Mark Newby's St. Patrick coinage

Author
Hoover, Oliver D. Oliver David 1972- .
Series
Coinage of the Americas Conference
Publisher
American Numismatic Society
Place
New York
Date
Source
Donum
Source
Worldcat
Source
Worldcat Works

License

CC BY-NC

Acknowledgement

Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.

Export

Table of Contents

FRONT

BODY

The Denominations of the St. Patrick Coinages

Philip L. Mossman

Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, New York

November 11, 2006

© 2009 The American Numismatic Society

Introduction

Of all the early currency of British North America, I know of none more shrouded in obscurity than the St. Patrick series. I am not much further along in unraveling the mysteries of this fascinating Irish coinage with its New Jersey connection than I was when I began 25 years ago. To help direct my thinking, I have developed a brief topical outline of the multiple unknowns about this series that have perplexed me. I only address one of them in this paper—namely their intended denominations when first minted—a subject I have pondered for years because of my interest in the circulation patterns of early coinages.

  • Why is it that there is no definitive paper trail or oral tradition about the origin of this series? We have only a string of frequently contradictory speculations that have attempted to answer the "when," "where," "how," and "by whom" they were minted. The only firm dates are 1675, the year when two small coppers were lost in a shipwreck, and 1679, when the coins were demonetized on the Isle of Man.
  • What is the relationship, if any, between the small and large coppers?
  • What was the purpose of the silver issues?
  • Where and when was the series originally intended to circulate?
  • How and where did Mark Newby come into their possession?
  • Was it only the small coppers that came to America?
  • What were the intended denominations of the two copper and two silver emissions when originally minted?

For over 300 years, students of the coinage have been searching for any concrete facts that would establish an official, semi-official, commercial, or ecclesiastical context for the St. Patrick series. Although the large St. Patrick copper "incorporates the arms of Dublin as part of the design... it may therefore be a token issue, but whether authorised or not must remain an open question in the absence of documentary evidence."1 If the coins were officially or regally sponsored, one would anticipate some enduring paper trail or oral history. Whenever token coinages were private or semi-official substitutes for money, they were generally promissory in nature or clearly identified as merchant tokens with some provision for conversion into specie by their issuer. To further obfuscate their original purpose, the inscriptions on the St. Patrick money provide no guarantee for redemption, indication of sponsor, or mark of value. In the absence of any documentation regarding the intended denominations of the St. Patrick series, one must take a tangential approach and examine the coins themselves for what they can teach us; in other words, heed the advice of Hamlet’s Lord Chamberlain and "By indirections find directions out."

To start a very important factor must be kept in mind: all base copper coinages of that century were minted at a profit to someone, be it the king, a merchant, or a royal patent holder. As a first step in determining their proposed denominations, it is important to recall that in that era, the market value of official copper coinages equaled the combined cost of the metal, all mint charges, plus a substantial profit for the Crown and/ or patent holder. They were never emitted as an altruistic gesture for the benefit of the public, except perhaps for those few instances during an acute small change shortage, such as siege money, or where tokens issued as promissory notes declared they were redeemable in specie.

End Notes

1
H. A. Seaby and M.Russell, eds., British Copper Coins and Their Values (London, 1963), 69.

Preparing Coins for Circulation

To mint coins and place them in circulation involves a significant capital outlay that can include the following: [1] the expense of metal planchets; [2] the fixed production costs—die preparation, minting, fees, etc.; [3] storage, transportation, emission, and distribution costs; [4] profit to the issuers; [5] other fees, payments and bribes; and [6] the added expense of currency exchange rates between England and Ireland (if made in England for Irish use). Considering the above disbursements, one can predict the minimum market rate at which the St. Patrick series was originally intended to pass, a value that may never be less than the sum of the itemized list above since the coinage would never be generated at a financial loss. The word "originally" makes an important distinction since the intended market value of the coinage, when first emitted, may have changed over time as a result of economic factors. One must bear in mind that since these were tokens, their size (diameter) and weight relationships do not necessarily determine value in the marketplace.2 While the maximum fixed production costs for the St. Patrick series can be estimated from the contemporary records of the Tower Mint for similar coinages, we cannot know with certainty the many hidden expenses, such as transportation, profit commissions/bribes, and the cost of entering the tokens into circulation. In summary, the minimum intended denominations for the St. Patrick coinages can be expressed by the following word equation into which I shall attempt to insert the appropriate numbers:

minimum intended denomination ≥ planchet cost + fixed mint costs + distribution + profit + hidden fees and exchange

1. Estimating Planchet Costs

The initial step in calculating production costs is to find the cost of the planchet stock, which is determined by multiplying the prevailing market price of refined copper by the average mint weight of the struck coppers:

planchet cost = weight of planchet x cost of metal

The first requirement in solving this equation is to determine the mint weight of coins fresh from the presses, which, in the absence of both records and sufficient uncirculated examples, can be a rather complex exercise. There was variation in the weight of newly struck coppers from the Tower Mint in that era; we find for example that George III halfpence had a 6.4% disparity as made or ± 4.83 grains.3 English coppers were authorized to be minted at a specific number of coins per pound and were not weighed as individual planchets. Hence, there can be a great variation between the measured weights of individual regal coins; this disparity in weight is especially evident in copper tokens and other unofficial emissions for which there were no published standards. On the other hand, silver and gold blanks were individually weighed and, if necessary, were manually adjusted prior to striking. With specie coins, any overweight members entering circulation would be immediately culled out for the melting pot and converted into bullion at a profit. Mint officials did not expend the same effort on lowly coppers whose market value included not only the expense of the metal but also the entire production cost plus a hefty profit for the issuer.

End Notes
2
Robert Heslip, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland, personal communication, January 15, 1997.
3
Charles W Smith, "Weight Analysis, Weight Loss, Wear, Porosity and Grade in Copper Coinage," The Colonial Newsletter 120 (2002): 2349.

2. Calculating Planchet Mint Weight: The Effect of Wear on Weight

Returning to the above equation, we have no records of the planchet weights for uncirculated St. Patrick coppers and therefore these values must be derived by measuring existing survivors. In my previous study of the subject, I proceeded on the hypothesis that one could average higher grade coins to arrive at a close approximation of the actual mint weight of the total population of a series.4 This premise was based on a project I did comparing numismatic grade versus weight for two American copper series, Machin’s Mills imitation halfpence and Massachusetts cents. I found no appreciable difference in the average weights among the various collectable grades. Whatever variation there might have been was probably hidden by the wide range of planchet weights as indicated by the first standard deviation or error.

Table 1: Average decrease in weight in Lincoln cents with decreasing grade; mint weight 47.99 grains. 5

ANA Grade % Weight Loss
Uncirculated 0%
Extremely Fine 0.12%
Very Fine 0.31%
Fine 0.42%
Very Good 1.07%
Good 2.82%
About Good 4.43%

The study of weight loss from planchet wear, as it reflects on grade, was amplified by Charles W Smith (Table 1) in his study of Lincoln cents that recently appeared in the Colonial Newsletter.6 In this article, he presented the weights of 50 pre-1942 Lincoln cents from each of seven grades, ranging from Uncirculated to those labeled About Good. Within the collectable range of numismatic examples, Smith found that the weight loss from wear of Lincoln cents was negligible.

In the same paper, Smith interpreted a table of measurements originally compiled by Damon Douglas, who did a similar study with 130 U.S. large cents by first sorting according to technical grade and then recording the average weight of each group.7 Compared to the modern small cents, Douglas’s large cents had a greater percentage weight loss as the grades decreased with increasing wear (Table 2). This percentage loss within each grade can be used as a tool to estimate the full mint weight of uncirculated large coppers.

Table 2: Decrease in weight of 130 U.S. large cents (dated 1817 and 1851) according to wear; mint weight 168.0 grains.8 By adding the "% weight loss" factor for any grade, one can approximate original mint weight.

Condition % Weight Loss
Uncirculated 0
Extremely Fine 0.59%
Very Fine 1.19%
Fine 2.38%
Very Good 3.57%
Good 4.76%
Fair 6.55%
Poor 8.93%

Smith attributed the difference in the weight loss with diminishing condition between Lincoln cents and large cents to the fact that the much finer surface detail of small cents accounts for a small percentage of their gross weight and proportionally a smaller amount of metal is lost to abrasion. There is relatively less loss of substance for the small coins as the grade diminishes when compared to the large cents, which involve a greater quantity of metal in raised features like thick lettering and complex rims; these large and thicker elements, representing a greater percentage of the coins’ mass, must be worn away before grade is adversely influenced. Also we do not have the details of Douglas’s large cent population. The use of older production technology for large cents may have led to a greater variation in original planchet weight than that observed for small cents manufactured in a modern mint.

Encouraged by Smith’s work, which supported my hypothesis, I revisited my 1986 and 1992 data for Massachusetts and Machin’s Mills coppers and expanded the census by adding more data points from recent auctions (see Tables 3 and 4, respectively). These two coinages had been originally selected because of their positions at the opposite ends of the Confederation coppers spectrum in that Machin’s Mills had no known standards and the Massachusetts mint conformed to the Federal weight of 157.5 grains.9

Table 3: Tabulation of weight loss compared to decreasing grade for Massachusetts cents, 1787 to 1788.

Grade Number Average Median % Loss p Value
Full Weight 153.6 (norm)* 0
Uncirculated 25 153.6±6.8 153.2 0
About Uncirculated 35 153.1±7.9 152.7 0.3% 0.7724
Extremely Fine 42 152.9±7.5 154.6 0.5% 0.7045
Very Fine 44 154.1±7.7 154.7 -0.3% 0.7978
Fine 13 149.1±5.7 150.3 2.9% 0.0383
Very Good 6 146.4±9.7 146.0 4.7%
Total 165 152.8±7.6 0.5%

*The average for the 25 uncirculated examples at 153.6 grains was taken as the norm, although 2.48% below the authorized standard of 157.5.

The average weights of the About Uncirculated, Extremely Fine, Very Fine, and Fine groups of Massachusetts cents were examined by the Student T-test whereby each of these grades was compared to the mean weight of the 25 Uncirculated examples to determine whether any statistically significant differences existed in their average weights. A p (probability) value of 0.05 or greater indicates there is no significant difference between the two compared groups whereas a value below 0.05 is statistically significant and the calculated differences are real and cannot be explained by a mere chance occurrence. There was no statistical difference between the About Uncirculated, Extremely Fine, and Very Fine groups and their average weights can be considered uniform and viewed the same as uncirculated specimens. There should be caution in interpreting the potentially meaningful p = 0.0383 for the Fine group because the small sample size may be a cause for error.

The weight to grade ratio for Massachusetts cents was unchanged from my previous study and both sets of results are in keeping with Douglas’s large cent data. Certainly coins graded from Fine to Uncirculated would give a close approximation of mint weight, a value that could be made more accurate by adding the correction factors as prescribed by Douglas. All weight data are compared in Table 8.

The census of the Machin’s Mills coppers was expanded from the 133 coins tabulated in the 1992 tables to a new total of 227 examples with the addition of recent auction material. While there was no significant difference in weights, the new larger sample size increases precision.10 If there was any mention of porosity, microscopic granularity or roughness in its catalogue description, its weight was recorded separately. I found that 91 out of 227 specimens (40%) had some minimal planchet problems, but that the presence of these minor surface irregularities was inconsequential in influencing the average weights for the group within any grade.11 This comparison could not be not done for the Massachusetts cents, since there was no porosity noted in their descriptions.

Table 4: Tabulation of the weight loss compared to decreasing grade of Machin’s Mills imitation halfpence with 115.0 grains taken as the standard (estimated from Douglas’s data for large cents).

Grade No. Average Median % Loss Porous % Porous p Value
Full Weight est. 115.0 n/a
AU, EF, 36 112.2±9.7 111.9 2.4% 5/36 14%
VF 113 116.2±9.0 115.3 -1.0% 39/113 35%
Fine 55 112.9±7.8 112.7 1.8% 32/55 58% 0.7016
Very Good 23 107.2±7.4 106.8 6.8% 15/23 65% 0.0318
Total 227 113.9±9.1 114.0 1.0% 91/227 40%

Range total sample = 88.3–146.0

It is notable that the Very Fine examples seem to have better weight retention (-1.0%) than the other higher grade specimens. A possible explanation is that although collectors view these imitation halfpence as a single series, they may have been minted in a number of locations where standards were inconsistent. Another feature is that many were struck from very shallowly engraved dies, therefore a major loss of grade may occur with relatively little loss of mass. However as a group, they seem to behave as a single entity, showing minimal weight loss until they reach a grade of Very Good.12

To summarize up to this point, a weight study of large U.S. cents, Machin’s Mills imitation halfpence, and Massachusetts cents shows that when these coinages were worn to a numismatic grade of Fine, no more than 2.9% of their mass was lost (see Table 8). Using Douglas’s analysis of large cents (Table 2), one can extrapolate a percentage value that can be added to the weight of a lesser grade coin to obtain a reliable indication of what the full mint weight is likely to have been. Smith’s Lincoln cent study for coins graded as Fine reveals only a 0.49% loss for which a reasonable explanation is offered. Since there is no recorded mint weight standard for the St. Patrick series, these studies were quoted here in order to estimate their unworn planchet mass in an attempt to arrive at a weight from which to estimate production costs.

image

Figure 1. Large St. Patrick halfpenny." Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.

End Notes
4
Philip L. Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation (New York, 1992), 207–208; Philip L. Mossman "Money of the American Colonies and Confederation," The Colonial Newsletter 74 (1986): 132–133.
5
C. Smith, "Weight Analysis," 2347.
6
C. Smith, "Weight Analysis," 2345–2357.
7
Gary Trudgen, ed. The Copper Coinage of the State of New Jersey, Annotated Manuscript of Damon G. Douglas (New York, 2003), 100.
8
C. Smith, "Weight Analysis," 2352–2353.
9
The results were essentially unchanged by averaging the additional 52 Massachusetts cents from Stack’s, John J. Ford , Jr. Collection. Part V, (October 12, 2004) into the 1992 data base of 113 examples.
10
The mean in 1992 was 111.5 ± 10.4 as compared to 113.9 ± 9.1 grains.
11
Within the total group, the unblemished coppers weighed 114.0 ± 8.2, while those with some indication of porosity averaged 113.3 ± 10.2 grains. Examination with the Student T test revealed a p value of 0.5374, indicating no significant difference in these values.
12
The p value of the Fine group shows no difference between these coins and those of the AU, EF group whereas a difference starts to become apparent with the Very Good group, which could be removed with a larger sample.

3. Estimating the Mint Weights of St. Patrick Coppers

Seventy-one examples of large St. Patrick coins (Fig. 1; Table 5) were examined: their technical grades compared to their respective weights as was done for the Machin’s Mills coppers and Massachusetts cents. I found that examples above the grade of Fine behaved in similar fashion to the other large coppers.13 Only four within the sample were noted as having porosity in catalogue descriptions. With the availability of 31 high-grade coppers of consistent weight, I averaged the Extremely Fine and Very Fine groups to which was added the correction of 1.1% recommended by Douglas in order to compensate for modest wear. This correction factor was proportional to the numbers of the two combined grades, suggesting a mint weight of 143.5 grains. Aquilla Smith in his 1854 paper noted that the weights of his four well-preserved large St. Patrick coppers ranged from 142 to 148 grains, averaging 144.75 grains. Similarly, Crosby’s heaviest example weighed 144 grains.14 The above historic values are consistent even considering potential sampling errors. From these measurements, I have concluded that full weight large St. Patrick coins were intended to weigh about 143.5 grains and their production costs, to be figured later, will be based on this figure. This average is more than I used in my previous work (135.7 ± 9.5 grains) of 21 specimens.15 With the increase of the number of specimens to 71, the new figure is considered more reliable.

Table 5: Weight and grade of 71 large St. Patrick coppers with average mint weight taken as 143.5 grains.

Grade Sample Size Average Weight Median % Loss p Value
EF, VF 31 141.9±11.6 142.3 1.1%
Fine 26 135.7±10.2 137.1 5.4% 0.0345
Very Good 14 130.0 (±11.0) 127.4 9.4% 0.002616
Total 71 137.3±11.8 138.5 4.3%

Range of total sample = 108.0–173.6

Moving on to the small St. Patrick coppers (Fig. 2), I had derived a putative mint weight of 92.3 ± 9.2 for the small St. Patrick coins in my 1986 and 1992 calculations by measuring only 46 mixed grade examples recorded from a few private collections and auction catalogues. I have now identified a significant sampling error within my prior study. With the increasing popularity of this series and more auction experience, the census of small St. Patrick coppers in the present study has been increased to 251 undamaged examples. Although I accepted minor porosity, granularity and roughness as described in their auction lot descriptions (those coins with surface irregularities are noted in the Porous column of Table 6) any specimen with significant and disfiguring porosity (although counted in the last row of the table) were excluded from any computations. The new sample included the majority of the material used for the 1986 and 1992 tabulations. Not only are there over five times more coins in the current data base, but also there are significant qualitative differences. Twenty years ago most of the recorded coins were from pristine collections where 59% were graded at Very Fine or better.17 In the current sample, just 39% fall into this category. The most significant difference within the present census of 251 coins is that 20% are Very Good while in the 1986 and 1992 studies, only 6% were in that lower grade. The reason for this major sampling error is that the older auctions of the 1980s specialized in prime numismatic material, whereas more recently there has been an increase in research oriented collections, where all grades and conditions have been examined and nothing rejected in order to do a comprehensive study of die varieties. These newer numbers more accurately reflect the entire spectrum of survivors; because of the availability of 24 high-grade examples, I selected their average as the closest representative value of the weight of freshly minted coins. Because of the slight wear as indicated by their About Uncirculated/Extremely Fine status, I added the 0.59% correction factor endorsed by Douglas to compensate for their reduction from full mint weight. The average mint weight that I now assign to small St. Patrick coppers is 95.3 grains. Aquilla Smith’s collection of 10 high quality examples ranged from 77 to 102 grains.18 Crosby’s heaviest small St. Patrick copper was 98 grains.19

image

Figure 2. Small St. Patrick "farthing." Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.

I became aware of the increasing frequency of porous planchets (Porous column), especially in the lower grade examples—a feature shared by the Machin’s Mills coppers (Table 5)—while recording the updated census of 251 coppers. (It is to be recalled that my 1992 data contained a greater proportion of higher grade small St. Patrick coins, which masked this finding of porosity in worn coppers.) Within each group, if any example had microscopic or minor porosity, granularity, or roughness noted in its catalogue description, the coin was also listed in the Porous column. For example, 26 out of 51 Very Good graded coins showed some minor planchet problems. The average weight within each grade of coppers with problem-free planchets was compared to the average weight of those in the same numismatic grade of preservation with planchet irregularities (enumerated in the Porous column) to ascertain whether or not this minor porosity had any significant impact on the average weight of the entire sample. For example, the 25 Very Good coppers with normal planchets had an average weight of 82.7 ± 9.6 while the remaining 26 from the total sample of 51 weighed 81.9 ± 11.4. The p value for these results was 0.7706 indicating no difference between these two groups. The p values for the blemished versus the unblemished within the Very Fine and Fine groups were 0.3733, and 0.4165, respectively. In all cases, as with the Machin’s Mills coppers, the average values within each grade for the porous and non-porous surfaces were not significantly different.20

When the Fine through Good conditions were compared to the About Uncirculated/Extremely Fine group, it is noted from the p value of their weight differences attains extreme significance as compared to the marginal difference for the Massachusetts, Machin’s Mills, and large St. Patrick coppers in the previous tables. As these small St. Patrick coppers decrease in numismatic grade, there is an unexplained weight loss not seen in the other coppers examined.

Table 6: Weight and grade of 251 small St. Patrick coppers with full mint weight assumed at 95.3 grains.

Grade Sample Size Average Weight Median % Loss Porous % Porous p Value*
AU/EF 24 94.7±10.6 91.5 0.6% 3/24 13%
VF 75 90.7±8.3 91.2 4.8% 19/75 25% 0.0942
Fine 84 85.9±8.3 85.3 9.9% 30/84 25% 0.00068
VG 51 82.3±10.5 81.2 13.6% 26/51 51% 0.000019
Good 17 79.4±7.7 81.5 16.7% 14/17 82% 0.000004
Total 251 87.0±9.9 86.4 8.7% 92/251 37%
Excluded (porosity) 36 77.2±9.0 77.1 19.0% 36/36 100%

Range of total sample = 56.7–116.8 grains

* This p value compared the weight of the various conditions with the AU/EF group. Any value below 0.05 achieves significance.

Thirty-six examples were rejected outright (not included in the 251) because of extensive porosity or some indication that they had been recovered from the ground. Others were also excluded because of an attempt by some literal "gold-digger" to pry loose the brass splasher. These brass splashers are a mystery unto themselves but have no influence on weight since the specific gravity of brass is 8.4 to 8.7, very close to that of copper (8.8 to 8.95).21 This suggests that the presence or absence of a splasher does little to alter a coin’s weight.

To summarize Table 6, the weight analysis of the small St. Patrick coppers looked like a rather straightforward exercise similar to the previous tables, but there were some unexpected findings:

  • As the small St. Patrick coppers decrease in grade, their percentage weight loss is greater than expected in comparison to the other coinages, including the large St. Patrick coins (see Table 8).
  • Although examples with significant porosity were excluded from calculations, the small St. Patrick coppers had no more minor porosity or planchet problems than the Machin’s Mills coppers (Table 5), as noted in their catalogue descriptions.22
  • Within any single grade, those coins with minor porosity have an average comparable weight to those of the same grade with trouble-free planchets; the minor porosity does not seem to be a factor in the reduced weight.

The reasons for these observations, if valid, may be:

  • The small St. Patrick coppers may be composed of an alloy subject to greater weight degradation with wear.
  • There may be more than one planchet population, or some that wore better than others.
  • This may be an artifact or statistical quirk.

In an attempt to account for these findings, the specific gravity of a single, clean, large St. Patrick copper was measured and found to have a specific gravity of 8.90. Two small coins—one with excellent surfaces and the second with minor microporosity—were calculated at 8.89 and 8.73, respectively. These values were all within the range of copper at 8.8–8.95, but prove nothing because they could represent the average of metals in a complex bronze. In a further study of the observation that lower numismatic grade small St. Patrick tokens are proportionately lighter than other coppers of equal grade, the surfaces of two undamaged examples were cleaned with a solvent and examined with X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to learn their composition.23 The weights of both specimens were representative of their respective Very Good and Very Fine condition grades as noted in Table 6. The first coin had the appearance of a rich brass while the second looked like leaded bronze; considering their high copper content, they, no doubt, would have passed for pure copper by seventeenth-century standards.24 The results are recorded in Table 7.

Table 7: Elemental composition of two selected Small St. Patrick Coppers examined with a scanning electron microscope.

Coin Grade Weight Comparison with Table 6 Composition
#1 VG 74.2 grains 82.3 ± 10.5 grains average weight of 51 examples 97% copper; 3% zinc
#2 VF 95.5 grains 90.7 ± 8.3 grains average weight of 75 examples 98.4% copper; 1.4% lead; 0.2% aluminum

As a preliminary answer to the questions raised above, there is no immediate evidence that the two planchets examined were made from an alloy, but it must be stressed that the results from two samples is neither definitive nor considered representative of the entire coinage where there may have been other planchet populations lurking. In regard to the increased weight loss, a large sample may prove this observation to have been a statistical idiosyncrasy.

Table 8: Weight loss vs. grade for the six selected coinages tabulated in Tables 1 to 6. The small St. Patrick coppers lose a higher proportion of weight with decreasing technical grade.

Grades Lincoln Cents Large U.S. Cents Mass. Cents Machin’s Mills Large St. Patrick Small St. Patrick
Uncirculated 0% 0% 0.0%
AU 0.3%
AU, EF 2.4 0.6%
Extremely Fine 0.12% 0.59% 0.5%
EF, VF 1.1%
Very Fine 0.31% 1.19% -0.3% -1.0% 4.8%
Fine 0.42% 2.38% 2.9% 1.8% 5.4% 9.9%
Very Good 1.07% 3.57% 4.7% 6.8% 9.4% 13.6%
Good 2.82% 4.76% 16.7%
About Good 4.43%
Fair 6.55%
Poor 8.93%
Total 0.5% 1.0% 4.3% 8.7%
Excluded (porosity) 19.0%

In my effort to arrive at an average mint weight for freshly struck small St. Patrick coins, I discovered that as their numismatic grade decreases, there is a greater proportional weight loss than is seen with other copper coinages. Consequently, it is no longer valid to estimate the weight of freshly struck specimens by averaging a cross-section of circulated examples unless a correction factor is applied. There is the possibility that within this census there were hidden several planchet emissions of different metals, alloys or weights. Therefore, only Extremely Fine or better small St. Patrick coins can be reliably used for accurate metrological data concerning newly minted coins. We have certainly come all around "Robin Hood’s barn" to find this figure to fit into the simple formula that answers the question, "What were the denominations of the St. Patrick coinages?"

