Q.David Bowers
Bushnell mentioned another New Jersey coiner:
Mr. J. R. Halsted informed me some (20) years ago that an acquaintance of his knew a Mr. Hatfield, who claimed to have made dies and coined New Jersey coppers, in a barn (Mr. Halsted thought) below Elizabethtown, in striking which he was assisted by a Negro.
Charles I. Bushnell possessed a copy of an affadavit of John Bailey, who, it appears, also was involved in the coinage of New Jersey coppers:
City of New York,
Personally appeared before me, Jeremiah Wool, one of the Aldermen of the said City. John Bailey, of the said City of New York, cutler, who being duly sworn, deposeth and saith That since the fifteenth day of April 1788 he hath not either by himself or others, made or struck any coppers bearing the impression of those circulated by the state of New Jersey, commonly called Jersey coppers; and that what he so made previous to the said fifteenth of April was in conformity to, and by authority derived from, an Act of the State of New Jersey entitled, "An Act for the Establishment of a Coinage of Copper" in that state, passed June the first, 1786.
(signed) John Bailey.
Sworn this first day of August 1789 Before me, Jeremiah Wool, alderman
John H. Hickcox, Esq., of Albany, New York, who in 1858 wrote An Historical Account of American Coinage, received a letter from F. B. Chetwood, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, dated March 19, 1858, containing the following information:
My mother, the daughter of Col. Francis Barber, is now seventy-six years old and says that all of her recollection of the subject of your inquiry is that when she was a child ten or twelve years old she used to go into the house on the adjoining premises to her father's residence in this place to see them make coppers. The business was carried on in a room behind the kitchen, by Gilbert Rindle and a person whose name she thinks is Cox.
The modus operandi was as follows: in the middle of the room was a wooden box or pit sunk in the floor several feet deep, in the middle of which pit was placed an iron die, the top of which was about level with the floor of the room. A workman sat on the floor, with his legs inside the pit. He placed the smooth coppers on the die, and when stamped, brushed them off the die into the pit. The impression on the copper was made by a screw-press, which was worked by two men, one on each end of an iron bar or horizontal lever, attached to the screw at the center of its length, which was about nine or ten feet long.
My mother thinks it was in operation only a year or two, but her recollection on this point is not very reliable.
The copper was brought to that house, all finished, as she thinks, except the stamping. She has no recollection at all of any other branch of the business being carried on there. She recollects that the copper when coined was put into kegs and sent off somewhere, and that her mother used to purchase a bureau drawer nearly full at a time, and pay them out in daily use for household expenses.
New Jersey coppers were produced with a single motif, but with variations. The obverse depicted a truncated horse head, usually facing to the right (although on a few varieties it faced to the left), with a plow below, and the inscription NOVA CAESAREA ("New Jersey") surrounding. The date, 1786, 1787, or 1788, appeared near the bottom rim. A rare variety of 1786 has the date under the plow beam rather than at the bottom border. The reverse displays a shield in the center with E PLURIBUS UNUM surrounding.
Many New Jersey coins were produced by overstriking Connecticut coppers, Irish halfpennies, counterfeit British halfpennies, and other pieces, probably because these could be bought at a sharp discount in comparison to the going rate in commerce for New Jersey issues. An examination of the die work shows that many of them were cut by James Atlee, who was also involved in the coinage of Connecticut, Vermont, and various Machin's Mills issues.
In addition to the pieces produced at various locations in New Jersey and by Bailey in New York City, it is believed that Machin's Mills produced limited quantities of coppers bearing the New Jersey design. Various other counterfeiters and imitators produced still other varieties, mostly of very crude workmanship.
In 1881 A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey, by Dr. Edward Maris, was published. Maris, whose personal collection of New Jersey coppers was sold at auction intact to T. Harrison Garrett, was the first serious student of the series. Today, die varieties of New Jersey cents are still described by Maris' numerical designations.
The Copper Coinage of Massachusetts 1776 and 1787-1788
While silver coins were produced by the Massachusetts Bay Colony beginning in 1652 (and extending until 1682), it was not until over a century later, in 1776, that copper pieces were made. In the latter year several different varieties of coins, all presumably patterns, were struck. Very little is known today concerning their origin or under what circumstances they were made.
A 1776 Massachusetts copper "penny" bears on the obverse the representation of a pine tree. Surrounding is the legend MASSACHUSETTS STATE. Below the pine tree are the characters IC LM, presumably for "one cent lawful money." The reverse shows the figure of a goddess seated on a globe, the legend LIBERTY AND VIRTUE surrounding, and the date 1776 below.
This coin, of which just one specimen is known, later became part of the Massachusetts Historical Society Collection. In 1875 Sylvester S. Crosby described it:
Now in the collection of Mr. William F. Appleton, was formerly owned by Mr. J. Colburn, of Boston, who obtained it about 1852, from Mr. Edward W. Hooper, then a schoolboy collector of coins. Mr. Hooper purchased it from a grocer at the northerly part of the city, who found it many years before while excavating on his premises, in the vicinity of Hull or Charter Street for the purpose of making an addition to his dwelling. He had long preserved it as a curiosity. We take this to be the first pattern for a Massachusetts cent...