Q.David Bowers
Money of the Colonial and Early American Period
Prior to establishment of the United States Mint in iladelphia in 1792 and its subsequent production of coinage for circulation in 1793, money in the American colonies came in many forms. Foreign coinage, which was legal tender until 1857, comprised a wide variety of copper, silver, and gold issues from Spain, England, Portugal, Holland, France, Germany, and elsewhere. Predominant were coins of Spam and England. Indeed, it was not unusual for deeds, contracts, and other legal documents to be drawn in Spanish dollars or English pounds at the turn of the 19th century, well after the formation of the American government.
The Spanish-milled dollar, or eight-real piece, was divided into eights or bits, each worth 121/2C. From this the term "two bits," or 25c, passed into the modern idiom. For larger transactions the Spanish eight escudo, or gold doubloon, equal in value to 16 dollars, was used.
The English pound, equal to 20 shillings, was used throughout the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard. The shilling was comprised of 12 pence. Fractional parts of the penny were the halfpenny and farthing, the latter being a quarter penny. During the 18th century, copper English halfpennies and imitations of them were the most plentiful coins in circulation.
From time to time paper currency issues were produced by the various colonies. These usually adopted either the Spanish or English monetary system. For example, an early note of Pennsylvania bore the inscription:
This bill shall pass current for five shillings within the Province of Pennsylvania according to an Act of Assembly made in the 31st year of the reign of King George II. Dated May 20, 1758.
A note of Delaware was inscribed: This indented bill shall pass current for Fifteen Shillings within the Government of the Counties of New Castle, Kent, Sussex on Delaware, according to an Act of Assembly of the said Government made in the 32nd Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King George II. Dated the 1st Day of June, 1759.
When the first issues of the Continental Congress appeared in 1775 they specified payment in Spanish coin. For example, a typical note reads:
This Bill entitles the Bearer to receive EIGHT Spanish milled DOLLARS, or the Value thereof in Gold or Silver, according to the Resolutions of the CONGRESS, held at Philadelphia the 10th of May, 1775.
Paper money of various kinds, issued in large amounts during the 18th century, was often viewed with distrust. Counterfeiting was rife, notes or bills good in one area were valueless in another, and many other problems surfaced. Hard money in the form of coins was preferred.
During most of the 1600s, the first century of American colonization by Europeans, coins were scarce in circulation. To fill the demand for media of exchange a wide number of commercial products were used. In Maryland and Virginia tobacco and ammunition traded at set rates. On March 4, 1635, the Massachusetts General Court adopted legislation which provided:
It is likewise ordered that musket bullets of a full bore shall pass currently for a farthing apiece, provided that no man be compelled to take above XII [one shilling] at a time m them.
In the same colony grain, furs, and fish were also used in payment of debt. In New Hampshire fish, lumber, and agricultural products saw service as currency. Citizens of the Carolinas often used tobacco, corn, peas, and even tar for the same purpose. In New York beaver skins were sometimes specified as payment in contracts.
Indian wampum, or shell money, was used, particularly in the northeastern areas. On November 15, 1637, the Massachusetts General Court ordered that wampumshould pass at six per penny for any sum under 12 pence. On October 7, 1640, the same legislative body directed that white wampum shall pass at four per penny and blueat two per penny, with no more than 12 pence worth to be used at one time unless the receiver desired more.
The first coins specifically related to the European colonies in America were the pieces produced in England circa 1616 for the Sommer Islands (Bermuda). In 1652 the first coins to be struck in what is now the United States were produced by Massachusetts. This coinage continued for three decades.
Various coins were produced in England and distributed in America. For Maryland, Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, caused a series of silver coins ranging from the groat (fourpence) to the shilling to be struck. Coins for Virginia were made in 1773 and shipped to that colony. William Wood, under royal patent, produced the distinctive Rosa American Issues. To the currency in circulation were added Coins and tokens by a multitude of private issuers who produced coins for advertising or profit.
In the 1780s, following the Revolutionary War, copper coins were produced in large quantities by Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Within a decade the Fugio copper cents, struck under the authority of Congress, made their appearance, as did numerous issues pertaining to George Washington.
Taken together, these diverse coinages are often referred to as colonials by numismatists today. These issues related to early America have a fascinating history.
Sommer Islands Coinage
The Sommer Islands, or the Bermuda Islands as they are known today, were first visited by Englishmen when a party including Henry May and Capt. Lancaster was shipwrecked there in 1591. Earlier, the islands had been discovered by Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard.
By the turn of the 17th century Bermuda had a vast population of wild hogs, descended, It was said, from livestock which swam ashore earlier from a wrecked Spanish ship. In July 1609 nine ships were sent from England with Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Capt. Newport, and 500 others to establish a new government in Virginia, where Capt. John Smith was governor.
Somers' ship was separated from the fleet during a violent storm. After three days and nights in a ferocious tempest the vessel was cast upon the rocks until, in Capt. John Smith's words (in The General History of Virginia, New England and the Sommer Isles): Not long it was before they struck upon a rock, until a surge of the sea cast her from thence, and so from one to another, until most luckily at last so upright betwixt two, as if she had been in the stocks . . . They unshipped all of their goods, victuals, and persons into the boats, with extreme joy, even almost to amazedness, arrived in safety, although then a league from the shore, without the loss of a man, yet were they in all 150 ... and they found the land to be the richest, health fullest, and pleasantest they ever saw ...