End Notes
13
Summary of weights provided by Roger Moore, personal communication, November 7, 1999.
14
Aquilla Smith, "On the Copper Coins Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," Proceedings and Transactions of the Kilkenny and South-eastern Archæological Society 3 (1854–1855): 1–10 and Sylvester Crosby, The Early Coins of America (Boston, 1875), 136–137, where Aquilla Smith’s paper is partially summarized.
15
Mossman, Money, 126.
16
Because of the small sample size, the accuracy of this p value is suspect.
17
Mossman, Money, 126.
18
A. Smith, "St. Patrick’s," 6.
19
Crosby, Early Coins: 138.
20
These results were subjected to the student T test to discover if the differences between the two means is significant or due to chance. None of the differences between porous and non-porous coppers of any particular grade was significant and so they could be considered as a single group.
21
The specific gravity of tin bronzes varies from 7.4 to 8.9 depending on their tin content (7.9 to 14% respectively).
22
In many instances, the cataloguer for both series was the same person, thus lessening the degree of observer bias.
23
Jeol JSM-6480LU Scanning Electron Microscope. This study was arranged and financially supported by Raymond Williams whose participation is gratefully acknowledged.
24
The results were reviewed by Dr. Charles W. Smith whose helpful comments are appreciated.

A Digression About Porosity

It is instructive to digress for a moment to consider why coins lose weight. The normal decrease in grade of the small St. Patrick coppers—or any coin for that matter—may be due to genuine wear, which consists of two factors: surface abrasion of metal in which micro-fragments are sloughed into the environment and the peening effect in which the copper in the elevated design is hammered into the surface so that the dulling of identifying devices occurs without an accompanying loss of weight. The combination of wear and peening in Smith’s study accounted for a 2.82 % weight loss for Lincoln cents graded Good and 4.43% for those considered barely identifiable. Smith’s controlled study shows that the decreasing grade of circulated Lincoln cents is primarily the result of surface peening rather than the loss of abraded metal. However, there may be another more significant factor at work with low grade small St. Patrick coins, namely porosity. From both Tables 4 and 6, we have seen that minor porosity did not adversely affect weight in either the small St. Patrick or Machin’s Mills series, but the observation that significant numbers of small St. Patrick coins in lower grades have some degree of porosity leads one to think about the nature of porosity and how it might adversely affect this particular coinage in very low grades (36 examples in Table 6).

Copper is soft and relatively chemically reactive; "Thus the state of preservation of a coin can be thought of as the integrated effects of its entire physical and chemical history, from the time of its production to its current local situation."25 These irreversible changes can be induced when a copper coin is subjected to an acidic environment—such as being buried in a coniferous region, a field treated with fertilizers, or stored in a tanned leather purse, rather than residing peacefully for years in dry neutral sand. The chemical influence of an acidic milieu may produce water soluble copper salts that leach out causing macroscopic surface granularity and discoloration from complex copper oxides in a process we identify as porosity.26 Cast planchets, with their natural micro fissuring created by escaping gas during the supercooling of the metal, are more susceptible to porosity, since these minute clefts become conduits for the entrance of environmental contaminants beneath the surface of the coin with subsequent acceleration of chemical deterioration. "These voids remain available over time as host locations for weight-loss chemical activity."27 Additionally, as cast planchets cool, small gas bubbles accumulate beneath the surface causing microscopic "pock marks" and as porosity progresses, the "pock marks" extend to the surface. Perhaps the extensive porosity that appears with this series is the result of being struck on several populations of cast planchets of mixed metals that were not detected in the small sample that underwent elemental analysis.

Another situation, unrelated to casting, may also add to premature porosity. When metals are worked and subjected to stress, their internal crystalline configuration is altered making their structure harder and less malleable (so-called "work-hardening"). If such a metal is stressed again, it may crack unless, prior to reworking, it is annealed in a procedure that consists of heating the metal to a precise temperature and cooling it slowly according to a formula specific to each metal or alloy. Thus, if coins were struck from non-annealed work-hardened planchets, they would be brittle and less ductile with surfaces more prone to invasion by environmental contaminants promoting porosity. In the seventeenth century, planchets were annealed between all phases of the minting process, namely the repeated rolling of the refined metal stock into desired planchet stock thickness, planchet cutting, and planchet flattening. Adequately annealed planchet material greatly added to the longevity of the embossing dies.

One can observe the positive effects of annealing by examining the surfaces of a state copper that has been overstruck on an existing coin such as in the New Jersey Maris 56-n variety. If the host planchet were well annealed and softened, very little residual host coin detail would be evident on the parasitic 56-n, perhaps only some ghost letters around the periphery. Whereas if struck on a work-hardened, host copper that has not been annealed, there will be lighter impressions from the 56-n dies and even the central devices of host coin will remain visible. However, because the 56-n die pair was so long-lived, it is apparent that the host planchet stock was generally well annealed before receiving a New Jersey identity.

The occurrence of porosity in buried coins has been mentioned; there is at least one uncontrolled experience that speaks to this question. In 1731, some 50 immigrant families from Londonderry, Ireland, settled at Pemaquid, Maine. This fledging colony, which disbanded two years later, has been the site of intense archeological activity and revealed 17 Wood’s Hibernia coppers among the site finds.28 Charles W Smith and I had the opportunity to examine these numismatic recoveries and found that most were significantly porous, but judging from the retained surface detail, they were obviously in excellent condition when they were lost, buried, or discarded. Here is a natural experiment in which new high-grade coins were subjected only to the deteriorative effects of environmentally induced porosity. The three porous farthings averaged 46.4 grains (a 20% reduction from mint weight); the 14 halfpence without physical damage averaged 103.1 grains.29 When three well-preserved halfpence with minimal or no porosity were excluded, the average of the eleven remaining was 101.9 grains. In nature’s laboratory, where several eight-year-old coppers of known weight had been discarded and developing porosity for 270 years, the average weight loss was from 11.6% to 12.2%. Even though the numbers here are few and subject to sampling error, we are still left with another indication that the small St. Patrick tokens do not behave like other coins since even the 36 highly-porous small St. Patrick coppers lost 19.5% of their estimated mint weight. Again we must be aware of sampling errors and realize that we are describing a trend.

End Notes
25
C. Smith, "Weight Analysis," 2346.
26
C. Smith, "Weight Analysis," 2348.
27
C. Smith, "Weight Analysis," 2348.

4. Production Costs for St. Patrick Coppers

Having made some estimation of the average weights of the coppers as they left the mint, I now return to the question of the denomination of the St. Patrick coinages. The small planchets do not seem to show the typical degradation pattern with wear as evidenced by the large St. Patrick pieces, or any other pure copper coin. What is urgently needed is a non-destructive planchet analysis of a large sample of high-grade specimens before any surface degradation has occurred. We must be cautious because there may have been several populations of planchets: some of pure copper that behaved accordingly, and others of an alloy that was subject to a more rapid weight loss. Lacking this definite information, I have used the cost of pure copper for both coinages. These data are subject to modification as more information becomes available regarding typical planchet composition.

From his work on Lord Baltimore denaria from the Tower Mint, Louis Jordan has investigated his lordship’s potential profit from his copper coinage during the same period that interests us.30 Since Ireland did not have a copper industry at this time and relied on outside sources,31 finished planchet preparation would most likely have been done elsewhere—England in this case—and the costs presented in pounds sterling. Although Peck listed the 1672 price at 12d per pound, Challis adds an additional 4.5d for the price of finished planchets and another 2.5d for charges related to coining and distribution.32 An earlier estimate of costs by Thomas Violet places the cost of copper at 12d33—but to this, the cost of planchet manufacture and minting must be added. Considering all these variables, a reasonable estimate of the sterling cost to mint one pound of copper would be:

Copper per pound avdp. = 12d,

Planchet manufacture = 4.5d,

[Total finished planchets = 16.5d]

Cost of minting, dies, and distribution 2.5d per pound avdp. = 19d.

We may never be certain about the total production cost for St. Patrick coppers, which could have been less than 19d, because that overall fee at the Tower Mint included a number of salaries of mint officials who were not involved in token production. Furthermore, the 19d are taken as a maximum total cost, but it could have been less if there was a less expensive source for some of the small planchets. These ameliorating reductions in planchet cost could have been offset by the additional expenses incurred for transportation to Ireland and local distribution, and also by the added expenditure for the 140 or more hand-engraved die pairs which is an excessive number for such a small output. We also have no idea if the placement of the splashers required special handling at an added expense. For ease of computation, the maximum cost will be taken at 19.0d per pound of copper.

Table 9: The costs for both the large and small St. Patrick coins.*

Large St. Patrick Small coins as 1/4 d Small coins as 1/2 d
1. Assumed full weight 143.5gr. 95.3gr. 95.3gr.
2. Coins per lb. 48.8 73.5 73.5
3. Irish value d/lb 24.4d 18.4d 36.8 d
4. English mint costs/lb 19.0d 19.0d 19.0d
5. Costs in Irish funds** 20.1d* 20.1d** 20.1d*
6. Profit = Value - Cost 4.3 d (1.7d) 16.7d
7. Profit/Total Cost as % 21.4% 8.5% loss 83.1%

*Assuming that they were made in England but passed in Ireland. Values are given for the small coin as both a farthing and a halfpenny.

**Based on the period exchange rate of 1.00:105.56, English to Irish.

From these data, it would appear that the sponsor(s) of the large St. Patrick copper realized a 21.4% profit if it passed as a halfpenny. Assuming that the small St. Patrick coppers had the same author(s), this issue would have incurred an 8.5% loss if marketed as farthings. There would also be a significant profit if they were emitted as a lighter version of a halfpenny, but, of course, the sponsor(s) would have no control over the future business climate that could easily readjust their value downwards, since neither token carried an indication of value, the identification of the issuer, or any promise of future redemption.

In Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, I presented the evidence for why both coins were originally intended to pass as halfpence. The major premise was that they were not minted in the 1:2 weight ratio that one would expect if their sponsor(s) adhered to a farthing/halfpenny relationship. Also, because these coppers were only tokens representing real money issued for somebody’s personal gain, there was insufficient profit if the small token passed as a farthing.34 On this point, Robert Heslip of the Ulster Museum, Belfast, adds, "With a token coinage all the cost of production can give us is the minimum value at which a coin could economically circulate and size relationships do not necessarily equate to value either."35 Thus when first minted, it is the potential profit margin that determines the intended denomination, be it a farthing or a halfpenny. The distinction must be made between the denomination designated at the time of production and the subsequently adopted monetary value.36

End Notes
28
I wish to thank the Maine State Museum and Dr. Edwin Churchill for the use of their data.
29
Eleven were dated 1723, one was 1724, and two were undecipherable; the three farthings were 1723.
30
Louis E. Jordan, "Lord Baltimore Coinage and Daily Exchange in Early Maryland," The Colonial Newsletter 126 (2004): 2651–2768.
31
Robert Heslip, personal communication, June 27, 2006.
32
Christopher E. Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint (Cambridge, 1992), 366.
33
Challis, Royal Mint, 369.
34
Mossman, Money, 124–130. In 1992, using a smaller and less representative sample with a less accurate mint weight, I calculated a mere profit of 9.8% for the small copper if it were to pass as a farthing and a profit of 49.1% for the larger piece when it passed as a halfpenny.

Other Contemporaneous Irish Coppers

Regarding small change, what other minor coins were the Irish people accustomed to receive and spend in the late seventeenth century? In order to study the relationship between the two St. Patrick issues and other contemporaneous Irish coinages, it is important to recall the weights of other Irish coppers of the period (see Table 10), all of which are significantly lighter. The Armstrong patent farthing is about one-quarter the weight of the small St. Patrick coin, also called a farthing by many.37 One should bear in mind that for any coin to circulate, it must be acceptable in commerce based on either its intrinsic worth or its acceptable token value as a promissory note with the prospect for redemption. Typically such tokens were minted at a considerable profit to the authors. Numismatic history is replete with examples of rejected coinages that the citizenry considered lightweight and overvalued. The unpopular copper farthings of the Harington, Lennox, Richmond and Maltravers patents are good examples.

In comparing the St. Patrick coinages (Table 9) with other coppers of the era in Table 10, it is instructive to see how much heavier they are. In estimating potential profit from each of the coinages (Table 11), many of the earlier patent coinages returned significant profits to their sponsors. This table gives us a rough idea of the minimum expected profit for patent halfpenny tokens in Ireland during that period. I suspect that since the large St. Patrick coins did not offer a great potential for profit (21.4%) the whole operation was redesigned with a small sized halfpenny intended to capture an 83.1% profit.

image

Figure 3. Irish billon penny of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower Mint, 1601. Department of Special Collections, University of Notre Dame.

image

Figure 4. Harington patent copper farthing. ANS 1940.113.462.

image

Figure 5. Richmond patent copper farthing. Department of Special Collections, University of Notre Dame.

image

Figure 6. Armstrong patent copper farthing. Author’s collection.

image

Figure 7. Mic(hael) Wilson copper halfpenny token, 1672. ANS 1933.93.17.

image

Figure 8. Irish copper halfpenny of King Charles II (Armstrong/Legge patent), 1682. ANS 1940.113.464.

Table 10: A list of official Irish small change during the early to midseventeenth century. The St. Patrick pieces were much heavier but their legal basis is unknown.

Sponsor Dates Denomination Weight in grains
Elizabeth I 1601–1602 penny 31.1
Elizabeth I 1601–1602 halfpenny 14.5
Harington patent 1613–1614 farthing Type 1: Range 3–7.6; Average 5
Type 2: Average 9
Lennox patent 1614–1625 farthing Average 9
Richmond patent 1625–1634 farthing Average 8.5
Maltravers patent 1634–1636 farthing Average 9
Rose farthings 1636–1644? farthing Range 9–17; Average 13
Armstrong patent 38 1660–1661 farthing 20
Mic(hael) Wilson 1672 halfpenny token 62.739
Dublin halfpenny40 1679 halfpenny token 134.6
Charles II (Armstrong/Legge patent)41 1680–1684 halfpenny Authorized at 110

Table 11: Using 1672 mint costs, these are the relative profits from official small change Irish coppers of the seventeenth century from Table 10. Compared to similar data (Table 9, line 7), the St. Patrick coppers were not a profitable venture. All weights are given in grains.

Period 1601–1602 1613–1636 1660–1661 1680–1684
Coinage Elizabeth I halfpenny James I and Charles I patent farthings Armstrong patent farthing Charles II halfpenny
Patent weight 14.5 average 9.0 20 110
Coins/lb 482.8 778 350 63.6
Mint costs/lb 20.1d (Irish) 20.1d (Irish) 20.1d (Irish) 20.1d (Irish)
Irish value/lb 241.4d (Irish) 194.5d (Irish) 87.5d (Irish) 31.8d (Irish)
Profit 221.3d 174.4d 67.4d 11.7d
Profit/total cost 1101% 867.7% 335.3% 58.3%

End Notes

35
Personal communication, January 15, 1997.
36
Michael Dolley, "St. Patrick’s Half-Groats and Pennies," Irish Numismatics 61 (1978): 39.
37
See John J. Horan, "Some Observations and Speculations on St. Patrick Halfpence & Farthings," The Colonial Newsletter 47 (1976): 567.
38
James Simon, An Essay Towards an Historical Account of Irish Coins (Dublin 1749, repr. 1810), 49–50.
39
M. B. Mitchiner, C. Mortimer, and A. M. Pollard, "The Chemical Compositions of English Seventeenth-Century Base Metal Coins and Tokens," British Numismatic Journal 55 (1985), 57. The Mic Wilson tokens are brass composed of 17.8% zinc and 77.2% copper.
40
Simon, Essay, 53–54
41
Simon, Essay, 54–55.

Other Opinions Regarding the Denominations of the St. Patrick Coinages

Since both varieties of the St. Patrick coins are mute as to their proposed denominations, I will concentrate on the historical documentation that may assist us in learning about the rate at which they were entered into commerce (Table 12). It is unclear which of the opinions summarized in Table 12 are supported by evidence, which are just parroting previous colleagues, and which are unsubstantiated personal biases. Based undoubtedly on the ecclesiastical symbolism, early writers linked the coinage to the 1642 General Assembly of Kilkenny.42 Although this time frame is not generally supported by other considerations, an anonymous account, appearing in 1832, described the small coin as having been minted in the 1640s by the Catholic Confederation, "who in the Castle of Lea coined some of that brass money, known by the name of St. Patrick’s Halfpence, and which are of the value of a four-thirteenth of a penny sterling; but which in that period, bore a currency of one shilling." They enjoyed only a brief circulation as token shillings and then as the report infers, were reduced in value to become current as "St. Patrick’s Halfpence."43 In reference to Table 9, using a sterling value scale, such a "St. Patrick’s Halfpenny," passing at four-thirteenths of a penny, sterling (0.31d), would have cost about 0.26d to mint in 1675 funds, providing about a 20% profit. Originally provided out of necessity as shillings, not unlike the Irish gun money of a later period, there was a period when indeed this commentary confirmed that these small coins were once valued as halfpence. No mention is made of the large St. Patrick coin. Granted that this 1642 scenario may lack other historic substantiation, in terms of this current paper, the monetary considerations are logical.

Considering that more observers date these coins to the mid- to late-1670s, it has always amazed me that there were not some earlier contemporaneous comments as to their existence and appearance, let alone monetary value, particularly if some royal patronage were involved. It is certain that some of the small coppers were minted prior to 1675, since two were recovered from the yacht Mary, which sank that year in a storm.44 The only other firm piece of evidence for their early history is cited by Charles Clay in his 1869 review of Manx coinages, in which he stated that the St. Patrick coins arrived there from Ireland in about the year 1670 and were among a number of tokens tolerated on the island because of a severe shortage of small change.45 The large piece "was generally called a penny," but Clay did not comment on the value of the small coin. We have no idea how, when, or why the St. Patrick coinages arrived on the English-controlled Isle of Man, but we learn that a 1679 Act of Tynwald officially demonetized the widely counterfeited "Butchers Halfpence,"46 the "Patrick Halfpence, and copper farthings or any other of that nature." The same legislation specifically endorsed the currency of regal coppers and "the brass money called Jno. [John] Murrey’s pence." The probable motive for this repudiation of anonymous coppers was that the "Butcher" and "Patrick" tokens and plentiful forgeries were suppressing the circulation of English coinage. The 1668 Murrey piece was favorably received because it was issued by a politically well-connected local tradesman who financially secured the circulation of his tokens.

In his classic article, Aquilla Smith summarized the opinions expressed by several numismatists from the early eighteenth century.47 From the data in Table 12, based on opinions expressed between 1679 and 1869, it is evident that at least in the first quarter of the 1700s, the large and small St. Patrick’s coppers were passing as halfpence and farthings, respectively. However, those authors, writing fifty years after the St. Patrick coppers were presumed to have been minted, admitted that no clear consensus as to their origins and denominations existed, although others inferred they were both halfpence. In fact, so little was known about the St. Patrick issues, that Evelyn, the first numismatist to write about them stated in 1697, "I think" they are "Irish."48 There cannot be much less incertitude than that for an issue that may have been no more than 25 years old! Simon felt they were halfpence and farthings whereas Batty, Lindsay and "other distinguished Numismatists" considered them pennies and halfpence.49 More recently, Michael Dolley noted,

What is still not known for certain is how the two denominations were valued at the time of their first utterance. It is irrelevant that later generations of students have assumed them to be halfpence and farthings, or perhaps pence and halfpence...What concerns us is the value put on them at the time of their striking, and prima facie there appears to be no compelling reason they should not have been accepted as half-groats and pence.

Later, he concluded, the large pieces may have been retariffed as halfpence.50

Table 12: Denominations of the St. Patrick coins in earlier literature.51

Date Source and Proposed Denominations
1679 Act of Tynwald: demonetized "Patrick Halfpence, and copper farthings."
1681 Thomas Dineley illustrated the large coin as a "... halfpenny issued for the ready change of this nation [i.e. Ireland]."52
1697 Archbishop (of York) John Sharpe: "halfpence and farthings."
1715 Thoresby presumed they were current for halfpence and farthings based on their size.
1724 Bishop Nicolson: ".are still common in Copper and Brass;" and "are current for half-pence and farthings in Ireland."
1724 Swift spoke of "the small St. Patrick’s coin which now passeth for a farthing,—and the great St. Patrick’s halfpenny" (italics mine).
1726 Leake wrote about "copper pieces, which have passed for halfpence (130–135 grains) and farthings (90–96 grains) in Ireland, but for what purpose they were coined, and by whom is uncertain...but for what value they were originally intended, or made current, is uncertain...Afterwards they passed for the value the common people put upon them; and being something heavier than King Charles the Second’s best Irish Halfpence, went currently for such."53
1745 Harris concluded, "In this Reign (Charles II) two or three Kinds of Copper Halfpence were coined." He described the small coin and then added, "These afterwards passed for farthings, and a large Sort were coined for Halfpence" (italics mine). The implication here is that all the St. Patrick coins started as halfpence but later some passed for farthings.
1749 Simon wrote, "...the copper pieces, called St. Patrick’s Halfpence and Farthings."
1832 The anonymous "Historical Account of the Castle of Lea" dates the small St. Patrick coins to the 1640 Catholic Confederation where they originally issued as token shillings, then (after c.1650) revalued as 4/13 penny, sterling, passing as halfpence.
1851 Cane called them pence and halfpence.
ND Dean Dawson and Lindsay both called them pence and halfpence
1854 Aquilla Smith, himself, while attributing the series to the period between 1660 and 1680, sidesteps the denomination issue with the disclaimer that the question "can only be decided by some better authority than has yet been discovered."
1869 Clay: On the Isle of Man in 1670 were "Patrick pence, and halfpence, or as stated by some, halfpence and farthings...the large piece ... is generally called a penny." The other coin is called "the small piece."
1978 Michael Dolley wrote that the coins could have started in 1675 as "half-groats and pennies."

The review of these comments by earlier numismatists regarding the intended value of the two copper tokens indicates that they all make the assumption that the two different sized issues represented two separate denominations that were minted and circulated simultaneously. It appears to me that prior writers were so completely mesmerized by the putative size correlation of farthing to halfpenny that they completely overlooked the implication of the cost/profit relationship in their manufacture. The large planchet coppers probably came first and were then replaced by the small planchets to increase minting profits. Both were intended as halfpence but the small tokens were subsequently retariffed as farthings.

This is precisely what Swift wrote in 1724. In George Faulkner’s 1735 edition of The Drapier’s Letters, which included Swift’s revisions,54 we read his comparison of William Wood’s halfpence to the halfpence of earlier periods:

... Butchers Half-Pence, Black Dogs and the Like, or perhaps the Small St. Patrick’s Coyn which passeth now for a farthing55...For I have now by me some Half-Pence coyned in the Year 1680 by vertue of the Patent granted to my Lord Dartmouth, which was renewed to Knox, and they are heavier by a ninth Part than those of Woods, and in much better Metal.56 And the great St. Patrick’s Half-penny is yet large than either.

Since this remark appears during a discussion of halfpence, it seems that Swift’s intention was to convey the impression that the small St. Patrick copper—once a halfpenny—was now passing, some 55 years later, as a farthing. Harris, writing in 1745, further supports this same position by stating:

In this Reign [i.e., Charles II: 1660–1685] were two or three Kinds of Copper Half-pence coined... These afterwards passed for Farthings, and a large Sort were coined for Half-pence, with this Difference; on the Reverse, St. Patrick standing before a Crowd of People, with the Arms of the City of Dublin at his Back.57

End Notes

42
Simon, Essay, 47.
43
"Historical Account of the Castle of Lea, Queen’s County," from the Leinster Express (1832) at http://www.irishmidlandancestry.com/content/laois/community/lea_castle.htm. Last accessed July 27, 2007.
44
Dolley, "St. Patrick’s Half-Groats and Pennies," 39.
45
C. Clay, Currency of the Isle of Man (Douglas, 1869).
46
Clay thinks this was the 1672 Mic(hael) Wilson halfpenny of Dublin. See Figure 7.
47
A. Smith, "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," passim.
48
A. Smith, "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," 1.
49
D. T. Batty, Batty’s Descriptive Catalogue etc, (Manchester, 1886) vol. III, 725–729, describing seven pence and 38 halfpence.
50
Dolley, "St. Patrick’s Half-Groats and Pennies."
51
These comments are either recorded in Aquilla Smith’s paper or come from other footnoted references.
52
Michael J. Hodder, "The Saint Patrick Copper Token Coinage: A Re-evaluation of the Evidence," The Colonial Newsletter 77 (1987): 1016. See also, Colm Gallagher, "The Irish Copper Coinage 1660–1700," NumismaticSociety of Ireland, Occasional Papers 24–28 (1983): 26–27.
53
Authorized patent weight was 110 grains; observed weight was 105 to 199 grains (Mossman, Money, 126, Table 13).
54
Herbert Davis, ed., The Drapier’s Letters to the People of Ireland (London, 1935, repr. 1965), lxviii. See also, Sir Walter Scott, ed., The Works of Jonathan Swift, DD (Edinburgh, 1814), vol. 7, 143.

