'Fugio' and on the other the year '1787;' below the dial, the words 'Mind Your Business'' (Pl. I, 7). The types of this piece are very similar to those of the dollar pattern of the proposed continental currency which bears date of 1776, and which were probably designed by an artist who on the earlier piece placed the signature E G FECIT (Pl. I, 3). The types are interesting as a commentary on the state of mind of the times. The political hope, for it could be only a hope still at that time, of an inseparable union expressed in the obverse type was probably not less prevalent than the caution so graphically set forth by the other that "Time is Flying," so "Mind Your Business" affairs. This terse expression of practical sense, because so much in the spirit of Poor Richard, has won for the coin the name of "Franklin Cent," but Franklin probably had nothing to do with the designing of it.

The coins of the Federal Congress were struck chiefly in New York, but the simplicity of the mint requirements of the time enabled the contractor to sublet portions of the contract if he so desired, and the fact that some of these coppers were also struck at New Haven, Connecticut, at Rupert, Vermont, and at other places suggests that the contract was actually farmed out.

Besides the Congress, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts likewise proceeded to coin copper. The first of these to start the movement was Vermont, a Commonwealth that had not formed one of the original thirteen colonies which revolted, nor was Vermont at this time a State, not having been admitted into the Union until 1791.

In 1785, by authority of the assembly, a contract was let to Reuben Harmon to coin copper for a term which was first fixed at two years, but finally extended to eight, during three years of which all profits from the coinage were to go to Harmon to indemnify him for his outlay in providing a mint and as profits on his operations, while for the remaining five years of the life of the contract he was to pay to the Commonwealth two and one-half per cent of the amount coined.

Two types of coins were struck by Harmon under this contract, or rather the two contracts. The first type (Cat. No. 44), with a green mountain and the sun rising behind it, possessed a local character. But when the act was passed to extend the contract from two to eight years other devices were prescribed and the coppers thereafter issued bore no slight likeness to the English Penny and Halfpenny, for the laureated bust in cuirass is plainly an imitation of the bust of one of the Georges and the figure which was to be taken as emblematic of Liberty is only Britannia with a different sentiment expressed by the inscription INDE. ET: LIB:, Independence and Liberty.

In the same year, 1785, in which Vermont started to make arrangements for a coinage of copper Connecticut also passed an act providing for a contract to coin ten thousand pounds of that metal, the contractors to pay over to the State five per cent of the total amount coined. The coins of Connecticut, like those of Vermont, closely resemble the English Half

penny; the choice of inscriptions similar to those on the Vermont coins (Cat. No. 29) gave marked uniformity to the copper coins of these Commonwealths; but such similarity was hardly the object in view, as in only a very slight measure could the coppers of one of those States be expected to circulate in the other. Both the Commonwealths doubtless found it convenient to employ types already familiar to the people; hence the rude imitation of the English Halfpenny. Both States, however, avoided an open declaration of any intention to imitate the current English copper by a naive wording of the laws. Vermont's law prescribed "on one side a head," * * * "on the reverse, a woman," with the appropriate inscriptions; and the Connecticut law reads "a man's head on the one side," * * * "and on the other side the emblem of liberty."

The act of Assembly that provided for the coinage of copper in New Jersey was passed June 4, 1787, and, in response to their petitions, authorized a contract with a Mr. Walter Mould and his partners, Thomas Goadsby and Albion Cox, for the coinage of ten thousand pounds of copper. But a disagreement arising between Mr. Mould and his partners, at their request the contract was accommodatingly divided up and one-third let to Mould, the remaining two-thirds to Goadsby and Cox. The original law required that these coins should be of the weight of six pennyweight and six grains and of pure copper, and that they should be struck in the State of New Jersey. Accordingly Mr. Mould established his private mint at Morristown, while Goadsby and Cox coined at Elizabethtown.

The devices of the New Jersey copper Cent are for the obverse a horse's head above a plow, beneath the plow the date of coinage, and the name of the State in its Latin form, NOVA CAESAREA. On the reverse is a heart-shaped shield of the United States, with the well-known tinctures and the national motto E PLURIBUS UNUM (Pl. I, 4). The obverse type has reference simply to the agricultural character of the State, while the shield and motto on the reverse may very reasonably be interpreted as a direct recognition of the General Government. The Great Seal of the United States, in which this shield occurs, was adopted in 1782, five years before New Jersey struck the coins. On the reverse of the coins struck by Massachusetts, mentioned below, there is a spread-eagle with arrows and an olive branch in the claws, a device probably also taken from the Great Seal. This use by some of the individual States of emblems already recognized as possessing a national character is of importance as indicating to what degree they regarded the coinage of money as a sovereign right and how far they looked upon their actual proceedings as merely measures of necessity, for if the coinage of money had been asserted as a sovereign right, then a national emblem would hardly have been employed for a coin device, for to do so meant to recognize the national authority in matters pertaining to coinage.

The brief history of coinage in Massachusetts in the period now under consideration differs materially in certain important particulars from that of the other States mentioned. Chief among these is the fact that Massachusetts established a mint instead of contracting with a private firm for the manufacture of coins. Furthermore, Massachusetts proposed a much more extensive coinage than any of the other States, aiming to strike the