St. Patrick coinages in New Jersey

Following the Manx rejection, these unwanted tokens somehow came into the possession of Mark Newby, an English Quaker who was established as a merchant in Dublin where he suffered religious persecution. In 1681, at age 43, Newby and his family emigrated from Dublin to West Jersey and settled in a Quaker community established by William Penn.58 Newby brought with him an unknown quantity of St. Patrick’s tokens. When he was elected to the West Jersey Assembly in May 1682, legislation was soon enacted authorizing his St Patrick coppers to "pass for halfe pence Current pay of this Province" which would be a rate of 24 to the West Jersey shilling, money of account.59 For his tokens to circulate as legal tender, he was obliged to post "sufficient surety" which parenthetically was the same financial arrangement required of John Murrey for his coppers to circulate on the Isle of Man. Being an astute business man, one can speculate that Newby acquired his tokens, probably the small variety, both in bulk and at a considerable discount, which he quickly arranged to circulate in West Jersey as halfpence.60

Crosby cited a reference indicating that many "Patrick half-pence have been ploughed up" on Newby’s original farm.61 Indeed any recovered coppers were halfpence because that was their legal West Jersey rating. Unfortunately the author of this statement failed to note whether the coins were of the large or small variety. None of the large variety traditionally known as "halfpence" have been reported, but to date I have compiled a census of nine small St. Patrick coppers recovered by metal detectors and a single silver coin found in an archeological site in Playwicki, PA. Nothing more is known about the latter.62 Of the small coppers, four were found in New Jersey, and one each in Laurel, MD; New Bern, NC; Greene, NY; Philadelphia; and one near the Massachusetts/Connecticut state line. The Laurel, MD, coin appeared in the Colonial Coin Collectors’ Club Convention auction (November 8, 1997), as lot 309. I agree with the cataloguer’s statement that "No conclusions of any sort can be drawn from an isolated discovery, but it becomes one small piece in the jig saw puzzle of which denomination[s], Halfpence or Farthings, actually circulated in North America."

image

Figure 9. Silver St. Patrick "shilling." Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.

image

Figure 10. Norweb gold St. Patrick "guinea." ANS 1988.166.1.

End Notes

55
In the original 1724 edition, Swift wrote "passes for a Farthing"; in the 1725 and 1730 editions this was revised to read "passed for a Farthing," while in the authoritative 1735 version, edited by Swift, he states "passeth now for a Farthing" (Davis, Drapier's: 43, n. 43).
56
The 1680 patent is for the regal halfpence of Charles II that was renewed to Knox for the subsequent coppers of James II from 1685–88; both issues of regal halfpence were authorized at 110 grains while the weight for the large St. Patrick copper I have assumed at 143.5 grains.
57
A. Smith, "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," 3.
58
Mossman, Money, 128–129.
59
Crosby, Early Coins, 133.
60
See also the paper by Siboni and Yegparian in the present volume.
61
Crosby, Early Coins, 135n.
62
Michael Stewart, "The Indian Town of Playwicki," Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology, 15 (1999): 48.

The Off-Metal St. Patrick Coins

The Playwicki find provides a natural segue for discussion of the silver St. Patrick coins popularly described as "shillings" (Fig. 9). While little is known about their copper cousins and even less is known about the silver varieties. They were first mentioned in 1697, when Evelyn placed them among the medals of Charles II.63 Thornsby, 18 years later, likewise considered them medals rather than a circulating currency, an opinion shared by both Leake and Harris. This conclusion may have been supported by the fact that they were all minted with a medal turn, although I am not aware of any that have been pierced for suspension.64 Dr. Robert Cane and later James Simon in his 1749 essay considered them shillings struck at the same time as the small copper coins by the Kilkenny Assembly in 1643.65 Currently there are 14 known silver varieties, of which nine were struck from die pairs also used for the small copper tokens.66 Two silver coins are known in both early and intermediate die states, indicating that minting occurred over time.67 Aquilla Smith reported owning three small-sized silver pieces and a "somewhat worn" large silver St. Patrick piece of 176.5 grains that was struck from a pair of dies identical to a pair used for the large copper series. These dies have since been identified as Vlack 1-B.68 Smith concluded that if the small silver coins were shillings, the large one must have been intended as a higher denomination. However, it was his final opinion that all the silver specimens were "model" or proof pieces from the same dies as the copper series. He supported this statement with the fact that he also had a lead proof from a pair of small dies.69

Currently there are four opinions as to the origins of the two species of silver St. Patrick coins: they were either 1) medals, 2) currency coins (shillings), 3) models or proofs of the two copper varieties, or 4) struck much later from original dies, replicating a practice that is well known for Irish gunmoney. To further complicate matters, there are two small St. Patrick specimens struck in gold from different sets of dies. The first, weighing 184.4 grains, struck at an unknown time from genuine dies, recently appeared in the Ford Sale;70 the second is the controversial Norweb plain-edged piece of 125.1 grains struck from 0.917 fine gold using a pair of new and otherwise unknown dies (Fig. 10).71

In returning our attention to the silver St. Patrick coins, I do not know what they represented—but I do know that they were not Irish shillings. Again in the absence of any documentary evidence, we are obliged to turn to the coins themselves to find our answers. I have been able to trace 37 examples ranging from 77.8 to 123.0 with a median of 102.2 grains and an average of 101.5 ± 11.7. Since many of the silver coins were in high grades, it would appear that the intended weight was about 102.0 grains. I do not have a metal analysis to determine silver content, but a single specific gravity of 10.495 is indicative of a high silver content.72

Note that the standard deviation of ±11.7 of the silver St. Patrick coins confirms their wide range of planchet weights. In comparing these coins with other silver coins of the period, it is evident that these planchets did not have the same weight tolerance as those from the royal mints. An analysis of 50 high grade English shillings of Charles I revealed an average weight of 88.7 ± 4.0 grains (range 84.7 to 92.7) for a coinage authorized at 92.9 grains of sterling silver, although some of the sample could have been subtly clipped.73 Even John Hull’s Massachusetts silver shillings of the same period had much less variation in weight than did these silver St. Patrick pieces, suggesting that they were not made in a quality controlled environment such as the Tower Mint. The supposed "Irish" St. Patrick "shillings" at 102.0 grains are 9.1 grains or 9.8% heavier than the English.

Considering that the contemporary English to Irish exchange rate was 100.00:105.56, an Irish shilling should contain 88.0 grains of silver. The average of the 37 examples in this data is 14 grains or 15.9% too heavy. If any shilling of this weight ever hit the Irish shores, its first and only stop would have been the melting pot for reduction into bullion at a handsome profit for the silversmith. As they stand, these "Irish" shillings are actually Irish 14d pieces, a situation that never would have existed.

88 grains ÷12d = 7.33 grains per penny

102 ÷ 7.33 = 13.9–14d Irish

If the coins were below sterling grade they might not be worth as much, but we know how actively the English government resisted any coins that were not 0.925 fine. The best guess is that the silver St. Patrick issues were presentation pieces struck contemporaneously from small copper dies, but were never meant to circulate as currency. Indeed, all this is a guess, since no supporting evidence has accompanied any of the preceding opinions.

End Notes

63
A. Smith, "On the Copper Coins Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," 1.
64
One "plugged" example has been brought to my attention, a possible repaired hole, but without any accompanying details. Stanley Stephens, personal communication, January 10, 2007.
65
Simon, Essay: 48; Smith, "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," 1.
66
Stanley Stephens, personal communications, January. 9–10, and 17, 2007.
67
Personal communication, James LaSarre, May 6, 2006.
68
Stanley Stephens, personal communication, January 9–10, 2007. For the latest Vlack die variety attributions of the large St. Patrick coppers, see Roger A. Moore, Stanley E. Stephens II, and Robert Vlack, "Update of the Vlack Attribution of St. Patrick Halfpence with Visual Guide," The Colonial Newsletter 129 (2005): 2921–2928.
69
A. Smith, "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s": 5–6.
70
Stack’s Rare Coins, John J. Ford, Jr. Collection: Coins, Medals and Currency. Part VII. (January 18, 2005), lot 2.
71
Bowers and Merena, The Norweb Collection, part III (March 24–25, 1988), lot 2386. See also the appendix by Robert Wilson Hoge in the present volume.
72
Harrington E. Manville, "Review of Brian J. Danforth’s Paper on St. Patrick Coinage," The Colonial Newsletter 127 (2005), 2783.
73
Weights supplied courtesy of Robert Heslip. In a comment, Louis Jordan notes that "the pyx trial allowed a tolerance or remedy of 24 grains per troy pound of sterling or two grains per troy ounce of 480 grains, or, about a remedy of 0.387 grain per coin, which is 92.5 to about 93.3; based on the pyx trial these items may have been slightly worn or shaved. Personal communication, January 8, 2007.

Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, I do not think that I have provided any definite answers regarding the intended denominations of the St. Patrick series. However, the following clarifications clearly contribute to our knowledge of the denominations of the St. Patrick series.

For the large St. Patrick copper we can say:

  • There is presently no existing documentation for its sponsor(s) or its initial denomination; historically it has been considered a halfpenny, a penny, and even a twopence—fully recognizing that its trading value may not have been consistent over the years.
  • We have no firm evidence linking the emission of the large and small coins except a common iconographic theme and a brass splasher, presumably inserted as an anti-counterfeiting measure (like the brass plug in "rose" patent farthings). It would appear that the farthing/ halfpenny relationship has been traditionally assumed based only on their weights.
  • Lacking any justification to call this pair of tokens the St. Patrick halfpenny and farthing, I would advocate referring to them as the "large" and "small" St. Patrick coppers.
  • A full weight coin is assumed at 143.5 grains—but this does not preclude the possibility of several populations of planchets of varying weight since there is no known authorized weight.
  • There is at least one known silver example struck from genuine dies.
  • The copper issues behave like all other coppers in their wear/weight loss behavior.
  • It was minted at a fair profit—but certainly nothing comparable to other copper tokens of the period.
  • There is no archaeological or metal detection evidence that it ever circulated in West Jersey.

For the small St. Patrick copper:

  • There is presently no existing documentation for its sponsor(s) or initial denomination; historically it has been usually considered a farthing probably based on its approximate size relationship with the large coin. It is recognized that the value received in the market place may have changed with time due to economic forces.
  • We have no firm evidence linking the emission of the large and small coins except for a common iconographic theme and splashers.
  • With wear and decreasing grade, these pieces lose more weight than the large sort and do not behave like other typical coppers. The reason for this is unclear. This may be artifact or statistical quirk. A large sample should be examined by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence to settle the issue. Two recently examined examples are seen to be copper. There may have been several populations of planchets, including those without splashers, or some may be a bronze alloy, yet to be defined by further studies.
  • If initially issued as farthings, these would have been minted at a loss. It is entirely possible that they were originally issued as another variety of halfpenny minted at a lighter weight for an improved profit. At a later period, the small copper may have been received as a farthing as indicated by Dean Swift and Harris. A single reference suggests that in the 1640s it was minted as a token shilling which, after a short time was devalued as a halfpenny.
  • These have been the only variety recovered in North America suggesting they were the ones made current in West Jersey and authorized as halfpence.

For the off-metal examples:

  • Of the fourteen identified silver varieties, nine are known to have been struck from original small token dies, probably during the same period.
  • The small silver examples were not shillings since they were too heavy to have successfully circulated as such.
  • The silver pieces could well have been presentation pieces.
  • One gold coin is reported to have been struck from original small coin dies and the other is a copy, possibly struck in a later period.
  • There is at least one lead proof trial piece struck from small coin dies.

If I have failed to answer the question of what the intended denominations of the St. Patrick coinages were, at least I am in good company. Dr. Aquilla Smith, another physician, closed his 1854 paper "On the Copper Coins Commonly Called St. Patrick’s" with the statement, "I now leave the subject open for further investigation." And so do I.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank those whom I consulted during the preparation and presentation of this paper including John Griffee, Bennett Hiibner, Michael Hodder, Robert Hoge, Oliver Hoover, Louis Jordan, James LaSarre, Roger Moore, Neil Rothschild, Wayne Shelby, Roger Siboni, Charles W. Smith, and Stanley Stephens. In particular, I wish to recognize Raymond Williams for allowing me to use the data from the elemental analysis of his small St. Patrick coins. Since this article was in a development phase over so many years, I apologize to others who helped along the way whom I may have inadvertently omitted.

References

Batty D. T. Batty’s catalogue of the copper coinage of Great Britain, Ireland, British isles and colonies, local & private tokens, jettons &c. Vol. III. Manchester: T. Sowler and Co., 1868.
Bowers and Merena. The Norweb Collection. Part III. March 24–25, 1988.
Challis, Christopher E. A New History of the Royal Mint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Clay, Charles, ed. Currency of the Isle of Man. Douglas, Isle of Man: The Manx Society, 1849.
Crosby, Sylvester. The Early Coins of America. New York: Burt Franklin, 1983 [1875].
Davis, Herbert, ed. The Drapier’s Letters to the People of Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935.
Dolley, Michael. "St. Patrick’s Half-Groats and Pennies." Irish Numismatics 61 (1978): 39.
Gallagher, Colm. "The Irish Copper Coinage 1660–1700: Notes Towards a History." Numismatic Society of Ireland, Occasional Papers 24–28 (1983): 21–39.
Hodder, Michael J. "The Saint Patrick Copper Token Coinage: A Reevaluation of the Evidence." The Colonial Newsletter 77 (1987): 1016–1018.
Horan, John J. "Some Observations and Speculations on St. Patrick Halfpence & Farthings." The Colonial Newsletter 47 (1976): 567.
Jordan, Louis E. "Lord Baltimore Coinage and Daily Exchange in Early Maryland." The Colonial Newsletter 126 (2004): 2651–2768.
Manville, Harrington E. "Review of Brian J. Danforth’s Paper on St. Patrick Coinage," The Colonial Newsletter 127 (2005): 2781–2785.
Mitchiner, Michael. B., C. Mortimer, and A. M. Pollard. "The Chemical Compositions of English Seventeenth-Century Base Metal Coins and Tokens." British Numismatic Journal 55 (1985): 144–163.
Moore, Roger A., Stanley E. Stephens II, and Robert Vlack. "Update of the Vlack Attribution of St. Patrick Halfpence with Visual Guide." Colonial Newsletter 129 (2006): 2921–2928.
Mossman, Philip L. "Money of the American Colonies and Confederation." The Colonial Newsletter 74 (1986): 964–1156.
Mossman, Philip L. Money of the American Colonies and Confederation. New York: The American Numismatic Society, 1992.
Scott, Sir Walter, ed. The Works of Jonathan Swift, DD. Edinburgh: Tout & Sons, 1814.
Seaby, Herbert A. and Monica Russell, eds. British Copper Coins and Their Values. London: Seaby, 1963.
Simon, James. An Essay Towards an Historical Account of Irish Coins. 2nd ed. Dublin: G.A. Porter, 1810.
Smith, Aquilla. "On the Copper Coins Commonly Called St. Patrick’s." Proceedings and Transactions of the Kilkenny and South-eastern Archæological Society 3 (1854–1855): 1–10.
Smith, Charles W "Weight Analysis, Weight Loss, Wear, Porosity and Grade in Copper Coinage." The Colonial Newsletter 120 (2002): .
Stack’s Rare Coins. John J. Ford, Jr. Collection: Coins, Medals and Currency. Part V. October 12, 2004.
Stack’s Rare Coins. John J. Ford, Jr. Collection: Coins, Medals and Currency. Part VII. January 18, 2005.
Stewart, Michael "The Indian Town of Playwicki." Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 15
Trudgen, Gary, ed. The Copper Coinage of the State of New Jersey. Annotated Manuscript of Damon G. Douglas. New York: The American Numismatic Society, 2003.

Ye King and I: King David as King Charles I on the St. Patrick Coinage

Oliver D. Hoover

Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, New York

November 11, 2006

© 2009 The American Numismatic Society

Although the iconography of the seventeenth-century St. Patrick “farthings" and “halfpence" is very rich (Pl. 1–2), it has rarely garnered serious attention from numismatists, and on the few occasions when it has, the results have tended to be mixed. Because of this situation, a number of peculiar iconographic interpretations have evolved in the modern literature as well as within the general lore of the series passed on by collectors. The present paper deals with the interpretive problems of the iconography of the king who appears on the obverse of both series of the St. Patrick coinage. Discussion of the St. Patrick reverse types as symbols of the Protestant Ascendancy appropriated from Catholic sources will appear elsewhere.

It is not infrequently claimed that the obverse type of King David playing the crowned harp on both denominations of the St. Patrick coinage was intended as a portrait of King Charles I, and that, therefore, the series must be dated to the 1640s, or if a Restoration date is accepted, that the coinage was produced under Charles II to commemorate his deposed father. However, a close review of the iconography reveals very little that is distinctly Caroline in the King David type, suggesting that it was really intended to depict David as himself, rather than Charles I as David. This being said, there can be little doubt that the type was intended as an allusion to contemporary English divine-right kingship.

It is interesting to note that while many of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century students of the St. Patrick coinage speculated that the coins were issued or at least used by the Confederate Catholics of Kilkenny in the context of the Irish Revolt of 1641–1652,1 none of them seem to have suggested that the David type was actually a portrait of Charles I prior to Edward Maris’ publication of A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey in 1881. In this work, the author reported that, “I have been fortunate in securing one of each of the different sizes in perfectly uninjured condition. In the figure representing King David kneeling, I recognize the features of Charles I."2 This view was later endorsed by Walter Breen in a 1968 Colonial Newsletter article and at last canonized for American readers in his 1988 Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. 3 But is it true? Was the face of Charles I actually used for King David on the St. Patrick coinage?

The king’s head, which is only about 5mm from beard tip to crown on the "halfpence" and 3mm on the "farthings," is far too small to distinguish the facial features of Charles I (Pl. 1, 3–4). Thus it seems most likely that the features recognized by Maris in the David type were the pointed beard and shoulder-length hair, rather than the details of the face. There can be little question that the hair and beard of the David figure on the "halfpenny" are reminiscent of some numismatic portraits of Charles I (Pl. 1, 5), but these same features also appear on the portraits of the king’s European contemporaries, such as the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III (Pl. 1, 6), Georg Wilhelm, the Elector of Brandenberg (Pl. 1, 7), and others. More importantly, a similar style of hair and beard is worn by a harp-playing David on a Nuremberg 10-ducat portugaloser of 1641 (Pl. 2, 8). Since a portrait of Charles I is no more likely to appear on a gold multiple of Nuremberg than that of Ferdinand III is to be found on Irish coppers, it seems clear that the beard and hairstyle cannot be taken as personal identifiers of Charles I, and should be understood instead as generic elements of royal fashion in the first half of the seventeenth century.

Also problematic for the portrait theory is the fact that the figure of King David on the St. Patrick "farthing" appears to have a different and fuller style of beard and lacks the shoulder-length hair worn by the king on the "halfpenny." The "farthing" type seems to represent King David in old age, with thinning hair and long beard. A similar image of David appears later on the eighteenth-century psalmenpfennige of the Swiss city of Brugg (Pl. 2, 9) and probably derives from earlier artistic depictions, such as "David Playing the Harp" (Fig. 1) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640).

Breen attempted to support Maris’ dubious portrait identification by citing a remarkable halfpenny pattern made by Nicholas Briot for Charles I (Pl. 2, 10).4 The shorter hairstyle and goatee treatment of the beard actually serve to undercut the portrait argument. King David appears to have longer hair on the "halfpenny" and a full beard on both denominations of the St. Patrick coinage. The main interest here must be the radiate crown, which is indeed very similar to that worn by David on the St. Patrick coinage. However, despite this similarity, there is no evidence that portrait coins depicting Charles I wearing this form of crown ever saw circulation and therefore could have served as a model for David on the St. Patrick coinage. In any case, the radiate crown (also known as the eastern or antique crown in heraldic terminology), like the beard and hairstyle, was not an attribute specific to Charles I, and therefore cannot be taken as proof that David was a representation of Charles I. As part of a continuing Renaissance tradition going back to the Quattro cento, Charles’ contemporaries King Felipe IV of Spain (Pl. 2, 11) and Cnosimo II de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany (Pl. 2, 12) were depicted wearing radiate crowns on coins struck in their Italian possessions as indicators of their classical erudition.5 This form of crown was generally associated with antiquity because it frequently appeared on the Roman coins that were avidly collected by Early Modern rulers.6

image

Figure 1. Peter Paul Rubens, David Playing the Harp, 1577–1640.

In the Roman Empire, imperial portraits wearing radiate crowns were regularly used to indicate double value, as on the brass dupondius (worth 2 copper asses) (Pl. 2, 13) and the silver antoninianus (worth 2 denarii) (Pl. 2, 14), but also became associated with debasement.7 The antoninianus, introduced by the Emperor Caracalla in 213, was rated at 2 denarii and yet it contained only 80% of the silver needed for this intrinsic value. Over the course of the third century, the silver content was increasingly reduced until the antoninianus became a billon coin.7 The fact that Charles I wears not only the radiate crown, but also the draped cloak (paludamentum) of a Roman general clearly signals a Roman model—probably the antoninianus—for this representation. All of his other numismatic portraits depict him in contemporary costume; often involving plate armor with a ruff or lace collar.8 In the case of the Briot pattern, the radiate crown may have been intended to signal the use of debased silver for the proposed halfpenny, lest unscrupulous individuals try to pass it as good sterling. The pattern specimens cited by Peck all have the appearance of silver, but specific gravities that point to the use of impure silver or a base metal core.9 Perhaps most telling against the association between the radiate crowned portrait type of the Briot pattern and King David of the St. Patrick coinage is the fact that this crown form was often connected not only with Roman antiquity, but with ancient times in general. As such, it was not uncommon for the kings of the Biblical age to be depicted wearing a form of the radiate crown in seventeenth century art (Figs. 2–5). As David was one of the greatest of these kings, it is not surprising that he appears wearing this crown in painting (Figs. 2 and 5) and medallic art (Pl. 3, 15), as well as on several series European coins that also depict him with a harp and in a suspiciously similar pose to that found on the St. Patrick coinage. These include the psalmenpfennig of the Swiss city of Bern, struck in the period 1659–1680 (Pl. 3, 16), the quadrupla scudo d’oro of Pope Clement X, issued in 1673 and 1674 (Pl. 3, 17), and the psalmenpfennig of Brugg, produced from 1750 to 1775 (Pl. 2, 9).10 In short, the radiate crown is an expected attribute of David in the seventeenth century and therefore cannot be taken to signal an intended portrait of Charles I on the St. Patrick coinage.

image

Figure 2. Rembrandt van Rijn, David Playing the Harp before Saul, 1655–1660.

More recently, a variant of the crown form argument has been resurrected by Michael Sharp.11 He suggests that the crown worn by David is actually a type known as a celestial, or martyr’s, crown and that it therefore identifies him as Charles I, whose execution by Parliament in 1649 gave him holy martyr status among Royalists. Shortly after his death, a handkerchief soaked in his blood was said to miraculously cure disease, and following the Restoration in 1660 Charles was officially canonized as a saint by the Church of England.12

image

Figure 3. Valentin de Boulogne, The Judgement of Solomon, c. 1620.

image

Figure 4. Matthaeus Merian the Elder, Hezekiah Orders the Destruction of the Idols, 1625–1630.

image

Figure 5. Hendrick ter Brugghen, David Playing the Harp, 1623.

While this is an interesting idea, it founders on the fact that David’s crown appears to be the radiate antique type that we have already mentioned rather than the celestial type. Depictions of the celestial crown of Charles I in posthumous engravings (Fig. 6) and on a commemorative medal (c. 1695) by John and Norbert Roettier (Pl. 4, 18) clearly show that the rays of this crown type were regularly tipped with shining stars, a feature that is completely absent from David’s crown on the St. Patrick coins.13 Indeed, we should not really expect a celestial crown here. If it were present it would

image

Figure 6. Posthumous engraving honoring King Charles I as a martyr.

send a peculiar message, since the wearer seems to look admiringly at the temporal crown that hovers above the harp. This would be an inversion of the usual martyr iconography for Charles I, typified by William Marshall’s frontispiece for the first edition (1649) of the anonymous Eikon Basilike (Fig. 7), a work of royalist propaganda casting the king as a saintly—almost Christ-like—figure suffering at the hands of his own people.14 Marshall’s allegorical masterpiece shows the king, having discarded his temporal crown on the ground, holding a crown of thorns while setting his gaze upon a martyr’s crown that hovers before him. It would be highly improper for a saint, upon attaining his heavenly reward, to set his gaze upon the trappings of earthly power.

In 1987, Michael Hodder already cast serious doubt on the theory of Charles I as David by noting the close similarity of the depictions of David on the St. Patrick coinage to images of the Biblical king on the Nuremberg portugaloser and the Brugg psalmenpfennige that we have already seen (Pl. 2, 8–9).15 He further suggested that all of the images probably derived from a common prototype, but this seems implausible since the details of David even on the two St. Patrick denominations differ. We have already mentioned the differences of the beard and hairstyle between the "farthing" and the "halfpenny."

image

Figure 7. William Marshall, Frontispiece to the Eikon Basilike, 1649.

The general arrangement of the King David type for both denominations seems to be roughly modeled after the portugaloser on which David kneels playing the harp while gazing heavenward. On the Nuremberg piece, the object of his gaze is the Tetragrammaton of God’s name surrounded by rays of glory, but on the St. Patrick coinage this feature is replaced by a temporal crown, not entirely unlike the one that David wears on the portugaloser. It may be that the decision to apply the brass splasher to the temporal crown on the St. Patrick coinage was made in emulation of the shining glory of God depicted on the Nuremberg multiple, as the splasher makes the crown shine in its own way.

The checkerboard floor below David on the halfpenny appears to be taken directly from the Nuremberg medal, as Hodder has already pointed out, but the form of the king’s clothing closely follows that of David on a Bern psalmenpfennig that was not mentioned by Hodder.16 On both coins the king wears a cape with a noticeable upturning at the end and a fringe of ermine at the shoulder and along the edge. David also wears a distinctive short tunic that reveals his lower leg and the pillow on which he kneels. Also visible on the halfpenny and the Bern psalmenpfennig is a calf-length boot worn by the king.

On the other hand, the St. Patrick "farthings" omit almost all of these details. Here the king still retains his cape, but the ermine has disappeared from the edge and the shoulder. David does not wear the short tunic of the "halfpence," but rather a long flowing robe that covers his lower extremities down to his ankle. This form of clothing is somewhat closer in style to that of the king on the Nuremberg portugaloser and the Papal quadrupla scudo, but neither can be said to be a precise match to the farthing. On the Nuremberg piece David’s feet are covered and there is an ermine fringe at the shoulder. On the Papal coin the feet are visible and there is no ermine, as on the farthing, but the folds of the cape and robe are much more animated and the king faces to the right. As an aside we would add that the superior engraving technique and skilful Baroque treatment of David on the quadrupla scudi should put to rest the old belief that the St. Patrick coinage might have been produced by the Vatican as a means of subventing the Irish Rebellion of 1641–1653.

It seems improbable that the various Swiss, German, and Papal coins that appear to have provided design elements for the St. Patricks’ David type all could have been physically available to the designer of the farthings and halfpence. While it is true that the silver starved Irish economy relied heavily on foreign coins, there is no evidence that Swiss psalmenpfennige, which were actually struck as school prizes rather than as regular coinage, circulated in the kingdom in any kind of quantity. It also seems unlikely that the rare10-ducat portugaloser of Nuremberg could have been easily pulled from circulation to provide a model for Irish coppers. Assuming that the "farthing" was produced as late as the 1670s, it is similarly improbable that quadrupla scudi of Pope Clement X would have been immediately at hand. Although his predecessors, Gregory XIII and Innocent X had financially supported Irish resistance to England during the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583) and the Irish Rebellion (1641–1653), respectively, there is no hint that Clement X ever attempted to meddle directly in Anglo-Irish affairs during his brief pontificate and therefore there is little reason to expect his silver multiples in Ireland. Indeed, interventions there in the period 1673–1674 would have been politically counterproductive since, in 1673, James Stuart, brother of Charles II and his probable successor had openly revealed his adherence to the Catholic faith.

image

Figure 8. King David in manuscript illuminations of the fifteenth century.

In short, actual coins should be ruled out as the sources for the design elements used to construct the images of David for the St. Patrick "farthings" and "halfpence". Thus, it seems most likely that the designer of the St. Patrick coins had access to some sort of model book or books that included engraved images of the several European coin types or other artworks from which they were derived. Almost all of the iconographic elements found on the German, Swiss, and Papal coins, as well as the St. Patrick series appear in earlier works of art. David dressed in the ermine fringed robes of a contemporary medieval or early modern monarch and gazing heavenward can be traced back through the medium of manuscript illumination into the fifteenth century (Fig. 8), if not earlier, indicating an iconographic tradition that was at least 200 years old by the time of the various David coin issues of the mid- to late 1600s. It must be stressed, however, that the St. Patrick coinage is unique, if not daring, in its replacement of the glory of God or an angel that David traditionally looks up to with the temporal crown that serves to transform his harp into the badge of the Kingdom of Ireland.

David’s kneeling pose can also be dated to the fifteenth century, when it appears to have been developed as a conflation of two distinct iconographic types—that of the king playing the harp and the king at prayer. In earlier depictions, David usually plays his instrument in a seated rather than a kneeling position.

image

Figure 9. Detail of Erasmus Quellen II, David and Saul, c. 1635.

image

Figure 10. Detail of Charles-Nicholas le Jeun, David Playing the Harp before Saul, 1715–1790.

Even the decoration of David’s harp with a semi-nude winged female figure on the St. Patrick coinage was ultimately inspired by an artistic tradition in which the harp was given a face and sometimes wings. This sort of embellishment was added to symbolize the music that came from the harp and had the power to drive out the demons that plagued King Saul.17 The head appears in painting and engravings of the seventeenth century and continued to be in vogue during the eighteenth century (Figs. 9–10). Thus a bearded head, somewhat akin to that found on the harp in Ersamus Quellen’s David and Saul (c. 1635) can be found on the harp of the Nuremberg portugaloser, while the chubby head and wings of a puto appear in the art and on Brugg psalmenpfennige of the eighteenth century (Pl. 4, 19). The St. Patrick coinage charts a slightly different course by employing a full female figure, but its connection to contemporary models is unmistakable.

Having now reviewed the several theories claiming that the image of David on the St. Patrick coinage is actually that of King Charles I and having looked at the contemporary artistic and numismatic evidence, it seems that there is no iconographic indication that the harper-king is anyone other than King David as himself. Whether contemporary coinusers may have interpreted the type as depicting Charles I is entirely another matter and cannot be addressed in the absence of documentary evidence. Even if they did, there is absolutely no sign within David’s typology that this was intended by the designer.

It is hoped that in some small way, like the great Irish saint, whose most celebrated miracle was the driving of the snakes out of Ireland, the discussion presented here has at last managed to drive out an interpretive fallacy that has now bedevilled the coinage that bears his name for over a century.

References

Breen, Walter. " Comment on St. Patrick Halfpence and Farthings." The Colonial Newsletter 22 (1968): 16–19.
Breen, Walter. Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Cane, Robert. " On the Ormonde Coin and Confederate Money." Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1.3 (1851): 442–453.
Corpus Nummorum Italicorum: Primo tentativo di un catalago generale delle monete medievali e moderne coniate in Italia o da Italiani in altre Paesi. 20 vols. Bologna: Forni, 1982.
Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings. London: No Publisher, 1649.
Griffiths, Antony. "Advertisements for Medals in the London Gazette ." The Medal 15: 4–6.
Harl, Kenneth. Coinage in the Roman Economy 300 B.C. to A.D. 700 Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1996.
Hodder, Michael. "The St. Patrick Token Coinage: A Re-evaluation of the Evidence." The Colonial Newsletter 77 (1987): 1017.
Leake, Stephen Marin. Nummi Britannici Historia: or, An historical account of English money, from the conquest to the uniting of the two kingdoms by King James I. and of Great-Britain to the prsent time. London: W. Meadows, 1726.
Madan,Francis F. A New Bibliography of the Eikon Basilike of Charles the First London: Bernard Quaritch, 1950.
Maris, Edward. A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey. Philadelphia: W K. Bellows, 1881.
Peck, Wilson C. English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum, 1558–1958 London: The British Museum, 1960.
Reber, B. Fragments numismatiques sur le canton d’Argovie. Geneva: Imprimerie Dubois, 1890.
Ritter von Schulthess-Rechberg, K.G. Die Ritter von Schulthess-Rechbergische Münz- u. Medaillen-Sammlung: Als Anhang zum Thaler-Cabinet. 3 vols. Dresden: No Publisher, 1868–1869.
Scher, Stephen K. The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance New York: Harry N. Adams, 1994.
Sharp, Michael. "The St. Patrick Coinage of Charles II." British Numismatic Journal 68 (1998): 160.
Simon, James. An essay towards an historical account of Irish coins, and of the currency of foreign monies in Ireland. Dublin: S. Powell, 1749.
Spink. Coins of England and the United Kingdom. 40th edition. London: Spink, 2005.

Key to Plates

  • Copper St. Patrick "halfpenny". Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.
  • Copper St. Patrick "farthing". Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.
  • Enlargement of David’s head on the St. Patrick "halfpenny."
  • Enlargement of David’s head on the St. Patrick "farthing."
  • Gold unite of King Charles I. Oxford mint, 1643. Fritz Rudolf Künker Münzenhandlung 117, September 28, 2006, lot 5257.
  • Silver reichstaler of Emperor Ferdinand III. Kremnitz mint, 1649. CNG 64, September 24, 2003, lot 1380.
  • Gold ducat of Elector Georg Wilhelm. Königsberg mint, 1634. Fritz Rudolf Künker Münzenhandlung 117, September 28, 2006, lot 5940.
  • Silver portugaloser of Nuremberg, 1641. Auktionshaus Meister & Sonntag 2, September 21, 2004, lot 2323.
  • Silver psalmenpfennig of Brugg, 1750–1775. UBS Gold & Numismatics 63, September 6, 2005, lot 1098.
  • Billon (?) halfpenny pattern by Nicholas Briot for King Charles I. Wilson C. Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum, 1558–1958 (London, 1960), no. 362.
  • Gold doppia of King Felipe IV. Milan mint, 1621–1665. Triton VIII, January 11, 2007, lot 1672.
  • Silver tallero of Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici. Pisa mint, 1616. Fritz Rudolf Künker Münzenhandlung 98, March 8, 2005, lot 5206.
  • Brass dupondius of Emperor Trajan, Rome mint, 112–114. Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung 151, October 9, 2006, lot 429.
  • Silver antoninianus of Emperor Caracalla, Rome mint, 216. Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung 152, October 10, 2006, lot 2259.
  • Silver medal depicting David and Goliath and David and Jonathan (1537) by Wolf Milicz. Auktionshaus Meister & Sonntag 3, October 6, 2005, lot 1004.
  • Silver psalmenpfennig of Bern, 1659–1680. UBS Gold & Numismatics 58, January 27, 2004, lot 468.
  • Silver quadrupla scudo d’oro of Pope Clement X. Vatican mint, 1673–1674. Auktionshaus H.D. Rauch GmbH 76, October 17, 2005, lot 1301.
  • Copper commemorative medal of King Charles I (c. 1695) by John and Norbert Roettier. Baldwin’s Auctions Ltd. 42, September 26, 2005, lot 1441.
image

Plate 1

image

Plate 2

image

Plate 3

image

Plate 4

End Notes

1
See, for example, Stephen Marin Leake, Nummi Britannici Historia: or, An historical account of English money, from the conquest to the uni-ting of the two kingdoms by King James I. and of Great-Britain to theprsent time. (London, 1726); James Simon, An essay towards an historical account of Irish coins, and of the currency of foreign monies in Ireland (Dublin, 1749); R. Cane, “On the Ormonde Coin and Confederate Money," Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1.3 (1851): 442–453.
2
Edward Maris, A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey (New York, 1881), 4.
3
Walter Breen, "Comment on St. Patrick halfpence and farthings," The Colonial Newsletter 22 (1968): 16–19; Walter Breen, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins (New York, 1988), 34.
4
Breen, Encyclopedia, 34.
5
Corpus Nummorum Italicorum: Primo tentativo di un catalago generale delle monete medievali e moderne coniate in Italia o da Italiani in altre Paesi (Bologna, 1982), vol. V, no. 31; vol. IX, no. 330.
6
For the general influence of Roman coins on Renaissance portraiture, see Stephen K. Scher, The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance (New York, 1994).
7
Kenneth Harl, Coinage in the Roman Economy 300 B.C. to A.D. 700 (Baltimore, 1996), 129–132.
8
The Stuart taste for Roman numismatic style goes back to the gold laurel and its fractions struck for James I from 1619 to 1625 (Spink, Coins of England and the United Kingdom (London, 2005), nos. 2637–2642B), which look back to the Roman aureus for inspiration. Romanizing portrait types with laurel crown, paludamentum and/or cuirass were also common features of the milled coinages of Charles II and James II in silver, copper and tin. This style was continued under William III and was passed on to the House of Hanover. It was terminated by the production of the new coinage of George III in the period 1816–1820.
9
Wilson C. Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum, 1558–1958 (London, 1960), no. 362.
10
K. G. Ritter von Schulthess-Rechberg, Die Ritter von Schulthess-Rechbergische Münz- u. Medaillen-Sammlung : Als Anhang zum Thaler-Cabinet (Dresden, 1868), no. 659; Corpus Nummorum Italicorum: Primo tentativo di un catalago generale delle monete medievali e moderne coniate in Italia o da Italiani in altre Paesi (Bologna, 1982), no. 41; B. Reber, Fragments numismatiques sur le canton d'Argovie (Geneva, 1890), nos. 26–28 and 35.
11
Michael Sharp, "The St. Patrick Coinage of Charles II," British Numismatic Journal 68 (1998): 160.
12
See the anonymous pamphlets, A Miracle of Miracles: Wrought by the Blood of King Charles the First, Of Happy Memory, upon a Mayd at De ford, foure miles from London, who by the violence of the Disease called the Kings Evill was blinde one whole yeere; but by making use of a piece of Handkircher dipped in the Kings blood is recovered of her sight (London, 1649) and A Letter Sent into France to the Lord of Buckingham His Grace: of a Great Miracle wrought by a piece of a Handkerchefe, dipped in His Majesties Bloud (London, 1649).
13
Antony Griffiths, "Advertisements for Medals in the London Gazette," The Medal 15: 4–6.
14
Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings (London, 1649); F. F. Madan, A New Bibliography of the Eikon Basilike of Charles the First (London, 1950).
15
Michael Hodder, "The St. Patrick Token Coinage: A Re-evaluation of the Evidence," The Colonial Newsletter 77 (1987): 1017.
16
Die Ritter von Schulthess-Rechbergische Sammlung, no. 1390.
17
1 Samuel 16.14–23.

Old and New Takes on the St. Patrick Coinage

William Nipper

Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, New York

November 11, 2006

© 2009 The American Numismatic Society

Remarkably, even the most basic facts about the so-called St. Patrick farthings and halfpence (Figs. 1–2)1 have eluded numismatists for more than three centuries. When and how were they made? Where, by whom and at whose command? How were they distributed, used and valued? Given the turbulent environment out of which the St. Patrick coinage emerged, it is possible that a definitive solution to any one of these basic questions might quickly lead to the solution of them all. Thus, anyone working to solve the mysteries runs the risk of instantly having his or her work quickly become obsolete.

Nevertheless, with the objective of stimulating new research and discussion, this two-part paper begins with an overview of theories about the dating and origins of the St. Patrick coins. It concludes with an introduction to Sir Edward Ford, a seventeenth century inventor-knight who may or may not have had a hand in producing the St. Patrick coinage, but whose actions are at least worthy of further study.

Background: Ireland

Queen Elizabeth’s conquest of Ireland at the turn of the sixteenth century left scars that never have healed. Under James I, large numbers of Englishmen and Scots began emigrating to Ireland, to seek a better life. The English Crown made it easy for the colonists to displace Irish landholders, in much the same way that North American Indians were later removed from their ancestral lands. Discrimination against the native Irish increased as the colonial government in Dublin gained power. Old Irish traditions and powerful clans were losing their influence. Ireland became increasingly divided along ethnic and religious lines.

The situation exploded with the Ulster Rebellion of 1641, which began as a popular uprising by Irish Catholic peasants, spurred by the local aristocracy. It was met with harsh reprisals from the colonial government in Dublin. To regain control, in 1642, the Catholic aristocracy formed an alternative confederation government that existed for six years. This Catholic Confederation held Kilkenny as its seat of government.

image

Figure 1. Copper St. Patrick farthing. Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.

image

Figure 2. Copper St. Patrick halfpenny. Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.

Meanwhile, Charles I was embroiled in the English Civil War and was forced to soften his anti-Catholic views. He began courting the Confederation for its military resources. Throughout the 1640s, Ireland was a seething, violent mix of discontented factions: Royalists, rebelling Puritans, Catholics and the old Irish who clung to their traditions and wanted to rid the country of foreign interlopers. During this period, the Vatican supported its Irish flock by periodically sending emissaries and aid in various forms.

Finally, in 1650, the year after Charles I’s beheading, Oliver Cromwell pacified Ireland with a crushing invasion. Before the long conflict, two-thirds of good Irish land was owned by Catholics. By 1660 and the Restoration of Charles II, land ownership was two-thirds Protestant.2 Charles II knew that the ruinous state of Ireland presented an untenable situation and began efforts to rebuild the country.

End Notes

1
Note that throughout this paper, the terms "halfpenny" and "farthing" are used to denote the large and small St. Patrick pieces, respectively. This is done purely for convenience. The true denominational values are still uncertain. See Mossman above, chapter 1.
2
James G. Leyburn, The Scotch Irish (Chapel Hill, 1962), 105–125.

Coming to America

By almost every account, the St. Patrick coinage was conceived and produced during the reign of one of these two Kings Charles. The tasks at hand are to discover when and under what specific circumstances the coins originated and how they came into the hands of the man who brought them to America.

Regardless of the controversial date of manufacture, it is generally agreed that St. Patrick coins first came to America through the agency of Mark Newby (or Newbie) late in 1681. Newby was born to Quaker parents in Earsdon, Northumberland, England. In 1662, at about twenty-four years of age, he moved to Dublin with his parents in order to escape religious persecution in their native England.3

Within a year, Mark Newby had married Elizabeth Bridge Wilbre, a widow of County Kilkenny. By 1672, she, her three children by her first marriage, and two by Newby, were all dead. Newby waited two years, and then married Hannah Holmes, who bore him four children. The new family settled first in Dublin, but then moved to nearby County Wicklow. Mark Newby was a tallow chandler by trade, and a broker of the waste and surplus fat produced by butchers for makers of soap, candles, and the like.4

On September 19, 1681, Mark, Hannah, and their children left County Wicklow for America’s West Jersey aboard a pink (a type of narrow-sterned sailing ship) called the Owners Adventure. With them were a number of Quaker Friends, including William Bates, Thomas Thackara, George Goldsmith, and Thomas Sharp. Newby and his companions arrived at the Capes of Delaware on November 18, 1681. They landed at Elsinburg and there waited out the winter. When the weather improved, they bought a boat and used it to search the Third Tenth (an area that had been reserved by West Jersey’s commissioners for proprietors coming from Ireland) for a favorable place to settle. They found and purchased a tract on Newton Creek, near what is now Camden, New Jersey. In time, the settlement grew to become the town of Newton as birds of Newby’s feather, small merchants, merchant craftsmen, and shopkeepers, flocked to the area.5

As an early arrival, land-holder, and associate of Anthony Sharp, Thomas Sharp’s powerful Quaker uncle from Dublin, Newby quickly became an influential citizen of West Jersey. Early in 1682, he was chosen to serve in the General Assembly. However, his roles as pioneer and civic leader are not nearly as interesting as the cargo that he carried on the Owners Adventure. A May 8, 1682, Act of the West Jersey General Assembly reveals the contents of Newby’s stash,

That Mark Newby’s halfpence, called Patrick’s halfpence, shall from and after the said eighteenth instant pass for halfpence current pay of this province, provided he the said Mark give sufficient security to the speaker of this house, for the use of the General Assembly, from time to time being that he the said Mark, his executors and administrators, shall and will change the said halfpence for pay equivalent upon demand and provided also that no person or persons be hereby obligated to take more than five shillings in one payment.6

The legislation established several firsts: It gave New Jersey its first coinage, gave America its first official copper coinage, and made Mark Newby one of the first bankers in the region.7 To ensure that he lived up to his end of the bargain, Newby was required to post three hundred acres of land as security.8

Newby was selected to serve another term on the General Assembly in May 1683. However, Thomas Thackara replaced him on September 8, 1683, apparently because Newby had died. An inventory of Newby’s estate is dated September 4, 1684. In all likelihood, a period of one year from the day of Newby death was allowed for redemption of the remaining coins from circulation.9 Among other articles, Newby estate contained a small iron furnace, some brass and pewter, a pair of scales with weights, three sieves, and some silver plate. These were all instruments that could have been part of a mint operation.10 The sheer numbers of farthing dies, however, point to a substantial enterprise. Newby small accumulation of hardware and supplies would have constituted only a small portion of the required equipment. Thus, it is unlikely that Newby was actually running a mint in West Jersey. Even so, he could have been associated in some way with a mint in Ireland. Indeed, such a direct association is one possible explanation for Newby acquisition of the coppers.

John Lorenzo has suggested that Anthony Sharp, the prominent Dublin wool merchant and Quaker, helped engineer the Owners Adventure journey and that Newby was only a pawn. He further argued that Sharp had access to important figures whom Newby would not have known and that these same men might have provided the opportunity to acquire the coppers.11 Sharp also made numerous attempts at programs to help Dublin’s poor.12 Could the coppers have been part of one of his plans? Sharp was a shareholder in the New Jersey colony, but never made the journey to the New World. Instead, he sent his nephew, Thomas Sharp, who came with Newby, to attend to his affairs. It also appears that Newby appointment to the General Assembly might have been as Anthony Sharp’s personal representative. Barring some new revelation, however, no real reason to doubt Newby having acted on his own is known. Perhaps some long forgotten family papers will someday be discovered and the puzzle of his involvement will be solved. Records of Quaker meetings held in Newby home or at those of his neighbors, might also hold clues.

St. Patrick halfpence are several times as scarce as the farthings. Accordingly, halfpence die varieties number about thirty, while farthing varieties exceed two-hundred and fifty, from more than four hundred dies.13 Oddly, many of these varieties are known by only one or two survivors. Why so many varieties exist and why many of them are so rare are unknown. Farthing mintages must have been much higher than those of the halfpence. Again, why? Were the halfpence part of a small, early production run made before their weights were reduced, when it became clear that profits were too low? If this were true, then both sizes of coins should be regarded as halfpence.14 Even the smaller St. Patrick coppers are at least ten times as heavy as the patent farthings of the 1613 to 1644 period and Sir Thomas Armstrong’s farthings of 1660 and 1661. At 80 to 112.8 grains, St. Patrick farthings are even heavier than regal farthings that debuted in 1672.15 Such heavy weight tends to suggest an official coinage rather than a token issue.

On the other hand, St. Patrick halfpence weights vary between 120 and 176½ grains.16 Most fall within the 130 to 140 grain range, which is not out of line with what one would expect from a later regal Irish halfpenny. These weight variances seem great for coins produced under any sort of royal auspices and might imply that a degree of experimentation took place. The variances might also indicate limited official sanction and, hence, no strenuously enforced weight standards. Given that the farthings are generally made on poorer quality planchets, two completely different copper sources might have been used.17 Sweden supplied much of the copper used in Europe during the latter part of the seventeenth century, while the English copper industry struggled. If Swedish copper was used for some of the St. Patrick coins, then the differences in size may be due to a change in the availability of planchets or raw copper. It might be that halfpence were made from Swedish or other high grade copper while farthings were from domestic sources of lesser quality.

End Notes

3
Edward Maris, A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey (Philadelphia, 1881), 3–4; Frank H. Stewart, Mark Newby: The First Banker in New Jersey and his Patrick Halfpence (Woodbury, NJ, 1947), 13–14; Walter Breen, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins (New York, 1988), 34.
4
For a dissenting view on Newby’s occupation, see Siboni and Yegparian below, chapter 6.
5
Stewart, Mark Newby, 14; Richard L. Greaves. Dublins Merchant-Quaker, Anthony Sharp and the Community of Friends (Stanford, 1998), 97–98; John E. Pomphret, Colonial New Jersey (New York, 1973), 47.
6
Stewart, Mark Newby, 10.
7
Maris, Historic Sketch, 3–4.
8
Stewart, Mark Newby, 14. On the question of security for the coinage, see also Siboni and Yegparian below, chapter 6.
9
Stewart, Mark Newby, 16. For an alternate view on the redemption of the coinage, see also the paper by Siboni and Yegparian in the present volume.
10
Stewart, Mark Newby, 1.
11
From May 21 to October 7, 2005, on the electronic forum of colonial-coins @yahoogroups.com, digests 2454, 2472, 2474–2475, 2485, 2487, and 2707.
12
Greaves, Dublin's Merchant-Quaker, passim.
13
Stanley Stephens, personal communications, April–November 2005.
14
Philip Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation (New York, 1993), 128 and above, chapter 1.
15
Breen, Encyclopedia, 34–36.
16
Breen, Encyclopedia, 34–36.
17
On the question of planchet metal, see Mossman above, chapter 1.

The Charles II Camp

Sylvester Crosby, Edward Maris and Aquilla Smith, the dean of nineteenth century Irish numismatists, all offered similar litanies of early sources that assign the St. Patrick coins to various periods. The earliest source of which any of them were aware was John Evelyn’s Numismata: A Discourse of Medals, Antient and Modern. Together with some Account of Heads and Effigies of Illustrious, and Famous Persons, in Sculps, and Taille-Douce, of Whom we have no Medals extant and Of the Use to be derived from them. To which is added A Digression concerning Physiognomy (London, 1697). In this work, Evelyn categorized the silver pieces as medals and associated them with the reign of Charles II (1660–1685).18 Another 1697 reference, of which Crosby, Maris, and Smith were probably unaware, comes from John Sharp, the Archbishop of York. Sharp described the St. Patrick coins as money rather than as medals, but expressed uncertainty as to the time of their issue.19 Ralph Thoresby, an antiquarian who inherited a substantial coin cabinet and then built it up even more, may have been the first writer to assume original circulation as halfpence and farthings when he described the St. Patrick coinage in 1715. Thoresby also concurred with the Charles II dating.20

Walter Harris, in his 1745 publication of James Ware’s works, assigned the St. Patrick coins to the Charles II period. He also may have been the first to call out the fact that the Arms of Dublin appears on the halfpence. He agrees with Evelyn that the silver pieces are medals, aided in his conviction by the observation that two silver examples he had seen, from the same dies as the copper pieces, were milled. Since copper coins were never milled, he concluded that all must represent medals.21

Other circumstances point to circulation in the 1670s and to a possible origin in the same period. Michael Dolley concluded that St. Patrick coppers were minted in Dublin as part of a movement away from underweight tokens and toward larger coins with metal content that approximated their respective face values in the late eighteenth century.22

St. Patrick coins circulated on the Isle of Man at least until 1679 when the Manx legislature demonetized them. Brian Danforth provided a possible explanation for Manx circulation by noting the connection between James Butler, Lord Ormond, who served as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and the Earls of Derby.23

Michael Hodder cited the arms of Dublin on halfpence reverses as an indication of co-existence with tokens issued around 1675. Moreover, at least one St. Patrick farthing was found in the wreck of the yacht Mary that sank in March 1675, confirming existence of the coppers by the mid–1670s.24 By then, early regal halfpence and farthings were circulating in England and could have provided a basic weight model for the St. Patrick coinage.

Aquilla Smith was also in the Charles II camp. He examined the relative weights of the copper specimens and noted that the weights specified by the Confederation for its copper coinage do not line up with those of the St. Patrick coppers. By Smith’s calculations, a Confederation halfpenny was to be minted at ninety grains, or sixty-four to the Troy pound (5,760 grains). It is worth noting that the specifications of the Confederation do not work within the 7,000 grain avoirdupois pound standard either. Based on this standard, a Confederation halfpenny would have to weigh 109.375 grains.

Ninety grains fits within the ninety to ninety-six grain range that Leake observed for St. Patrick halfpence, but is outside the 130 to 135 grain range that he cited for St. Patrick halfpence. Smith used these findings, the pronounced differences in style between the St. Patrick coppers and those known to have been made by the Confederation, and the apparent suspension of private tokens in Dublin between 1659 and 1663 as evidence to conclude that the St. Patrick coppers were produced as private tokens at some time between 1660 and 1680.25

As for the differences between Confederation issues and St. Patrick coins, the St. Patrick coins, with their brass splashers and edge markings, seem to have been made with the intent of vexing counterfeiters. No such features are found on specie of the Catholic Confederation. Why would the same authority go to the trouble of making a predominantly copper issue difficult to counterfeit and not do so for its specie?

The fact that St. Patrick farthings typically weigh about two-thirds as much as the halfpence led J. Earl Massey to call the halfpence three-farthings pieces and Sylvester Crosby to suggest a use other than as coinage.26 Philip Mossman noted that, since profit was an ever-present concern and heavier coins meant less profit, it is unlikely that deliberately overweight farthings were produced. It is quite possible, therefore, that a relationship other than halfpenny to farthing was intended.27 If the St. Patrick farthings are treated as halfpence, then their weights roughly align with the Confederation’s standards. In this case, Massey could be correct in calling the larger St. Patrick coins three-farthing pieces. However, the Confederation called only for halfpence and farthings. Thus, the direct production of St. Patrick coins by the Confederation seems unlikely.

It is worth noting that West Jersey’s act of authorization offers no clarification of this issue since it names the coins as halfpence, but fails to say which of the two sizes were to be used. Since any coins were welcome in America, the cask might have contained both sizes and any distinction between them might have been an accidental and irrelevant omission.28

Until December 2002, the foregoing described most of what was known about the St. Patrick coppers as artifacts of the Restoration. Then Brian Danforth introduced a significant body of new research that, while not universally accepted, dramatically challenged the numismatic world’s view of the St. Patrick coinage. Danforth’s theory is discussed below, in another context.

End Notes

18
Maris, Historic Sketch, 4; Sylvester S. Crosby, Early Coins of America and the Laws Governing their Issue (Boston, 1875), 136; Aquilla Smith, "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society 3.1 (1854): 18; Breen, Encyclopedia, 34–36.
19
John Sharp, Archbishop Sharpe's Observations on the Coinage of England: with his Letter to Mr. Thoresby, 1698–99 (London, 1785). Discovered by James LaSarre and posted to the Colonial Numismatics online discussion group by David Wnuck on March 28, 2006.
20
Smith, "St. Patrick’s," 67–68.
21
Walter Harris, ed. The Whole Works of Sir James Ware Concerning Ireland. Dublin, 1745.
22
Michael Dolley, "The Irish Coinage, 1534–1619," in A New History of Ireland, vol. 3, ed. T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and F. J. Byrne (Oxford, 1976), 417.
23
Brian J. Danforth, "The St. Patrick Coinage," The Colonial Newsletter 121 (2002): 2371–2402.
24
Mossman, Money, 125.
25
Smith, "St. Patrick," 68 and 72.
26
J. Earl Massey, Americas Money (New York, 1968), 48; Breen, Encyclopedia, 136.
27
Mossman, Money, 126–129). See also Mossman’s discussion in the present volume.

The Charles I Camp

Other early writers subscribed to the theory that the St. Patrick coins should be associated with the time of Charles I rather than ." He too recognized the coppers as halfpence and farthings.29

In 1726 Stephen Leake narrowed the period of issue down to around 1641 and argued that the coins were struck by, "Papists, when they rebelled in Ireland and massacred the Protestants, pretending to act under the King’s authority." Leake may have been the first to note the relative weights of the two sizes of coppers as well as the first to suggest that they were coins authorized by the Catholic Confederation.30 Other writers, such as Simon and Humphrey, joined Leake and Nicholson in asserting a date of 1641 or 1642 and an association with the Confederation.31

For his part, Simon refers to a contemporary plan, which the Earl of Castlehaven was asked to submit, for founding an order of knights to honor St. Patrick. Simon claims that the coins were made in conjunction with the founding of the order. He also takes the alternative view that the silver pieces were intended by the Kilkenny government to pass as shillings. Smith refuted Simon’s knighthood theory on the grounds that no evidence exists that an order was formed until later.32

In his 1881 work, A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey, Maris sided with the Charles I camp. Maris reports that he became convinced of this dating when he viewed uncirculated specimens whose kings, in his opinion, indisputably depicted Charles I. He further argued that, being unauthorized, the coins would have been slow to enter circulation and, consequently, large numbers of them could have survived for the four decades between the rebellion and Newby arrival in America.33 Always the diplomat, Sylvester Crosby chose to give his opinion indirectly, rather than to "decide where doctors disagree," by saying that the quantities that Newby had brought with him were sufficiently large to imply that St. Patrick coppers were minted not long before he brought them to America.34 Thus, Crosby used some of Maris’ evidence, but to support an opposing view.

Over a century later, Walter Breen followed Maris’ lead in associating the coins with Charles I, but added the nuance that the coins were made at the Tower Mint, at the hands of Nicholas Briot, an engraver most active in the 1640s. This attribution was based on stylistic similarities and punch links between the St. Patrick coppers and other Briot efforts. Breen associated the coins with the courting of Irish Confederation mercenaries from the Ulster Rebellion to fight against Cromwell and his Parliamentary allies. Charles needed a way to pay his hired troops. If this were the case, then possession of such coins would have been an act of treason during the Commonwealth period and they would almost certainly have disappeared from circulation, at least until 1660, when the monarchy was restored.

End Notes

28
Cf. Mossman on finds, chapter 1.
29
Smith, "St. Patrick’s," 68; Crosby, Early Coins, 136; Maris, Historic Sketch, 4.
30
Smith, "St. Patrick’s," 69.
31
Maris, Historic Sketch, 4, referring to James Simon, An Essay Towards an Historical Account of Irish Coins (Dublin, 1749).

The Other Camps

Crosby relates a theory of Robert Cane that offers an altogether different version of the origin of the St. Patrick coppers.35 This theory has received considerable attention in recent discussion groups and may prove to be the key to unraveling the mystery. Cane concluded that the St. Patrick coinage was minted on the continent of Europe and then shipped to Kilkenny for use by the Confederation. He proposed to call the coins "Rinuccini Confederate money," after Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, the former Archbishop of Fermo, who was sent as papal nuncio to Ireland in 1645. It is known that Rinuccini brought arms, ammunition, and money. Though the money needed most was specie, Cane believed that Rinuccini brought the St. Patrick coppers for use by the army of the Catholic Confederation.

A number of research avenues have opened based on the ideas that Cane espoused. Among these are the possibilities that the St. Patrick coins were minted at the Vatican or in a country sympathetic to the Catholic cause and the possibility that skilled coiners could have been brought to Kilkenny.36

The obverse legend FLOREAT: REX: ("May the King Prosper") is shared by both St. Patrick coin types and is also somewhat ambiguous as to its subject. If the coins were sent from the Vatican or made by the Irish Catholic Confederation, then the meanings of the devices and legend might be somewhat different from the obvious. That is, they could mean "May the king prosper [only if he submits to the authority of the church in Rome]." Some analogy to the St. Patrick coins may be seen in the seal of the Confederation, which includes depictions of a crown, a harp, and a dove. The seal’s dominant features, a cross and a flaming heart, however, never appear on known coins of the Irish Confederation.

If Swedish copper were indeed used to make the halfpence, then the existence of two sizes might also imply two entirely different production dates since Sweden’s dominance of the European copper industry came after 1670.

End Notes

32
Smith, "St. Patrick," 69 and 74, referring to Simon’s Essay.
33
Maris, Historic Sketch, 4, referring to Stephen Martin Leake, Nummi Britannici Historia (London, 1726).
34
Crosby, Early Coins, 136–137.
35
Breen, Encyclopedia, 33–37; Crosby, Early Coins, 136.

Contemporary and Historic Images

Recent work by Oliver Hoover has added significantly to the numismatic community’s understanding of the coins’ iconography. No attempt will be made here to interpret the meaning of the symbols on the St. Patrick coins.

However, in the hope that contemporary appearances of similar motifs may aid in dating the St. Patrick coins, some such examples are presented.

Smith and others alluded to a 1619 engraving by Leonard Gaultier (Fig. 3) with many symbols analogous to those on the St. Patrick farthings as a possible inspiration for the motif of the "farthing." Gaultier’s engraving appears in Thomas Messingham’s Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum (Paris, 1624). Both the engraving and the "farthings" feature St. Patrick in the foreground, driving out a small dragon and a host of "serpents." A church appears in the distance, behind St. Patrick and to his right. In the engraving, he is surrounded by a flock of praying followers. The eight to the saint’s right are men, while the five to his left are women. They appear not as peasants, but as well-dressed citizens. The robed and haloed saint raises his right hand in an expression of blessing. He wears a double-peaked bishop’s mitre and carries a staff that is topped with a double-beamed, metropolitan or Lorraine cross. An angel flies above, carrying a scroll bearing the Latin legend, Haec est vox Hibernigenarium ("Here [in St. Patrick] is the voice of the Irish"). Another scroll, above, reads, Veni adiuua nos ("Come [and] help us").

Although neither type used for the coppers is exactly like the engraving, only one other known, contemporary depiction of St. Patrick is as similar. That reference appeared on merchant tokens made for Richard Grenwood, of Dublin, around 1660. Such tokens were usually denominated as farthings and were in common use between 1653 and 1672. The devices on one side of Grenwood’s token depict the saint almost exactly as he appears on the St. Patrick farthings, raising the question of which came first. If Grenwood’s token imitated circulating St. Patrick coins in the manner that hard times and Civil War tokens imitated U.S. cents in the nineteenth century, then St. Patrick coppers must have existed prior to the Restoration. In the other scenario, Grenwood’s tokens were made first, then St. Patrick coppers were made after the Restoration. In either case, it is likely that the Gaultier engraving either was influential in the design of both St. Patrick coppers and Grenwood tokens, or that all three shared a common inspiration.

On the St. Patrick farthings, the church appears to the saint’s left and his right hand is extended outward, palm-up. The church is absent from the halfpence, having been replaced by a shield that bears the arms of Dublin. Behind the shield is a group of followers, again segregated by gender. More followers watch St. Patrick from his right side. Their numbers vary, with six to eight men and three or four women. The legend above St. Patrick and his followers reads ECCE GREX ("Behold the Flock"). The followers are missing from the farthings and the legend is changed to QVIESCAT PLEBS ("Let the People be at Peace") an appropriate mantra for the besieged Charles I, but one that could also refer to Restoration era attempts to pacify and rebuild Ireland.

image

Figure 3. Engraving of St. Patrick (1619) by Leonard Gaultier, taken from Thomas Messingham’s Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum (Paris, 1624).

On the farthings, the saint’s staff is topped by a double-beamed cross, as in the engraving. On the halfpence, however, the staff ends in a shepherd’s crook and the saint’s right hand holds a shamrock or trefoil such as that with which St. Patrick allegedly taught his followers about the Trinity. On rare farthing varieties, St. Patrick is depicted with a nimbus, or halo, as in the engraving.

The church depicted on the engraving and on the farthings may be the one that stood at Armagh and was built on or near the site of Patrick’s original church. St. Patrick is said to have been given the crozier of Christ and to have kept it in the church at Armagh. Even earlier, Armagh was an important regional capital of Celtic Ireland. The church in Gaultier’s engraving is surrounded by a wall and has a bell tower in front of it. Its surroundings are rural, the landscape rolling and wooded. Whether these features were literal or merely intended to convey pastoral calm is uncertain. Contemporary images of Irish churches might help to reveal the identity of the structure depicted by Gaultier. That halfpence refer to Dublin and farthings to a possible other location could support the theory of two distinct issues.

Even if the serpents, lizards, and dragons on the farthings can be explained away as beasts driven from Ireland, two creatures remain to vex our understanding. The first is a four-winged bird that flies ahead of the saint. Such a creature appears to have been rare or non-existent in Irish lore. However, the Book of Armagh, a very early illuminated version of the Gospels, depicts St. Mark as a four-winged eagle.

For centuries, Dublin was represented by three flaming watch towers that punctuated a city wall. The flames symbolized zeal for the defense of the city. In time, the three towers evolved into three full castles, with towers at each of their ends. These symbols appear in an oval shield on St. Patrick halfpence.

The king depicted as both coins’ central obverse device is by many accounts, the Biblical King David, kneeling while he plays an Irish harp and gazes up at a crown that floats in the heavens. On some halfpence varieties, the king kneels on a tiled or checkerboard floor. When this feature is represented on farthings, the coins’ reduced size causes the tiles’ shapes to be distended. Breen mistook these odd shapes for creatures, calling them "sea beasts."37 Tiled floors graced many royal, parliamentary, and lesser halls of the seventeenth century. Similar tiles also appear in a David-with-harp woodcut from the 1516 De Bibel Int Carte, commonly called the Antwerp Bible (Fig. 4).38 Alternatively, they might have been inspired by a 1641 Nuremburg portugaloser, a thaler-size silver coin whose depiction of David is almost identical to that on the St. Patrick halfpence.39 David appears with his harp, but without the tiled floor, on a Bern psalmenfennig of 1659 to 1680 and on a gold coin of Pope Clement X, issued by the Vatican during his papacy from 1670 to 1676.40

image

Figure 4. Woodcut of King David playing the harp from the Antwerp Bible.

image

Figure. 5. William Marshal, Eikon Basilike, 1649.

image

Figure 6. Titian, St. Catherine of Alexandria at Prayer, c. 1657.

image

Figure 7. King David playing the harp from George Withers, Book of Emblems, c. 1635.

A figure very like the obverse king appears in a booklet associated with Charles I. Eikon Basilike ("The Royal Image") is apparently a combination of Charles’s own attempts to justify his actions and efforts by others to pay him tribute. Its frontispiece depicts a kneeling king without a harp, gazing upward at a glowing heavenly crown. His earthly crown lays forsaken on the floor beside him (Fig. 5). The engraving was done by William Marshal, an artist at the court of Charles I, and is believed to have been inspired by Titian’s painting of St. Catherine in prayer before a crucified Christ (Fig. 6). Titian’s painting was part of Charles I’s personal collection. If Marshal’s engraving were the only image of a kneeling king from the period, one might conclude, as did Breen and others, that the St. Patrick coppers depict Charles I.41

However, the truth may be more complex. The floating heavenly crown in the Eikon Basilike frontispiece is an eastern, or Jerusalem crown that has a Star of David at each of its points. The cast-aside crown is that of an earthly king. On the St. Patrick coppers, however, the crown types are reversed. This led Oliver Hoover to propose that the St. Patrick coppers depict David and that their association with Charles I is at best unsupported and at worst simply a wrong conclusion.42

The Old Testament King David is depicted playing his harp on countless images that date back many centuries (e.g., in the ninth century Utrecht Psalter). In George Withers’s Collection of Emblems: Ancient and Modern (London, 1635) (Fig. 7), and elsewhere, David plays a harp and gazes at God’s glory from the same position as the king on the St. Patrick coins. The text below Withers’ emblem describes the Lord’s love of music and harmony.

Legend punctuation varies significantly on the farthings. In some cases, nothing or a simple colon follows REX. On other varieties, the end punctuation is a group of three periods arranged in a triangular pattern (∴) that is called "Masonic" by Breen.43 Other varieties have as their end punctuation a string of four stars (two large followed by two small) or three or more stars in order of descending size.

Nor is the obverse side without interesting symbols. On many farthing varieties, nothing appears below the king, but at least three have what looks like an "8" or a pair of annulets in that position. Others depict a small bird or martlet below the king. A rare variety even places a bird above the king. These mysterious symbols may be akin to mintmarks or differents used to identify multiple mints or die makers. The large number of farthing die varieties certainly supports this idea. Alternatively, the multitude of varieties may be the result of local mintages for use as communion tokens or parish membership "cards."

End Notes

36
For the moment, this author defers to John Lorenzo, John Lupia, Stanley Stephens, and others who are closer to this line of research.
37
Breen, Encyclopedia, 33–35.
38
Abraham J. Karp1, From the Ends of the Earth (Washington, 1991).
39
Oliver D. Hoover, "A Note on the Typology of the St. Patrick Coinage in its Restoration Context," American Journal of Numismatics 16–17 (2004–2005): 192. For further discussion, see also above, chapter 2.
40
Hoover, "Note,"192, and above, chapter 2.
41
Breen, Encyclopedia, 33–35.

Sir Edward Ford, Knight-Inventor

With so much uncertainty, any new piece of information, however unlikely it is to contain the absolute answers, is worthy of exploration. Such is the case with information surrounding the Englishman, Sir Edward Ford, whose attempts to gain the coining privilege present a curious set of circumstances. At the present time it is impossible to be certain that Ford’s petitions can be directly related to the St. Patrick coppers, but the possibility is introduced here in the hope of inspiring further research on his coining activities.

Although summarizing or paraphrasing Danforth’s very thorough and well-reasoned work cannot do justice to its details, the crux of it is that he believes the probable period of issue to have been from 1667 to 1669, when Ireland was being rebuilt after the ravages of the Commonwealth era and the violence that preceded it. He asserts that James Butler, Lord Ormond, as Lord-Lieutenant over the government in Dublin, sought to create a stable coinage for Ireland and was supported in this endeavor by Charles I, to whom Ormond had remained loyal. Danforth further asserts that, to accomplish this, Ormond turned to an innovative Royal Mint engineer, Peter (Pierre) Blondeau for help. Blondeau, a Frenchman, followed in the footsteps of his countryman, Eloye Mestrelle. (Mestrelle had tried unsuccessfully to convert the Royal Mint from hammering to milling in the 1560s.) Blondeau, who had worked with Nicholas Briot, came to England a century after Mestrelle with a new anti-counterfeiting technology of which only he had knowledge. Blondeau found that he could use an oversized screw press to impart reeding or other edge designs in one step, a dramatic improvement over methods that used a separate edging process.44

In England, the absence of small change necessitated the use of private merchant tokens, municipal tokens, counterfeits and cut pieces to fill the void. These surrogate coinages were lightweight and were typically devalued when it came time to redeem them. Many people, especially the poor, were badly shorted in these exchanges. Moreover, a token’s acceptance was limited to the specific area in which it was produced and was, therefore, a poor substitute for officially sanctioned coinage.

If the problem was serious in England, it was catastrophic in Ireland, where many of the tokens in circulation were English rejects. The proposed solution for Ireland was another round of patent farthings such as those introduced under James I and Charles I. The patent was given to Sir Thomas Armstrong in 1660. Ormond and others were very much opposed to this approach and ultimately succeeded in bringing about its demise. He knew that something better was needed to reduce Irish dependency on light weight tokens and English whims. Danforth asserts that Blondeau held the answer, partly because he was the only person who possessed the technology to economically coin counterfeit-resistant coppers, such as the St. Patrick coinage.45

Many of the details of this theory are convincing. However, in the natural course of critical review, others have begun to raise doubts about some of Danforth’s findings. In a search of further evidence that would either support or refute his theory, the present author discovered an often overlooked knight-engineer who, during the same rough time period, sought to create a counterfeit-resistant copper coinage for Ireland. The surviving information about the knight, Sir Edward Ford, that might potentially connect him to the St. Patrick coppers is far from conclusive. Nevertheless, his story deserves further research even if it ultimately fails to offer the "smoking gun" for the St. Patrick coppers.

Although many entries in the journals of Parliament refer to the affairs of the Royal Mint and Ireland, mentions of St. Patrick coins are conspicuously absent. Moreover, Samuel Pepys, a prominent civil servant under Charles II, was associated with Henry Slingsby, Pierre Blondeau and the machinations of the Royal Mint. Pepys kept a very detailed diary that dwells at length on money and mints. Yet, he too made no note of St. Patrick coinage. It is unlikely that an operation capable of producing large numbers of dies and coins, using a revolutionary new process, would have escaped Pepys’s curiosity and pen.

For this author, the new adventure began innocently with Thomas Coonan’s 1954 work, The Irish Catholic Confederacy and the Puritan Revolution. Coonan wrote that the Confederation government, to relieve the scarcity of coin and as a show of "concord between Charles I and the Irish people," established a mint for half-crowns and coppers, specifically the St. Patrick coppers.46

At first glance, Coonan appears to confirm the 1641 to 1642 mintage period and the Catholic Confederation as the origin for the St. Patrick coppers, though the subject does not seem to be mentioned elsewhere in his book. It might be easier to accept Coonan’s "obvious" conclusion were it not for the fact that coins known to have been made by the Kilkenny government are so different from the St. Patricks. Moreover, as noted by Smith, the weights of the St. Patrick coins do not match up with those authorized by the Kilkenny government.47 Could Coonan have seen references to the Catholic Confederation’s mint, examined examples of St. Patrick coppers and, possessing no other information, erroneously assumed that the two were the same?

As contemporary sources, Coonan quotes Thomas Carte and Richard Bellings. This author obtained an electronic copy of one Coonan source, Carte’s History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde; containing an account of the most remarkable affairs of his time, and particularly of Ireland under his government: With an appendix and a Collection of Letters, in which the St. Patrick coins receive no mention. The Carte papers, which Coonan also quotes, are accessible electronically, in calendar form, at the website for the Access to Archives (A2A) program and Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts Department (Access to Archives). So far, no undeniable reference to the St. Patrick coppers has been found in the Carte papers. If Coonan’s conclusions about St. Patrick coins were actually based on early source material then that material must be contained in Bellings’ work, which is itself rare and has thus far eluded this author.

Perhaps another explanation for the St. Patrick coins exists. The Carte Papers contain a very interesting 1664 petition by Sir Edward Ford:

To the Kings most Excellent Majestie etc.[? text unclear]

The humble petition of Sir Edward Ford Shewith∴ 48

image

Figure 8. Sir Edward Ford’s coining petition (1642) in the Carte Papers.

That in the December 1660 your Majestie granted Sir Thomas Armstrong a pattent heere of 21 years for the sole making of Farthings in Ireland at the yearly rent of 16l:13s:4d

That his farthings being ordonary ones & easily counterfeited and nothing offered for the retaking them, hee could never doo any good in it, your Majesties rent lost and hee dead,

That your petitioner hath a new Invented way of making brass or copper Tokens of 1: 2: & 3: farthings which prevents counterfeits wherein my Lord Liutenat is satisfied and yet your petitioner with all will take order that his Agents who vent [? text unclear] his shall retake them,

Which will give your people there extraordinary content: very many of them not being able to live without them, and so necessitated to take unlycensed Tokens which every pety tradesman make & yet refuseth to retake, as he pleaseth, to the extream losse to all, the meaner Sort:

Prayeth∴

Your Majesties gracious letter for the passing to[? text unclear] your petitioner: a grant in Ireland for his new invented Tokens & though most chargaboll yet for the Same rent & Time Sir Thomas had for his comon farthings, with such clauses as have been formerly

And hee Shall [the] Ques[tion] pray [symbol, possibly a question mark] (Fig. 8).

Several aspects of Ford’s petition are worth noting:

  • His tokens are differentiated from Armstrong’s "comon" or "ordonary" farthings in three ways: 1) They are made through a newly invented process. Might the new process refer to the use of splashers or to the edge-reeding of base metal coinage? 2) The new method prevents counterfeiting. 3) The new proposal has a formal mechanism for redeeming the tokens, thereby making them superior both to Armstrong’s farthings and to "unlycensed" tradesmen tokens.
  • His tokens are to include both three- and two-farthing denominations. Given that the relative weights of the two sizes of St. Patrick copper coins hover around the ratio of 3:2, it is conceivable that they could represent the three- and two-farthing denominations that are mentioned in Ford’s proposal. Even if not, the proposal suggests that a three-farthing was being considered at the time.
  • His tokens are made of copper "or" brass. Unfortunately, the petition does not say "copper with a brass splasher." Nor does it say "copper and brass." Both metals were used to describe tokens and coinage of the period.
  • The "Lord Liutenat," presumably referring to Ormond, is satisfied with at least the anti-counterfeiting qualities of Ford’s proposal.
  • Ford asks for the same terms as were given to Sir Thomas Armstrong in 1660. Although Armstrong’s patent was supposed to have a term of twenty years, his farthings, which were similar in form to earlier Harrington, Lennox, Richmond, Maltravers and "rose" pieces, were apparently never minted in large quantities. Their light weights, alone, bred rejection and could have opened the door for a new, more substantial issue.
  • Ford’s proposal promises to give the Irish "extraordinary content." Could this be the peace alluded to by St. Patrick "farthings" with the motto QVIESCAT PLEBS?

End Notes

42
See Hoover above, chapter 2.
43
Breen, Encyclopedia, 35.
44
Danforth, "St. Patrick," 2371–2402.
45
Danforth, "St. Patrick," 2371–2383.
46
Thomas L. Coonan, The Irish Catholic Confederacy and the Puritan Revolution (Dublin, 1954), 146.
47
Smith, "St. Patrick’s," 69.
48
Note the use of punctuation, analogous to the so-called "Masonic" punctuation of the St. Patrick farthings.

Who was Sir Edward Ford?

Sir Edward Ford, the first son of Sir William and Anna Ford, was born around 1605 at Up Park, Harting Parish, West Sussex (Fig. 9). The Fords were an old Devonshire family that had grown prosperous in the wool trade and, by 1546, had begun building their estate at Up Park.49 For the next century and a half, they were involved in countless real estate transactions in and around Harting.

Sir William Ford was known as the "soape projector."50 That is, he promoted soap. Mark Newby, the tallow chandler who brought St. Patrick coins to America, was only about eight years old when Sir William died in 1646. Nevertheless, the tallow and soap trades might have afforded them shared acquaintances.

Sir Edward’s mother was the daughter of Sir Edward Caryll, of West Harting. The Carylls were an old Catholic family who retained their faith throughout the tumultuous Commonwealth period. Later, members of the Caryll family took the side of the Jacobites.51 No evidence confirming Sir Edward as a Catholic has been found. Nevertheless, both the Carylls and the Fords, including Sir Edward, were heavily involved in business of Harting’s once Catholic church, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Memorials and monuments to members of both families occupied various spots throughout the building. For example, a silver paten, given to the church in 1671 by Ford’s daughter, bears the family arms. Beside an old ruined chancel from the early seventeenth century sits a tomb house, reserved for Caryll family monuments.52 The church later became known as the Church of St. Mary’s and St. Gabriel’s and is now Anglican. It dates to the fourteenth century and, as do many churches from the period, resembles some of the ones depicted on St. Patrick farthings (Fig. 10). One piece of the church’s architecture that is of particular interest is a stone carving that depicts a saint, complete with mitre, nimbus, cross, crozier, and followers.

image

Figure 9. Up Park, which took on much of its current grandeur at the hands of Ford Grey, Earl of Tankerville and grandson of Sir Edward.

A search for Ford family symbols that might be connected to the St. Patrick coppers produced only disappointment. The Ford escutcheon is described as "azure three crowned lions or." Its three crowned golden lions on a blue background appear to have no parallel to the coppers. However, the Caryll escutcheon, described as "argent three bars and in chief three martlets sable" ("three silver/white bars topped by three black martlets,") does share its footless birds with some St. Patrick farthings. Probably by coincidence, the escutcheon of the Husses, another prominent Harting family bears ermine that, as depicted, closely resemble "creatures" observed on some St. Patrick farthings (Fig. 11).

image

Figure 10. The Church of St. Mary’s and St. Gabriel (St. Mary the Virgin) and the church depicted on the St. Patrick farthing.

After entering Oxford’s Trinity College in 1621 as a gentleman commoner, Edward Ford left without receiving a degree. Nevertheless, by 1629 he was named a virtuoso student in Oxford’s Inner Temple. Engineering appears to have been Ford’s first love. In 1641, at his own expense, he attempted to build a navigable canal to alleviate London’s water shortage.

When Civil War erupted, Ford remained fiercely loyal to Charles I. He was an officer in the king’s army from the beginning of the conflict and in 1642, Charles made him High Sheriff of Sussex. Ford was captured after the siege of Chichester and was sent to London, where his release probably was secured by his brother-in-law, Henry Ireton, a Cromwell stalwart and future Commissary-General of the New Model Army. By June 1643, Ford was threatening Southampton with an army of Royalists. On October 4, he was knighted at Oxford and two months later, he captured Arundel and its castle. He was made governor, but could not hold the town. The remainder of his military career saw him twice held hostage and imprisoned in the Tower of London, after which he retired to the Continent.53

image

Figure 11. The respective coats-of-arms of the Ford, Caryll, and Husse families of Harting Parish, West Sussex.

In 1647, the Queen solicited his aid in preparing the way for Lord Berkeley’s ill-fated negotiations with the army. For several years afterward, Ford was looked upon with great suspicion. In 1649, just after Charles I lost his head, Ford was listed by parliament as delinquent. In 1656, however, Oliver Cromwell spared Ford the indignity of the decimation tax that was levied against Royalists. Instead, he encouraged Ford to work on a successful project in which water from the Thames was raised ninety-three feet to London's highest streets. The same technology was used elsewhere in the country to drain mines and flooded lands.54

Though he never quite rose to the level of the Royal Society, Ford was a philosopher and economist. In 1666, he wrote the pamphlet, Experimental Proposals how the King may have Money to pay and maintain his Fleets, with Ease to the People; London may be rebuilt, and all Proprietors satisfied; Money may be lent at 61. per cent. On Pawns, and the fishing trade set up, and all without Straining or Thwarting any of our Laws and Customs. At the end of it, he penned Defence of Bill-credit.55

This pamphlet came just after London's great fire and offered a way to rebuild the city, while lowering taxes by providing an alternate source of government income. In it, Ford proposed paper money on the security of taxation and a place for "Banks of Loan upon Pawns, truly called Mounts of Piety." He also claimed to have invented a means of protecting "Bill-Money" from counterfeiting.56

End Notes

49
Margaret Meade-Featherstonhaugh and Oliver Warner, Uppark and Its People (London, 1964), 14.
50
Barbara Donagan, "Ford, Sir Edward (bap. 1605, d. 1670)," in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford, 2004), 9855.
51
L. F. Salzman, A History of the County of Sussex, vol. 4: The Rape of Chichester (London, 1935), 10–21.
52
Salzman, Sussex, 10–21.
53
Howard Erskine-Hill, "Caryll, John, Jacobite first Baron Caryll of Durford (bap. 1626, d. 1711)," in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford, 2004), 4847; Donagan, "Ford," 9855.
54
Erskine-Hill, "Caryll," 4847; Donagan, "Ford," 9855.
55
Anthony Wood and Philip Bliss, Athenae Oxoniensis (London, 1817), 906.

Pepys and Others on Ford

Ford’s exploits did not escape the pen of the legendary diarist, Samuel Pepys. Pepys was little more than a clerk with delusions of grandeur. Yet, he floated among the most influential denizens of Restoration England. Among the many famous diaries that survive from the period, his stands alone for its flighty, moody, self-aggrandizing style and the sheer breadth of its subjects. Pepys’ incessant toadying acquainted him with mints and minters, subjects about which he often wrote. Henry Slingsby, Master or Co-Master of the Mint from 1662 to 1680, for example, appears many times in Pepys’ diary. Pepys’ refers to Sir Edward Ford in an entry of September 13, 1664:

and after dinner to the Fishmongers hall, where we met the first time upon the Fishery committee—and many good things discoursed of concerning making of Farthings, which was proposed as a way of raising money for this business.57

Another, non-numismatic reference comes on September 22, 1663, in connection with an invention for curing smoky chimnies:

This day my wife showed me bills printed, wherein her father, with Sir John Collidon and Sir Edwd. Ford, hath got a patent for curing of smoking chimnys.58

The next reference by Pepys, recorded on November 6, 1663, alludes again to Ford’s desire to make farthings and have them used to help fund the Committee of the Fisheries:

And then, Sir G[eorge] Carteret being gone, I took my Lord [probably the Earl of Sandwich] aside, who doth give me the best advice he can; and telling me how there are some projectors, by name Sir Edwd Ford, who would have the making of Farthings, and out of that give so much to the King for the maintenance of the Fishery; but my Lord doth not like that, but would have it go as they offered the last year; and so upon my desire, he promises me when it is seasonable to bring me into the commission with others, if any of them take. And I perceive he and Mr. [William] Coventry are resolved to follow it hard.59

The footnote to Pepys’ diary entry states that Ford proposed to make his farthings from Swedish copper. The footnote goes on to say that the Fishery Company, Under James, Duke of York, and later King James II, supported the proposal, as did the Queen Mother. The footnote also says that the proposal was once more approved in a 1664 meeting [of the Fishery Company?].60 The present author is currently searching for documents that might support these details.

Ford’s proposal was ultimately rejected because of the protests of Prince Rupert, the well-liked cousin of Charles II who wanted his own coinage patent. Dispute also arose about payments to the king. Ford offered 6s 8d on the pound, a plan to which the officials of the mint were opposed. This plan was revived in 1667 and 1668, but the mint officials remained hostile. Instead, according to Pepys’ editors, Ford was allowed to make farthings for Ireland.61

On January 4, 1667, the following entry is recorded in the Calendar of State Papers Domestic for Charles II:

Order at a general meeting of the Fishing Company, approving the proposal of Sir Edw. Ford and the petition grounded thereon, and appointing a committee to present the same to the King, and to prepare arguments in its favour, and attend the Council to speak in its defence. Annexing,

I. Petition of the Governor and Company of the Royal Fishing to the King, for a grant of the sole power of coining and issuing farthings, not to be counterfeited, according to a proposition made by Sir Edw. Ford, he giving security to prevent the export of gold and silver, by importation of counterfeit farthings; to hinder prejudice to the people by taking back farthings at the same rate; to give 21s. worth of farthings for 20s. silver, and 5s. out of every 20s. to the fishing company.

II. Statement of the inconveniences and losses resulting from the issue of tradesmen’s tokens, especially in the late contagion and fire, and yet that the profits of them are such that they are made, in spite of an order to the contrary.62

The next reference to Ford came on December 3, 1664. Pepys displays a quaint bit of either genuine excitement or sarcastic displeasure at seeing the proposal again:

Up, and at the office all the morning, and at noon to Mr. Cutler’s, and there dined with Sir W Rider and him, and thence Sir W. Rider and I by coach to White-hall to a committee of the Fishery—there only to hear Sir Edward Ford’s proposal about Farthing’s [sic]; wherein, O God, to see almost every body interested for him, only my Lord Annesly, who is a grave, serious man. My Lord Barkely [Berkeley] was there, but is the most hot, fiery man in discourse, without any cause, that ever I saw, even to breach of civility to my Lord Anglesy, in his discourse opposing to my Lord’s. At last, though without much satisfaction to me, it was voted that it should be requested of the King, and that Sir Edw. Fords [sic] proposal is the best yet made. Thence by coach home.63

It is worth noting that both John Berkeley and George Carteret were present for different presentations of Ford’s proposal. Both men were key figures in the founding of New Jersey and Berkeley eventually replaced Ormond as Ireland’s Lord Lieutenant.

Of Sir Edward Ford, the Oxford alumni chronicler, Anthony Wood (1632–1695) wrote:

Some time after his majesty’s restoration he invented a new way of farthings, of which he made demonstration to the king and council so plainly, that they were satisfied that they could not possibly be counterfeited, and that one farthing could not be like another, but that they should differ in some little thing. And having then a design to get a patent for the making of them for England, was put aside by prince Rupert, and at length was content with one only for Ireland: To which place taking journey soon after, he died there before he could effect his design.64

Might the "little" differences between Ford’s farthings correspond to the many varieties of St. Patrick farthings?

Sir Edward Ford died in Ireland on September 3, 1670. His remains are interred in the family burial area at Harting’s principal church, the Church of St. Mary and St. Gabriel. Given that the Up Park estate sits atop a high hill, one can imagine that for his entire life at home, Ford had looked out at a view similar to that on the St. Patrick farthings. The burial took place on October 15, 1670. His wife had died earlier. Their only surviving daughter, Catherine, married Ralph Lord Grey of Warke. By his will, through Grey, Ford’s home, Up Park, became the property of the Earls of Tankerville until its sale in 1745.

Ford appears to have died before his plan could be carried out. However, Ford was in Ireland for some time before his death, preparing for the operation.65 Unfortunately, his will makes no mention of coinage or mint equipment.66 What, then, became of the work that he had done over the six years between his 1664 proposal and his death? Might the Irish have made use of it?

End Notes

56
Donagan, "Ford," 9855.
57
Robert Latham and William Matthews, eds., The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Berkeley, 1971), vol. 5, 269.
58
Latham and Matthews, Samuel Pepys , vol. 4, 315.
59
Latham and Matthews, Samuel Pepys, vol. 4, 365–366.
60
Latham and Matthews, Samuel Pepys, vol. 4, 365–366.
61
John Rawson Elder, The Royal Fishery Companies of the Seventeenth Century (Glasgow, 1911), 102 and 105; Latham and Matthews, Samuel Pepys, vol. 4, 365–366.
62
Mary Anne Everett, ed. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles II (London, 1860), 439.
63
Latham and Matthews, Samuel Pepys, vol. 5, 336.
64
Wood and Bliss, Athenae Oxoniensis, 906.
65
Meade-Featherstonhaugh and Warner, Uppark, 52.
66
Reading of Sir Edward Ford’s will by the Essex Record Office.

Conclusions

In recent years, research into the possibility of a continental connection by Brian Danforth, dramatically improved cataloging of varieties by Stanley Stephens and John Griffee, weight studies by Philip Mossman, iconographic studies by Oliver Hoover, and diligent research by others have done more to increase the chances of solving the St. Patrick mysteries than the work of the previous three centuries. The chances of success seem better than ever. Still, definitive answers remain to be found.

It cannot be said with certainty that Sir Edward Ford made or provided the means for making the St. Patrick coppers. Neither can it be said with certainty that he did not. Regardless, his activities are worthy of additional study.

References

Bell, Larry. "Newby family (long)." Message posted to Quaker-Roots-L electronic mailing list on January 26, 2000. Archived at http://archiver. rootsweb.com/th/read/QUAKER-ROOTS/2000–01/0948871486.
Bellings, Richard. History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland. With Correspondence and Documents of the Confederation and of the Administrators of the English Government in Ireland. Contemporary Personal Statements, Memoirs, etc. 7 vols. Edited by Sir John T. Gilbert. Dublin: M. H. Gill, 1882–1891.
Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts. MS. Carte 60, fol(s). 89. November, 1664.
Breen, Walter. Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Carte, Thomas. History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde; containing an account of the most remarkable affairs of his time, and particularly of Ireland under his government: With an appendix and a Collection of Letters. 3 vols. London, 1735–1736.
Coonan, Thomas L. The Irish Catholic Confederacy and the Puritan Revolution. Dublin/ New York: Clonmore and Reynolds/ Columbia University Press, 1954.
Crosby, Sylvester S. Early Coins of America and the Laws Governing their Issue. Boston: Sylvester S. Crosby, 1875.
Danforth, Brian J. "The St. Patrick Coinage." The Colonial Newsletter 121 (2002): 2371–2402.
Dolley, Michael. The Irish coinage, 1534–1691. In A New History of Ireland, vol. 3, edited by T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and F. J. Byrne. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1976.
Donagan, Barbara, "Ford, Sir Edward (bap. 1605, d. 1670)." In The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Elder, John Rawson. The Royal Fishery Companies of the Seventeenth Century. Glasgow: Aberdeen University Press, 1911.
Erskine-Hill, Howard. "Caryll, John, Jacobite first Baron Caryll of Durford (bap. 1626, d. 1711)." In The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Everett, Mary Anne, ed. Calendar of state papers, Domestic series, of the reign of Charles II, Perserved in the state paper department of Her Majesty’s Public Record Office. London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1860.
Ford, Sir Edward . Experimental Proposals how the King may have Money to Pay and Maintain his Fleets, With Ease to his People; London may be rebuilt, and all Proprietors; Money to be lent at Six per Cent. On Pawns; and the Fishing- Trade set up, which alone is able and sure to enrich us all. And all this without Altering, Straining, or Thwarting any of our Laws or Customs now in Use. London: William Godbid, 1666.
Greaves, Richard L. Dublin’s Merchant-Quaker, Anthony Sharp and the Community of Friends, 1643–1707. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.
Harris, Walter, ed. The Whole Works of Sir James Ware Concerning Ireland. Dublin, 1745.
Hoover, Oliver D. "A Note on the Typology of the St. Patrick Coinage in its Restoration Context." The American Journal of Numismatics 16–17 (2004–2005): 185–204.
Jenkins, Rhys. "A Chapter in the History of the Water Supply of London: and Sir Edward Ford’s Patent from Cromwell." Transactions of the Newcomen Society 9 (1928–1929).
Karp, Abraham J. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress, 1991.
Latham, Robert and William Matthews, eds. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. 11 vols. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971.
Leake, Stephen Martin. Nummi Britannici Historia: or an historic account of English money, from the Conquest to the uniting of the two Kingdoms by King James I and of Great-Britain to the present time. London: W. Meadows, 1726.
Leyburn, James G. The Scotch Irish: A Social History. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1962.
Maris,Edward. A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey. Philadelphia: William K. Bellows, 1881.
Massey, J. Earl. America’s Money, The Story of Our Coins and Currency. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968.
Meade-Fetherstonhaugh, Margaret and Oliver Warner. Uppark and Its People. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1964.
Mossman, Philip. Money of the American Colonies and Confederation. New York: The American Numismatic Society, 1993.
Oldys, William and Thomas Park, eds. The Harleian Miscellany, A Collection of Scarce, Curious and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, As Well in Manuscript as in Print. London: White and Company, 1809.
Pomfret, John E. Colonial New Jersey: A History of the American Colonies in Thirteen Volumes. New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1973.
Salzman, L. F. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4: The Rape of Chichester. London Victoria County History, 1935.
John Sharp. Archbishop Sharpe’s observations on the coinage of England: with his letter to Mr. Thoresby, 1698–99. London: J. Nichols, 1785.
Simon, James. An Essay Towards an Historic Account of Irish Coins, and of the Currency of Foreign Monies in Ireland With an Appendix: Containing Several Statutes, Proclamations, Patents, Acts of State, and Letters relating to the Same. Dublin: S. Powell, 1749.
Smith, Aquilla. "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s." Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society 3.1 (1854): 67— 76.
Stewart, Frank H. Mark Newby: The First Banker in New Jersey and His Patrick Halfpence. Woodbury, NJ: The Gloucester County Historical Society, 1947.
Withers, George. Collection of Emblems: Ancient and Modern. London: G. Withers, 1635.
Wood, Anthony and Philip Bliss. Athenae Oxoniensis. An Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the University of Oxford. To Which are Added the Fasti, or Annals of the Said University. A New Edition, with Additions, and a Continuation by Philip Bliss. London: F. C. and James Rivington, 1875.

Ormond and Blondeau: In Search of an Irish Coinage

Brian J. Danforth

Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, New York

November 11, 2006

© 2009 The American Numismatic Society

The St. Patrick series exhibits the best available technology for producing copper coins economically with a reeded edge in the mid-seventeenth century. Historical evidence, I will suggest, points to the involvement of Peter (Pierre) Blondeau, a French engineer associated with technological advances developed at the Louvre Medal Mint and the Paris Mint in the 1630s and 1640s. Having failed in his attempts to modernize the London Mint in the 1650s, Blondeau was invited to return to England, undertaking the production of milled money for Charles II. There are three hallmarks of Blondeau’s work: First, rounder coins with finely detailed impressions that were achieved through the use of a modified screw press. Second, a new method was employed to grain and inscribe the edges of coins, an important minting process that protected the integrity of money. Third, these tasks could be accomplished economically on thin planchets. By the mid–1600s, the destructive activities of clippers who filed and cut the edges of hammer-struck coins had significantly altered the weight of most circulating money in the British Isles. At the same time, hammer-struck coins were easily counterfeited. These problems led to the modernization of the London Mint in 1662 under the direction of Blondeau, who introduced new minting techniques.

The mid–1600s were also a critical period in Irish history, as the kingdom had been laid waste by Oliver Cromwell during the Civil War of the 1640s. James Butler, Earl of Ormond (Ormonde) who was later created Duke of Ormond, commanded the king’s Irish army during the conflict. After the defeat of the king’s forces, he joined the royal family in exile. Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, serving as the king’s chief representative in the kingdom between late 1661 and 1669. Assuming his position in Dublin, he faced almost insurmountable problems as Ireland lay in ruins. Saddled with an army consisting of many soldiers held over from Cromwell’s rule, its loyalty was questionable. The situation was made worse by insufficient funds to pay the soldiers, which threatened the country’s political stability. Out of the need to generate funds that were not forthcoming from London, it is here argued, Ormond authorized the production of the St. Patrick coinage.

In the past, numismatists speculatively proposed that the St. Patrick series was minted between either 1641–1642 or 1672–1678. The first date rested on a 1642 decree by the General Assembly of Kilkenny that authorized the coining of money along with the creation of "an institution and order of knighthood, concerning the honour of St. Patrick, and the glory of this kingdom."1 The latter date was subsequently modified by the discovery of the yacht Mary, which sank while crossing the Irish Sea in 1675. In the wreck’s debris, two St. Patrick coppers (farthings) were discovered, proving the series was minted prior to the late 1670s. The earliest contemporary mention of the series dates from John Evelyn’s Discourse of Medals, Ancient and Modern (1697), wherein a specimen was listed among Charles II silver medals. Two years later, numismatist Archbishop John Sharpe commented on the coppers as money minted in the 1660s. In a recent study on the typology of the St. Patrick series, the various depictions and messages conveyed on the coins support a similar time frame for the mintage. This is typified by the legends, FLOREAT REX and QVIESCAT PLEBS. Taken together, the phrase "If the King should prosper, the people will be at peace" denotes the peace longed for by the Irish after a destructive Civil War and the difficulties during the Commonwealth era. Current research by the present author narrows the date of the mintage to 1667–1669.2

Early attempts to date the series rested on each interpreter viewing similar historical events differently due to the lack of sufficient written records to resolve the matter conclusively. As an alternative, the current premise is based on an examination of the available technology needed to mint the St. Patrick series as presented herein. There is only one method that could technologically produce coppers with a reeded edge in an affordable manner, a technique invented by Blondeau. In ascertaining the mint date for the series, historical events converge into the period between 1667 and 1669, during the closing years of Ormond’s administration as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. It is within this time frame that Ormond authorized a new mintage as a means to pay the army during a fiscal crisis that gripped the kingdom and threatened its stability.

image

Figure 1. Maltravers Patent copper "rose" farthing under King Charles I, 1636–1644. ANS 1978.9.126.

State of the Nation’s Coinage

England had a longstanding problem with clippers and counterfeiters of its hammer-struck money who took advantage of its irregular shape and inconsistent weight. This was highlighted in a 1637 trial in which a defendant was accused of employing his servants "to cull and sort out...the heavies shillings and sixpences by the ounce.it being usual to find fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen pounds, or more, heavy in one hundred pounds."3 These were melted and sold for profit. Ireland faced the additional problem of an unfavorable exchange rate that drained the kingdom of its silver and gold, creating a shortage in the supply of money. In response, Irish officials in 1635 requested permission to reestablish a mint in Dublin to produce coins "of the same standard of those of England, for weight and allay [alloy]...of an impression clearly distinguishable from the monies of England."4 During the next two years, additional requests were sent to London until the project was approved although it was never implemented. Subsequently, the king authorized Henry Howard, Lord Maltravers, to strike "rose" farthings for both England and Ireland (Fig. 1).

Except for the Aberystwyth Mint in Wales, the London Mint opposed the establishment of auxiliary mints. Unlike in Ireland, where only a limited quantity of silver was mined, the Welsh facility had access to a much greater silver supply from "those hopeful mountains, where doubtless a mass of treasure lies."5 In spite of this limitation, the Irish Parliament pressed for the reestablishment of the Dublin Mint. In 1641, Charles I consented, but the outbreak of the Civil War prevented any further consideration of the project. In 1648, the topic resurfaced and the king granted Edward Somerset, Earl of Glamorgan, the right to strike money for the kingdom. The grant was made in consideration of His Lordship’s father having advanced large sums to the king at the start of the Civil War and in light of the Earl’s service to his majesty as special envoy to Ireland to secure military assistance from the Catholic Confederates.6 Somerset, however, was banished the following year upon the establishment of the Commonwealth, leaving Ireland to discern the value of clipped and counterfeit coins along with the various pieces issued by either the king or Parliament along with their respective supporters during the Civil War. Of particular concern was the multiplicity of mints created by Charles I. As one contemporary noted:

The late King went squirting up and down with his mints at Bristol, Shrewsbury, York, Oxford, Carlisle, and many other places; and when these garrisons were surrendered, the irons were carelessly neglected, and came into the hands of knaves, who fell first to coining of a great quantity of money in Lancashire, and the materials they wrought on was the clipping of English silver.. .some of them were executed, but to this day the State does not know the hundredth man in that county that are clippers and counterfeiters, and the like is still done in London and elsewhere.7

In the 1650s, problems with clippers became acute after the London Mint set the price for its purchase of bullion below market rate. As a result, the heaviest coins in circulation were melted for profit. Thomas Violet, a goldsmith and frequent critic of the London Mint, wrote an exposé in 1651 subtitled, How the people of this Nation are, and have been abused by Light and Clipped English Monie, giving insight into the problem that threatened the nation’s supply of money:

there are many...Merchants, Gold-smiths, and others, that have transported Gold and Silver out of the Nation, that have sold Gold and Silver at above the price of the Mint, that have furnished much light Gold, English and Forrain [Foreign], and great quantities of Gold and Silver to Merchants, and others to transport, that have culled and melted down the weightiest currant [current] silver Coins...to transport...That divers Gold-smiths of London, are becom Exchangers of Bullion of Gold and Silver, and buy it of Merchants and others, pretending to carrie it to the Mint, but indeed they are the greatest Instruments for transporting. doing the Common-wealth that damage.the Mint is alwaies [always] last served, as being the worst Chap-man, and giving least for it...It is to bee feared, that the industrie of many ages cannot replenish the Nation with so much Gold, as hath been transported out of it within these few years; for it is an infallible rule, that where Gold and Silver is over-valued, thither it be transported by Merchants and others.8

In an attempt to curtail the activities of clippers, England enacted a law in 1654 that declared their actions a treasonable offense. The proclamation outlined the various methods employed in lessening the bullion content of money:

if any person or persons shall Impair, Dimish [Diminish], Falsifie, Clip, Wash [a process of removing metal from the surface of a coin], Round, File, Scale or lighten for wicked...gains sake any the proper moneys of this Commonwealth...Then all and every the Offences abovementioned shall be and are hereby deemed, ordained and adjudged to bee high Treason...and adjudged to be Traytors against this Commonwealth, and shall suffer and have such pains of death, and incur such forfeitures, as in case of high Treason is used and ordained.9

For Ireland, concern with lightweight and counterfeit money was more severe as the kingdom became a dumping ground for England’s castoffs, a problem made worse by its unfavorable exchange rate and trade deficit. By the early 1650s, it was estimated that only 10 percent of all silver and gold coins in circulation were of good English money with the weight of the average piece reduced by 20 percent. As a result, officials in Dublin in 1652 renewed their call for a mint:

persons in London, sent over great quantities of counterfeit and clipped English money and base Peru-pieces [coins from Spanish colonial mints circulated widely in the British Isles], which by their agents they imposed on the merchants here: for which villainy some of the guilty were taken and executed...The most part of this counterfeit money, sent...to Dublin, Waterford, and other places of Ireland, were Half-crowns, which were so bad that the one half of them were not worth two pence in silver; and the Peru-pieces, which were then current here for four shillings and six pence, were not worth above two shillings and four pence...This occasioned several representative from the council here. To the Council of State, the committee of Irish-affairs...and to the lord protector [Cromwell], in England, to shew them the necessity of erecting a mint here, as the only expedient left to retrieve the affairs and the trade of Ireland.10

England’s failure to address the deteriorating state of money in the British Isles due to its poor financial condition after the Civil War led Violet to publish another memorial wherein he attacked the activities of persons who melted heavy coins for export: "if formerly they deserved to bee punished in the purs [purse]...they much more deserv to die for it now, for it is undermining of the whole State "11 In Ireland, the situation was dire as outlined in a report by Dublin officials to the Lord Protector:

By many former addresses unto your highness and councell we have made known the miserable condition this nation is in, through vast quantity of Peru and other base and counterfeit coyne, this poor nation hath of late bene [been] burthened [burdened] with. Indeed we are not able (soe fully as we would) to expresse our resentments of this growing evill, the generall discontent it beares upon most men’s hearts, nor the prejudice that is likely to arise, unless some speedy remedy bee applied, for like a gangren [gangrene] this adulterate coyne spreads farr and near. It banishes hence the currant coyne of Spaine, and eats up the good English money, which the merchants...make it a secret trade to export into England, or...into some forreigne partes, to any place where it yields most advantage, hereby the stock of this nation is detrimented.Trade hereby is exceedingly obstructed, plantation much discouraged, necessary provisions withheld, and monthly contributions (for the supply of your highness’s forces here) payd in such base coyne, as becomes a great loss to the receivers, and being refused in divers places...the publique affairs without speedy care (‘tis feared) will unavoidably fall into disorder...may in the end begett disturbance in the people...Nor know wee any other or better expedient for the cure hereof, or how to apply a suitable remedy, save by a mint.12

Compounding the problem was the London Mint’s reduced output of silver and gold coins. The average annual production in the mid–1630s had been about £198,000 in silver and £90,000 in gold coins, it dropped to £68,400 and £8,800, respectively during the Commonwealth era. This coincided with a drastic drop in production of silver halfpence along with a failure to issue any threepence or fourpence. This deficiency in the supply of money was severely felt in Ireland where its scarcity not only interfered with trade but also hindered the collection of taxes, thereby adding to the fiscal crisis confronting the kingdom.13

Part of the blame for the London Mint’s poor performance rested with its chief administrator, Aaron Guerdain, who was an inexperienced moneyer. In 1649, Guerdain was chosen over John Wollaston, a better candidate who was a knowledgeable mint melter. Guerdain was a long time supporter of the Parliamentary cause, while Wollaston was a convicted exporter of the nation’s bullion in the 1640s, an offense for which he received a pardon due to his position as a London Alderman. By 1651, realizing there was a problem at the mint, Commonwealth officials hired Violet to propose new regulations for the facility. In his report, Violet informed the Council of State that Guerdain and his assistants lacked the proper expertise to operate the facility. This resulted in the failure to secure an adequate supply of bullion which led to an insufficient supply of money. As a solution, Violet unsuccessfully offered himself for the position of chief administrator. As an inducement, he proposed to accept a reduced salary and promised to produce coins cheaply at a savings to the Commonwealth.14

While Violet was justified in attacking Guerdain, he failed to address the pressing problem caused by clippers and counterfeiters. The success of their endeavors stemmed from the method of producing hammer-struck money:

  • Ingots of silver and gold were cast in iron moulds of the thickness of a finger that measured 10 inches wide by 15 inches long;
  • The resulting bars were beaten into strips narrower and thicker than the future planchets;
  • The elongated strips were then cut in half and beaten further, approximating the thickness of coins;
  • The smaller strips were cut into rough squares, using large shears;
  • The squares were cut again, starting at each corner, into planchets, as workers weighed each piece and shaped it further to obtain the desired weight; and
  • Final trimming with shears and filing of rough edges was done to ready the planchets for striking.

This process produced coins with rough edges, making them susceptible to filing and clipping at a later time. As for weight, scales of the 1600s made accuracy difficult, a situation made worse by the need to shape each planchet as quickly as possible. This limited the number of times pieces were weighed and resulted in the production of coins of varying weights.15

Noticeable in the shortage of money that gripped England and Ireland was the deficiency in the supply of small change due to the failure to authorize coppers since the termination of Maltravers’ patent in 1644. Although sanctioned by the Crown, these farthings along with those authorized by James I were more like tokens than money of intrinsic value. As noted by one London moneyer: "The farthing token is of excessive lightness...and is of an ugly and deformed stamp, easily counterfeited. Suggests that the weight ought to be increased by two-thirds."16 After the

Civil War, it was obvious a copper coinage would be beneficial, as noted by one pamphleteer:

it is clear as the sun...the Poor’s misery, and the Commons discontent, are all foulded [folded] up in the non-allowance of State Farthings; the Poor crying out for mercy, the Commons for redress; and this insufuffable [insufferable] abuse cannot easily be corrected, until it shall please...to pass an Order for the allowance of State Farthings.17

During the Commonwealth era, officials contemplated the production of farthings and numerous pattern pieces were prepared for consideration. While several private contenders vied for a potential contract, the government’s anti-monopolistic stance precluded their success. More promising was the possibility that the London Mint would strike official farthings. Toward this end, several moneyers prepared specimens with various religious or political legends such as, GOD DIRECT OVR CORSE or THVS VNITED INVINCIBLE. Some of these pattern pieces were made in sufficient quantity that they circulated as money. In spite of this activity, the public had to rely on numerous tokens uttered by tradesmen and towns that constituted small change. While most were circular in shape, some were cut into squares, diamonds, and hearts. They were made by local artisans or skilled moneyers in London who specialized in making tokens. Such pieces were deemed money of necessity, facilitating exchanges in local marketplaces. More than 12,000 different varieties were produced with England accounting for over 90 percent followed by Ireland for about 8 percent with the balance attributed to Scotland and Wales.18 At times cumbersome to use and of little intrinsic value, the typical English token had an inflated value ascribed by its maker as a halfpenny or penny while its Irish counterpart was usually deemed a penny. Comparatively few farthings were made, which would have been closer to what the metal content of many tokens were worth. Overall, tokens were problematic as noted by Ireland’s Lords Justices: "many of those that caused such tokens to be so stamped and issued, kept out of the way, and so avoided the accepting or exchanging of the tokens they had so issued, to the great loss and disappointment of many poor people."19

image

Figure 2. Armstrong Patent copper farthing under King Charles II, 1660–1661. Courtesy of Philip Mossman.

After the restoration of the monarchy, there was a renewed effort to issue official farthings. The production of halfpence was added to this standard request since the minting of silver halfpence ended during the Commonwealth era. Among the various petitioners were employees of the London Mint and Maltravers’ son who claimed entitlement because of the unfair termination of his father’s grant to make farthings.20 In a break with tradition, London officials gave serious consideration to striking regal coppers, which led to the preparation of several pattern pieces. While a decision to issue coppers for England was delayed until 1672, the Crown granted Sir Thomas Armstrong the right to make farthings for Ireland (Fig. 2), allowing him space at the London Mint for the project, which became known as the Irish Mint. Charles II deemed the new farthings a "benefit to our people...as well as amongst tradesmen for exchange of moneys" and demonetized all outstanding Irish tokens.21 While Dublin officials accepted the king’s decree, they preferred the reestablishment of the Dublin Mint, which accentuated the general dissatisfaction with the patentee’s lightweight farthings. Armstrong’s tenure at the London Mint ended in 1662, coinciding with his death and the reallocation of his space to accomodate the new equipment used to produce the king’s milled money.22

Throughout this period, the underlying problem of English money was its outdated method of production. An early attempt to address this problem occurred during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603) when Eloy Mestrell, a former employee at the Paris Mint established a small operation within the London Mint to produce milled coins. Unfortunately, he was unable to overcome opposition from English moneyers who felt threatened by the prospect of machines replacing manual labor. Later, he was hanged as a counterfeiter, which discredited his activities. Nicholas Briot (1579–1646), Engraver-General at the Paris Mint, came to England in 1625, proposing to modernize operations by pressing "money into a more perfect roundness, weight, figure, and impression, and with less charge, than by the ordinary way of hammering."23 As with Mestrell before him, Briot experienced opposition from English moneyers in spite of the improved appearance of his coins.24 A further hindrance to Briot’s prospects was his damaged reputation. In France, he had been accused of bribing the Cour des Monnaies (the moneyers at the Paris Mint) in an attempt to overcome opposition to the adoption of his mechanical methods for cutting and stamping planchets.25 Given his talents as an engraver, as well as his introduction to the king by Théodore de Mayerne, His Majesty’s personal physician, Briot had limited success in England. He was assigned to the Edinburgh Mint on two different occasions. First was in 1631 when he struck Scottish coppers with results so disappointing that the Master of the Edinburgh Mint considered his efforts a shameful failure.26 The second time, he made milled coins contrary to a request by Scottish officials that he not introduce any "novelties" to existing manual practices.27 At two different intervals in the 1630s, he successfully produced a limited quantity of English milled coins. In 1649, when Blondeau arrived in England, the engineer also received little enthusiasm from mint employees. It was not until the early 1660s when the integrity of English money had deteriorated to a critical point that Blondeau was asked to return to London and modernize the mint through the introduction of modified screw presses that inscribed and grained the edges on the nation’s money. As Charles II announced, the new process would curtail the activities of clippers and counterfeiters:

Having resolved to prevent clipping and counterfeiting money, by coining money for the future by mill and press, with letters and groinings [graining] about the edges...Warrants for a grant to Peter Blondeau, a Frenchman, inventor of mill money, of a pension of 100£. a year, as engineer of the Mint, to enable him better to carry on the new way of coining.28

Against this backdrop of difficulties associated with the quality and quantity of English and Irish money, there arose a particular need for small change in Ireland in the mid–1660s. In addressing the kingdom’s monetary failings, the abilities of several distinguished men united in creating the St. Patrick series. It is my contention that together, they made a new coinage with finely crafted features that stood out from a host of less than desirable pieces of metal that people out of necessity called money.

End Notes

3
Rogers Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain and its Dependencies (London, 1840), vol. 1, 390.
4
Simon, Essay, 45.
5
Calendar of State Papers: Domestic Series (London, 1858), vol. 1637, 301.
6
Ruding, Annals, vol. I, 405.
7
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1651–1652, 262.
8
Thomas Violet, A Discoverie to the Commons of England, HOW THEY HAVE BEEN Cheated of almost all the Gold and Silver Coin of this Nation (London, 1651), 46–49. Violet had been fined £2,000 for culling and melting bullion coins, see Leonard S. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists (London, 1904), vol. VI, 281.
9
Henry W. Henfrey, Numismata Cromwelliana: or, the Medallic History of Cromwell (London, 1877), 21.
10
Thomas Violet, A Most Exact Letter sent From a judicious Gentleman to his Friend in London (London, 1653), 45, 49; Simon, Essay, 49.
11
Thomas Violet, Mysteries and Secrets of Trade and Mint (London, 1653), 39.
12
Simon, Essay, 120.
13
C. E. Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint (Cambridge, 1992), 313; T. C. Barnard, Cromwellian Ireland: English Government and Reform in Ireland1649–1660 (London, 1975), 47–48; Coincraft’s 2000 Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins 1066 to Date (London, 1999), 282, 286, 394.
14
Challis, A New History, 325–326; Violet, A Discoverie to the Commons of England, 46; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1651, 232–233, 460–461.
15
John D. Brand, "Scissel and Swarf," in Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. III, eds. M. M. Archibald and M. R. Cowell (London, 1993), 90–96. One of the advantages of the hammer-struck process was that it produced 50 percent less scissel.
16
Briot was the commentator, suggesting coins should be "wrought by mill and engines," a process that he advocated for all English money, see Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1629– 1631, 353–354.
17
Thomas Dunsterville, A Declaration Concerning State-Farthings (London, 1654), 4. Dunsterville was an unsuccessful petitioner to mint official private coppers.
18
George C. Williamson, ed., Trade Tokens: Issued in Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland (London, 1889), vol. I, xxii-iii and vol. II, 1429; C. Wilson Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum 1558–1958 (London, 1964), 99.
19
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 90–101; Simon, Essay, 124.
20
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 104.
21
Simon, Essay, 122.
22
Colm Gallagher, "The Irish Copper Coinage 1660–1700: Notes towards a History" Numismatic Society of Ireland Occasional Papers 26 (1983): 22. It was assumed that Armstrong’s position as Quartermaster General for the army in Ireland would facilitate the distribution of his farthings.
23
Ruding, Annals, vol. I, 385.
24
Briot learned engraving from his uncle who made coins for the Prince of Montbéliard. His father taught him to make dies and puncheons at the Charleville Mint. Prior to coming to Paris, he was the Engraver General at the Nancy Mint. See Mark Jones, A Catalogue of French Medals in the British Museum (London, 1988), 143, 167.
25
Jones, Catalogue of French Medals, 41.
26
John Craig, The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948 (Cambridge, 1953), 147–148.
27
Edward Burns, The Coinage of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1887), vol. III, 446. The exact method used by Briot to strike coins is unknown although it is believed he employed both screw and rocker presses, see Challis, A New History, 301.

Lord Ormond

His Lordship was the head of a distinguished Anglo-Irish family dating from the arrival in 1185 of Theobald Le Butler who accompanied Prince John (the future King John [1199–1216]) and his army across the Irish Sea to suppress rebellious feudal lords. In recognition of his service, Theobald was proclaimed Chief Butler and granted lands in Tipperary. His descendents increased their position in Ireland, which became formidable when James (c. 1307–1338), son of the Fifth Chief Butler, married Eleanor de Bohun, the grand-daughter of King Edward I (1272–1307). As a result of this marriage, King Edward III (1327–1377) created James Earl of Ormond in 1328 and granted him the regalities and liberties of a county palatine for Tipperary. This privilege gave him exceptional powers to exercise many royal rights, including the minting of money, while owing homage and fealty to the king. Although such rights were periodically granted to ecclesiastical jurisdictions, it was infrequently conferred on the nobility.

In England, the rights of county palatine status were basically restricted to the lands of those earls whose domains bordered Scotland or Wales in recognition of the important role they played in defending English territory. Among such grantees, the Earl of Northumberland was the only noble to establish an independent mint. This only took place during the chaotic civil war years that engulfed the reign of King Stephen in the twelfth century. Another, the Earl of Chester, collected a fee from the royal mint created in his jurisdiction. In Ireland, several members of the nobility had enjoyed palatine rights since the time of King Henry II (1154–1189) as part of establishing English rule, although only one, the Earl of Ulster, exercised the privilege to coin money at the end of the twelfth century.29

The conveyance of minting rights to the Ormonds occurred at a time when King Edward III was reorganizing England’s monetary affairs and augmenting the limited capacity of existing facilities to accommodate the nation’s expanding trade with Europe. While there had been nearly 70 mints in England under William I (1066–1087), operations by the early 1300s were restricted to London, Canterbury, and two ecclesiastical mints, Durham and Bury St. Edmunds, which were allowed to operate as part of their palatine privileges. In addition, there was a local mint at Berwick on Tweed that struck crude debased coins to meet the needs of the army stationed along the troubled Scottish border. This contraction resulted primarily from the desire of Henry III (1216–1272) to centralize minting under royal control. In an expansive manner, Edward III authorized two new ecclesiastical mints, Reading and York, along with a large royal facility at newly acquired Calais in France to assist cross-channel commerce. The king’s commitment to facilitating trade is underscored by the output of gold coins at Calais, totaling £27,968 during its first decade of operations, while output of the London Mint, which was the nation’s primary facility, was £17,498. For Ireland, in addition to granting palatine rights to Ormond, the king authorized the Irish Treasurer to issue silver farthings and halfpence in 1336 and two years later reestablished the Dublin Mint. Although the intent was to produce a large quantity of coins (24 pairs of dies were prepared at the London Mint and sent to Dublin to strike farthings, halfpence and pence), the facility operated for less then three years because of an insufficient supply of silver. Continuing his initiative to assist mercantile enterprises, Edward III issued England’s first successful series of gold coins: the noble valued at 80 pence (Fig. 3); the half-noble valued at three shillings and six pence; and the quarter-noble valued at a shilling and eight pence. He also minted the unsuccessful florin series of gold coins intended for international commerce. To facilitate domestic trade, the king increased the number of denominations, introducing the silver twopence and threepence along with a reconstituted groat or fourpence that answered objections raised to its initial issuance by Edward I. The mint at Durham was particularly active, reaching its highest output level in the mid–1300s. In spite of all the activity undertaken by Edward III, the newly created Earl of Ormond did not exercise his palatine coining rights. Perhaps the newness of his title or his youth and short life hindered his production of money. More probably, the shortage of locally mined silver was the major obstacle. This same problem sealed the fate of the short-lived Dublin Mint.30

image

Figure 3. English gold noble of King Edward III, 1346–1351. ANS 1967.182.40.

While mints operating under palatine rights added to the supply of small change, their overall contribution was limited and intermittent. Their output was restricted by a variety of factors, such as the shortage of silver or the limitations on the number of dies the London Mint sent them for striking coins. This last factor stemmed from the control that the London Mint exerted over monetary affairs. As a result, these lesser mints were at times barely active and periodically closed, which made their profitability questionable. The mint at Durham exemplifies this point when its annual output dropped to a mere £100 prior to its closure in 1394. Although reopened, annual output generally ranged between £100 and £500 for most of the 1400s because the mint was allowed to use only three sets of dies to strike coins. In the early 1500s, production slipped to less than £200 a year. Because of its low performance, the mint thereafter was rented to others to operate at a nominal fee. Under such circumstances, although the right to coin money was an important palatine privilege, it was not necessarily a worthwhile venture.31

image

Figure 4. James Butler, 12th Earl of Ormond.

With these events as background, James Butler (1610–1688), 12th Earl of Ormond, entered Irish affairs. He was raised in England and after the death of his father in 1619, he was made a ward of King James I and placed under the tutorship of the Archbishop of Canterbury, thereby distancing him from his Roman Catholic family. Like many of his ancestors, he undertook a military career. A staunch supporter of the Stuarts during the Civil War, he commanded the Irish forces in the king’s fight against the Parliamentary army. After Cromwell’s victory, he joined the future King Charles II in exile, residing in France during the early 1650s. In contrast to the chaotic monetary conditions gripping Ireland, which saw the kingdom awash with coins of questionable value, France had made vast improvements with its newly mechanized minting operations. Of special note are the activities of the Medal Mint that operated within the Louvre Palace, where Charles resided while in Paris. This facility was the center of French expertise in using screw presses to produce finely executed medals. Work there formed the basis for modernizing the Paris Mint and its provincial facilities in the 1640s.

Ormond returned to England upon the restoration of the monarchy and received the title of Duke from a grateful Charles II in 1661. In 1662, he arrived in Ireland as the newly appointed Lord-Lieutenant, the king’s chief representative in the kingdom. The problems he confronted were almost overwhelming. The nation’s economy lay in ruins; suffering was everywhere as over 600,000 had died in the war; persons who had benefited from Cromwell’s victory stood to loose lands they had been granted—a factor that involved an initial estimate of 1,800,000 acres, but which was subsequently raised to 5,473,000 acres as more claims were submitted to Dublin in the mid–660s;32 displaced Royalists on returning home wanted to assert their former property rights or receive just compensation; over half of the lands owned by Irish Catholics had been confiscated by Cromwell and many poor farmers had been forced to migrate to less desirable western lands; tensions between Catholics and Protestants were on the rise after a brief reprieve due to the Declaration of Breda (1660), wherein the king declared his personal desire for religious freedom; and the army that was responsible for maintaining the fragile peace was not dependable, since many had served on behalf of Parliament in its conflict with Charles I.33 Ormond’s greatest concern was a less than loyal army, especially one that was disaffected due to the scarcity of money that caused excessive arrears in pay. As a partial solution, he disbanded those soldiers deemed most disloyal to the king. This "new-modeling" or reforming of the troops was limited by his inability to pay arrears. With unpaid troops "notoriously known to be disaffected" Ormond advanced personal funds to meet the financial requirements of the military during the first part of his tenure in office and assessed the situation as desperate:

The fanatics in England had ever been adverse to the restoration of the royal family, and depending upon their interest in the soldiery which had been lately disbanded, and on the affections of great numbers that still continued in the army, meditated an insurrection. To know the whole strength of their party, they had sent persons into Ireland to sound the disposition of the forces there, and such encouraging accounts were brought back from thence, that they ragged [raged]...that they had eight thousand of the old soldiers in that kingdom ready to join in the design, which was to make away his majesty, and then to publish a manifesto, declaring the duke of York a papist [this religious issue led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the overthrow of James II and a renewed Civil War in Ireland], in order to set up a [Protestant] commonwealth.34

England also faced financial restraints stemming from the Civil War and was unable to offer much assistance to Ireland. A notable exception occurred in the aftermath of the 1663 insurrection that endangered Ormond’s life and London's control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English government in Ireland. To stabilize Ireland, Ormond requested £60,000 in English coin, which London was unable to supply. Given the seriousness of the situation, Charles II forwarded the necessary funds in French crowns taken from his personal stock of money at the London Tower.35 Realizing that Ireland needed to become more self-reliant, Ormond attempted to increase local revenues by focusing on farm production and commerce. This was imperative since part of the kingdom’s monetary problems stemmed from a trade deficit that drained the nation of its money. Unfortunately, London harmed Irish exports when it passed the 1667 Cattle Act that prohibited sending cattle to England. This not only lessened the Irish government’s ability to generate revenues to pay soldiers, but also increased sentiments for insurrection. As Ormond noted, such restrictive actions by England’s House of Commons were fraught with danger given the destabilizing events of the mid–1660s.36 Another development that drained funds from Ireland was the war with the Dutch and French in the mid–1660s. In spite of these obstacles, Ormond was able to reduce the annual deficit from £60,645 to £31,136 between 1662 and 1668, although the accumulated national debt totaled £175,902 by the latter date, a staggering amount considering the kingdom’s limited budget.37

image

Figure 5. Irish copper halfpenny of King Charles II (Armstrong/Legge Patent), 1682. ANS 1940.113.438.

Approaching Ireland’s monetary concerns more directly, Ormond was associated with several minting ventures. The first was Armstrong’s 1660 patent for farthings, which His Lordship initially favored as providing assistance to domestic trade. Thereafter, the historical record is contradictory regarding his position on the matter. Some report that Ormond continued to support the patent, which was certainly better than the attempt to revive Maltravers’ grant that produced farthings about half the weight of Armstrong’s. In 1680, Armstrong’s son, however, espoused a different opinion in justifying authorization for the Armstrong (Jr.)/Legge Patent (Fig. 5), stating his father’s project had failed because of opposition from officials at Dublin Castle. Although Ormond is inferred to have been the opposition, a more likely opponent was George Monck, absentee Lord-Lieutenant, who was seeking a royal license to make tradesmen tokens as an alternative to Armstrong’s farthings.38 The second venture that Ormond endorsed was the unsuccessful Viner Patent that proposed to establish a mint in Dublin to issue silver coins ranging from halfpence to fourpence. This project was initiated by the London financiers, Robert and Thomas Viner, in partnership with Daniel Bellingham, a Dublin goldsmith and Alderman. The Viners lent large sums to the king personally and to Ireland on His Majesty’s behalf. For example, in 1662 they advanced £30,000 to assist Ormond when he assumed the office of Lord-Lieutenant. This was a crucial loan as news from Ireland raised fears that there would be great difficulty with unpaid soldiers if money was not soon forthcoming from London. At the time, arrears totaled £125,689, a sum subsequently reduced as some soldiers accepted partial payment in order to meet their pressing personal obligations and some were purged from the army as a result of the 1663 insurrection.39 Ormond lent his support to the venture prior to his arrival in Dublin and continued to support it thereafter until the patent was surrendered. Another proposal that Ormond initially encouraged was Sir Edward Ford’s 1664 plan to mint farthings, halfpence and three-farthings. Ford’s timing was fortuitous, coming after the recent suppression of a conspiracy to inundate Ireland with counterfeit pieces-of-eight and base coins.40 An appealing aspect of Ford’s presentation was its use of privy marks and intricate designs as anti-counterfeiting devices.41 The project, however, was repeatedly deferred because of insufficient support from London in spite of its endorsement by the Governor and Company of the Royal Fishing, who were to share in any profits generated by the venture. The plan resurfaced in 1667 only to be delayed further without any noted support from Ormond. When the proposal was again discussed at a meeting of the Royal Fishing in 1668, the hopelessness of the situation was noted: "The King has often declared against private persons having liberty to coin, and if any should obtain it, the great labours of the company would be frustrated."42 Also in 1664, Ormond considered a little-known plan by Athenry Parliamentarian, Henry Whalley, to strike pence modeled after Scottish money.43 These failed attempts were followed by the St. Patrick series, which satisfied two of Ormond’s main objectives. Primary was the necessity to pay soldiers at a time of crisis when troops were needed to quell mounting unrest in the countryside as well as to protect the kingdom from a potential invasion by England’sEuropean enemies. Of secondary importance was Ormond’s desire to reestablish the Dublin Mint (historically, mints had operated in several cities such as Drogheda, Kilkenny, and Trim) in order to give the kingdom better control of its finances. The convergence of these two objectives on Ormond’s agenda between 1667 and 1669 fostered the creation of a semi-official coinage that later contributed to New Jersey’s supply of small change.44

There were several precedents for Ormond’s undertaking the production of money of necessity. During the chaotic Wars of the Roses that marred the reign of King Edward IV (1461–1483) a nationalistic Irish Parliament issued money. Included in this series were copper farthings and half farthings (Fig. 6) that depicted and/or named St. Patrick in the legend. In 1536, King Henry VIII (1509–1547) issued a series of halfgroats and groats known as "coins of the harp" (Fig. 7). These were minted in London and shipped to Ireland to finance the king’s suppression of the growing independence of the Earl of Kildare. The coins depicted a crowned shield on the obverse and a crowned harp on the reverse. While the harp had been an Irish heraldic symbol since the 1300s, this was the first time it appeared as a quasi-national symbol on Irish money. Between 1601 and 1602, Queen Elizabeth I minted a series of copper and billon pieces to support the suppression of rebels against the Plantation System, which gave Irish land to English immigrants (Fig. 8). In 1643, as the Civil War raged, the king ordered the people to bring their plate to officials who were to strike a series of coins that became known as Ormonde Money with various denominations up to five shillings (Fig. 9). The intent was to provide relief for "our good subjects there are reduced to that extreme penurie" for want of money. Obviously, this new supply of money was meant to assist the king in meeting his military obligations that were hindered by insufficient funds. At the time, there was also a desire to reestablish the Dublin Mint but "the quantity of plate or bullion there so to be melted down, and coined, is of so small and inconsiderable value, that it is not worth the charges of erecting a mint."45 During the Civil War, Ormond as Lord-Lieutenant exercised the right to mint money on two occasions. Between 1642 and 1646, out of necessity to pay the army, he along with the Lords Justices authorized a new coinage —commonly called Inchiquin Money— mentioned in Ormond’s warrant as "pledges" that ranged in value from threepence to double pistoles (Fig. 10). Later, in 1649, Ormond ordered the minting of halfcrowns and crowns to proclaim Charles II as king.46

image

Figure 6. Irish copper half farthing "Patrick"under King Edward IV, c. 1461— 1462. Spink 42, March 6, 1985, lot 216.

image

Figure 7. Irish silver groat of King Henry VIII, 1536–1537. Classical Numismatic Group 60, May 22, 2002, lot 2442.

image

Figure 8. Irish copper halfpenny of Queen Elizabeth I, 1601.Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.

image

Figure 9. Irish Royalist silver "Ormonde Money" half crown, 1643. ANS 1925.43.2.

image

Figure 10. Irish Royalist gold "Inchiquin Money" pistole, 1642–1646. ANS 1960.6.65.

Adding to Ireland’s monetary problems were numerous lightweight tradesmen tokens that appeared in the 1650s due to the shortage of small change. While comparable pieces were uttered in England as farthings and halfpence, Irish tokens were much overvalued and primarily vented as pence. A similar problem pertained to town tokens. Unlike in England, where various towns authorized tokens that had some semblance of intrinsic value, Irish town tokens were generally lightweight. Bandon’s and Kinsale’s coppers weighed 30 and 35 grains respectively while Cork’s weighed as little as 14 grains.47 In contrast to the finely executed tokens of Bristol, many Irish pieces were ill-struck while some of Cork’s were over-struck on outdated Louis XIII double tournois and Kerry’s on square flans.48 The adverse effect of Irish tokens was outlined at a meeting of Dublin’s Council in 1661:

Whereas among many other grievances under which his majesties subjects in this kingdom have laboured for several years past...that several persons, in all the cities corporate and market-towns throughout this kingdom, took a liberty, without any restraint to make a kind of brass or copper tokens, with such stamps as they pleased, in very great proportions, and vented them to the people for a penny each peece...to the great loss and disappointment of many poor people, and they or others having, by exchange of those tokens, possessed themselves of considerable sums of pure silver, have (as is supposed) exported the same out of the kingdom.49

To address these problems, Ormond lobbied for the reestablishment of the Dublin Mint. The goal was to lessen the kingdom’s monetary dependence on London, which was unable to offer any significant financial assistance in the 1660s. The reopening of the Dublin Mint had been contemplated in the mid–1650s by Commonwealth officials. In spite of subsidizing Blondeau’s extended stay in Dublin, adequate funds were never provided to ensure the venture’s success. The Irish Privy Council revived the proposal for a mint in 1661, which gained momentum with the passage of the Viner Patent in 1662. Unfortunately, the patentees were soon forced to surrender their grant after objections were raised to their plan to lower the silver content of their money to reflect the exchange rate between England and Ireland. These failed initiatives were missed opportunities to establish an Irish coinage and strengthen Ireland financially, thereby restoring its national identity and removing the stigma of the 1637 Proclamation that ordered the "name of Irish money or harps...be abolished, and that all Accounts. made in English money."50 Still without a new coinage or a mint, the Irish House of Commons in 1666 established a committee to investigate the means of obtaining a coinage. The adjournment of the Irish Parliament shortly thereafter prevented any further action on the matter as its members did not reconvene until after Ormond left office.51

The scarcity of small change also affected the general populace, making it difficult for landlords to pay farm laborers their meager wages and for the laborers to pay their modest rents. The situation was so serious that at times these payments had to be made with money substitutes.52 This problem was exacerbated by a drought and compounded by the reappearance of the plague in 1666, which further reduced the flow of money into Dublin’s coffers. In assessing the kingdom’s fiscal health, Ormond stated that poverty had increased to a level higher than that which had existed during the Civil War.53 His Lordship’s concern with this deplorable state mounted as signs appeared that some were ready to rebel against officials at Dublin Castle. The threat of rebellion was twofold. The lack of funds to pay the troops made their loyalty doubtful and raised fears that they might mutiny or support invading French forces. Likewise, tension was created by former soldiers who had fought for the Parliamentary cause in the 1640s and had been paid with confiscated lands. As Dublin mounted a campaign to disallow titles to farms taken by force, threats were uttered "by persons who had served in the Army of the late Usurper [Cromwell], and to whom lands in Ireland had been given as a reward for their service to defend those possessions by insurrection if needful, rather than yield them to other claimants."54

The potential disloyalty of the army was a grave concern that became intolerable in late 1666 when Ormond was forced to quarter soldiers in private homes due to lack of money. This policy was so controversial that His Lordship was threatened with impeachment by his opponents. In public, Ormond defended his actions as an "ancient practice" and necessary for the safety of the kingdom, consulting with lawyers who justified his stance. However, he privately considered it unlawful.55 From Ormond’s perspective, this decision was necessary because he lacked the means to do otherwise as noted in a letter to his son in 1667: "either the king must by raising the pay of the soldiers to enable them to pay for lodgeings; or they must haue [house] them free; or there must be noe army."56 Obviously, the army could not be disbanded "as the tymes weare, and still are, most dangerous"57 and a "hot alarm" had been raised that France, with the support of Holland, was amassing a force at Brest to invade Ireland.58 Lacking an immediate alternative, Ormond installed spies among the troops in an attempt to avert rebellion:

to gain an honest sergeant or corporal in every company [especially those stationed in Cork and Limerick where the threat was thought most serious] that were deemed more to serve as a spy over the rest, in order to get notice and to seize such persons as should come to corrupt the soldiers; promising in those cases a considerable reward.59

Adding to these problems were mounting disturbances in the countryside as rioters burnt houses and carried out other destructive acts in response to disputes over land titles. In matters such as this, officials normally depended on the military, but the soldiers had not been paid in many months. Furthermore, the local militia was weakened by the refusal of Catholics, who dominated the rural communities, to take the Oath of Supremacy. Ormond was well acquainted with what happens when soldiers were not paid. In 1666, he had to put down a mutiny in northern Ireland, where dissatisfied and unpaid troops called on others to revolt. He also experienced similar problems during the Civil War when Royalist troops became unreliable again due to insufficient funds. Aware of the dire consequences generated by financial constraints, he wanted to ensure the army was paid. He was especially concerned about troops who were holdovers from the days of Cromwell for they were deemed to be dangerous:

All precautions were no more than necessary at this time when the soldiers of the army, being of the old republican leaven, were ready to join in any seditious design or attempt to disturb and subvert the government.60

The problems Ormond faced were not easy to solve since the London Mint in 1667 was just starting to recover from the damaging effects of the plague and a citywide fire that had all but brought a stop to production at the facility. Given the shortage of money in England, it would be years before Ireland would see a meaningful inflow of regal money. As to the desire to reopen the Dublin Mint, that feat was virtually unachievable.

In the meantime, the lack of payments to the army had to be addressed as arrears amounted to slightly over £80,000, equivalent to the pay and support of the troops for a year.61 In correspondence with London officials, Ormond considered it imperative to pay at least six months of the back pay in order to avert trouble. In addressing this problem, the St. Patrick series would play an important role in computing the estimated £40,000 was required to satisfy the army.62

Officials on both sides of the Irish Sea acknowledged the mounting problem, declaring: "We are so poor here [Ireland] that I do not think we can advert difficulty and dangers for long."63 A report to London authorities assessing the allegiance of the troops recounted the answer given by a soldier when asked which side he would fight for should a rebellion erupt. His response was telling: "that which pays the best."64 The situation was deteriorating as the lack of pay turned soldiers into criminals, who stole from citizens in nearby communities. In order to meet their personal obligations, some officers took money that was intended for their subordinates. A few soldiers even became false coiners.65 By 1667, illegal activity was spreading because

there is money due to them...and violently armed men break into the cottages of poor people and other inhabitants of the said city [Dublin] and suburbs, and there spoil their goods and terrify the said inhabitants, and many times take and carry away plate and other valuable goods of great value without warrant or order.66

These events led to an alternate solution to Ireland’s shortage of money. In 1667, when Ormond received support in the form of a "King’s letter" from Charles II, granting him sole authority to suppress all tokens in Ireland that did not have his approval. Unlike in England, where the use of tokens generally went unmolested, Ormond took the unusual step of repressing base money, as he reported to England’s Secretary of State for Ireland. Such action normally preceded the authorization of a new coinage. A contemporary letter interpreted the Lord-Lieutenant’s warrant from the king as a receipt of permission to issue official tokens and small change.67

Ormond’s receipt of his royal authority is significant since it constituted the same permission that Armstrong had initially received for minting his farthings. In Armstrong’s case, however, he could not proceed until he had obtained consent from Lord Robartes, Ireland’s newly appointed Deputy Lord-Lieutenant. Since His Lordship had not yet assumed his post in Dublin, Robartes refused to endorse the project until his arrival in Ireland, which would not occur for several months. Frustrated by the delay, Armstrong successfully circumvented this obstacle by requesting a royal patent, which he received. This was a strong precedent for Ormond. Having secured the "King’s letter," he had in effect obtained approval to issue money. This interpretation is confirmed by later correspondence with his son, Lord Ossory.68

Ormond’s receipt of the "King’s letter" coincided with his request in July of 1667 that London provide £40,000 to pay soldiers during the depth of the fiscal crisis. This amount was reduced several weeks later to £30,000 as peace in Europe appeared to be at hand and part of the army could be disbanded.69 It was during this period that Ormond proposed to mint farthings in Dublin:

The Council have been working diligently here for a week at the revenue. The result is that though we find that the King is in greater debt to the army than he can soon pay...I am to propose [Ormond later specified that he would submit his proposal directly to the king.70] that we have £30,000 in mild [milled] and brass or copper farthings sent us, or the metal sent and workmen tools to coin them here, then to be made current by proclamation at such proportion in the pound as shall be held fit. This will make a gain to the King of all except the cost of coinage and great convenience...But if it meet with no rub on that side [i.e., from London officials], on notice I shall have it more particularly proposed and reduced to method and practice.71

From Ormond’s perspective, the shortage of money in Ireland was so problematic that "we must take what we can get rather that hazard the suffering of the Regiment to be longer without money."72 As noted in his reduced request for £30,000, His Lordship was prepared to mint coins as part of his vice-regal prerogative.73 As a contemporary political observer pointed out, "small money is a private one, which the Lord-Lieutenant might order by his instructions."74 Ormond’s decision to undertake a mintage became a necessity when London informed Dublin officials that it would no longer subsidize Ireland’s government. Calling for fiscal retrenchment, England now expected Dublin to generate surplus revenues to help reduce the burdensome national debt caused by the recent war.75 This excluded any possibility of receiving funds from England to buy equipment and other materials needed to build a mint in Dublin.

Ormond was not the only person to sense the desperate state of Irish monetary affairs and to consider minting money as its solution. Richard Stephens proposed an expansive plan to produce £300,000 in tin pence, which later would be devalued to halfpence. This coinage was promoted as a means to settle the arrears owed to the army and to pay the national debt with the balance applied to buying supplies for the navy.76 This proposal was never given serious consideration for several reasons. One factor was undoubtedly the petitioner’s former service as a colonel in Cromwell’s army, which would not have inspired the favor of royal officials in London and Dublin. Another key obstacle was the proposed use of tin, a metal the London Mint deemed unsuitable for small change since it could be easily mixed with lead to make counterfeit coins. Fitting into this time frame was Ford’s proposal to mint farthings, halfpence, and three-farthings.77

Ormond’s hereditary palatine rights as granted by King Edward III undoubtedly influenced his exploration of means to obtain money. This ancient right was important to the family, as evidenced by the desire to have it reaffirmed in 1625, after a dispute between Ormond’s grandfather and King James I; and again, after the restoration of the monarchy, to rectify punitive confiscations undertaken by Cromwell. In the 1662 letter of reaffirmation, Charles II returned to Ormond his ancient paternal property and the "royalties, franchises, liberties, powers and jurisdictions...within the co. [county] Palatine."78 By this act, Ormond became the last of the great Irish earls to enjoy palatine privileges.79

Up to this point, there is no record of the Ormonds issuing coins under their palatine rights. In fact, the only Irish earl to exercise this privilege was John de Courci (at times spelled Courcy), Earl of Ulster, who minted a series of silver farthings and halfpence in the late twelfth century that often displayed PATRIC or PATRICIVS as a legend. In England, several ecclesiastical mints in counties palatine minted coins. The Bishops of Durham issued silver halfpence and pence and the Archbishops of Canterbury and York struck pence and a limited number of twopence and groats. This activity came to an end when King Henry VIII revoked their privileges during his dispute with Rome. Among the English lay nobility who enjoyed palatine rights, only brief endeavors were undertaken, such as those of the Earl of Northumberland and the Earl of Chester. While the output of palatine mints was limited, they made a significant contribution to the supply of small change since moneyers at the London Mint and other royal facilities focused on producing coins of greater value due to incentives in their indentures that based compensation on value rather than quantity produced.80

Another event that may have affected Ormond’s decision to strike coins was the action taken by Cecil Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore (1605— 1675), who held title in the Irish peerage. Calvert assumed the right of coinage based on Maryland’s charter that gave him all the privileges of any Bishop of Durham within the Bishopric or County Palatine of Durham. Calvert had dies made in London, and specimens produced in 1659 that were most likely made under contract with workers at the London Mint. Calvert’s intent was to issue money as a means to further the development of Maryland. The obverse legend on the coins illustrates his palatine rights by identifying the issuing authority as CAECILIVS D(omi)N(u)S TERRAE MARIAE, or "Cecil, Lord of Mary’s Land." This theme is carried onto the reverse where above the shield that represents the Barony of Baltimore is a coronet with an orb and cross that closely resembles the coronet of a European count palatine. Calvert shipped £2,500 to Maryland in groats, sixpences, and shillings. Although Calvert’s coining activities raised concerns in England because officials wished to retain bullion for domestic use as the nation approached insolvency, the proprietor’s coins circulated freely during the remainder of the century.81

image

Figure 11. Maryland silver shilling of Lord Baltimore, 1658–1659. ANS 1950.185.1.

Unspoken in this controversy is the design of Maryland’s coins wherein Calvert placed his bust on the obverse. This was contrary to tradition among issuers of palatine coins. Except for the Civil War years during the reign of King Stephen (1135–1154), when coins at times depicted political or religious leaders, coins struck at ecclesiastical mints prominently displayed the bust of the reigning monarch. The similarity between regal coins and those issued under palatine privileges stemmed from the control exerted by the London Mint that prepared dies for auxiliary mints. The display of a non-regal bust, therefore, was a noticeable break with an ancient tradition.82

Ormond was aware of events in Maryland since, as a courtier in the 1660s, he had participated in numerous meetings with the king and his advisors. In regard to Maryland, he is noted in American colonial records for his involvement in two significant events. One pertained to Virginia’s attempt to control the price of tobacco, which was the mainstay of Maryland’s economy. In 1664, royal advisors discussed a petition sent to Charles II to restrict the planting of tobacco in Virginia and Maryland. It was decided not to impose any limitations so as not to adversely affect custom revenues. This was a key decision as the price of tobacco declined during the seventeenth century because of excessive production. While Virginia sought to stabilize prices by controlling cultivation, Maryland adopted a policy of encouraging production as a means to overcome declining income. Virginians considered Maryland’s actions counterproductive and, in frustration, commented: "Marylanders though earnestly solicited to comply...to lessen the quantity of tobacco have never offered the least proposall of the abatement...in consideration of their soe certaine a gain by the advancement of a price."83 Four years later, Ormond participated in another royally convened conference to delineate Maryland’s boundaries with Virginia.84

There was also the matter of coins authorized by Massachusetts, starting in 1652 and continuing until 1682. The Boston Mint was established during an expansionist period for the Bay Colony as it annexed towns in Maine and New Hampshire, abrogating any rights original grantees may have had to these regions. By striking coins, Massachusetts offered another example of an assumption of the right to issue money at a time of fiscal need. In fact, the legends on the coins naming the issuing authority as MASATHVSETS IN NEW England gave the impression of an act of sovereignty. This interpretation was presented to the English Council of Foreign Plantations against Massachusetts’ officials by the former Governor of Maine—an obviously biased witness—and others who questioned the colony’s loyalty to the monarchy. Bay Colony officials defended themselves by arguing that their actions were based on the need to address the activities of counterfeiters as well as create money for economic development. While the initial output was limited, as production continued, the quantity of coins mounted and became sizeable by the 1660s. With denominations ranging from twopences to shillings, the coins made a valuable contribution during a period when money was scarce in the American colonies. Like Calvert’s pieces, Massachusetts’ silver did not replicate official money, but used three different obverse designs: NE for New England; a willow tree; and an oak tree (Fig. 12). During the Commonwealth era, the coins generated no controversy. After the restoration of the monarchy and the reestablishment of a regal coinage, the Bay Colony’s minting activities could have proven problematic. In 1662, however, when the matter was brought to the king’s attention, he did not take colonial officials to task. It was not until the 1670s that the Crown adopted an adverse stance toward the Boston Mint. While Ormond’s reaction to Massachusetts money is unknown, he was certainly aware of it due to his appointment in 1661 to a royal committee charged with "framing letters, proclamations, or orders [pertaining to the American colonies] for the king’s signature."85 Enhancing his awareness, Ormond was appointed in 1662 to the Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England. This institution, which received an annual subsidy of £1,000 from the king, was charged with "educating, clothing, and civilizing the poor natives and supporting the ministers [and], schoolmasters" in the region. This engendered involvement in New England’s religious affairs, which were at the center of its political life since the region’s government functioned as a Puritan theocracy.86

image

Figure 12. AR Massachusetts oak tree shilling, 1652 (1660–1667). ANS 1932.999.299.

Ireland, as much a dependency of England as the colonies, had to find a means in the mid–1600s to address its short supply of small change. In assessing the matter, a 1652 petition to London authorities gives insight into contemporary thinking when it stated the shortage at £20,000 in coppers. Ormond’s request for £30,000 in farthings could have been filled by Blondeau’s five screw presses, which combined were able to produce £250 in coppers per week. Since Ormond would have desired receipt of the new money as quickly as possible, it is likely that Blondeau employed additional equipment to increase production in the opening months of operations. Between 1667 when Ormond received his "King’s letter" and the closing year of his administration as Lord-Lieutenant in 1669, there was sufficient time for His Lordship to have produced the St. Patrick series with the aid of Blondeau’s inventiveness.87

Ormond’s solution carried the stipulation that the coins should be milled. Although there is no record outlining a relationship between Ormond and Blondeau, if the project were to succeed, Ormond had to turn to London to secure a skilled engineer to produce his desired milled coins. Fortunately, Ormond was acquainted with Henry Henry Slingsby who had assumed full responsibility for operations at the London Mint in late 1666 after the death of Ralph Freeman.88 Ormond’s connection to Henry Slingsby Is highlighted on two different occasions. The first was in 1662, when Henry Slingsby worked in tandem with Ormond in an attempt to justify lowering the silver content of the money to be issued under the Viner Patent. The second occurred in 1666, when Ormond was informed of Slingsby’s interest in Fr. Peter Walsh’s Remonstrance that provided justification for Catholics to support a Protestant king. Ormond saw the Remonstrance as a means to lessen tensions between Catholics and Protestants under the restored monarchy.89

Through such connections, if he were not otherwise aware, Ormond knew the important steps taken to modernize the London Mint and the key role Blondeau played in that development. Further, the Frenchman’s anti-counterfeiting methods would have appealed to anyone who wanted to avoid the abuses that had accompanied the farthings of James I and Charles I. With respect to these, the Irish had complained that there "was scarce any man, but was a loser by those farthings."90 More significantly, Ormond would have had to involve Blondeau in order to produce coins with a reeded edge—a process protected by a royal patent. Fortunately, Blondeau was known to Irish officials. Earlier, he had been retained by Cromwell’s government to explore the feasibility of reestablishing the Dublin Mint in the mid–1650s. To this end Blondeau had lived in Ireland for almost two years and was well acquainted with the condition of the kingdom’s circulating money. As detailed in a report to the English Committee for Irish Affairs:

the pressing necessities of a mint to be appointed in this country, by reason of the great want of the small English money; for finding it adviseable, as the only means appearing to us, to prevent the abuse of English coyne... proving bad and clipped, small payments could not easily be made either to souldiers [soldiers], or unto others, where by much distraction was occasioned.91

Between 1667 and 1669, the convergence of events created an optimal time for minting the St. Patrick series. Ormond’s desire to create a coinage for Ireland as a component of his drive to place Ireland on a firmer financial footing coupled with the necessity to provide funds to the army forced him to turn to professional moneyers in London to produce his milled coins. The first stage at this juncture would have been to make petitioning tokens. Such pieces were commonly issued under the endorsement of influential sponsors and were at times produced in sufficient quantity to circulate widely with the expectation that they would be sanctioned eventually by a royal patent. Since Ormond already had the "King’s letter" of endorsement, it is reasonable to assume that Ormond authorized the St. Patrick series as petitioning tokens while he awaited final approval to establish a Dublin Mint. In the meantime, the fiscal crisis he faced with the army could be averted. Another fortuitous event in 1667 was the adjournment of the Irish Parliament, which had become particularly contentious in the aftermath of the Act of Settlement that restored some semblance of power to Catholic members. This gave Ormond greater latitude in addressing the monetary crisis he faced.92

Confirming interaction between Ormond and Blondeau, which correlates to the conception date of the St. Patrick series is His Lordship’s receipt of several letters from London in 1667. The first letter stated that there existed a proposal to address the scarcity of money for Ireland. This undoubtedly was good news in light of London's limited funds.93 Subsequently, all hope of English assistance was lost when Lord Clarendon, Chancellor of England, informed Ormond that not only was foreign money unavailable in any useful quantity but also that English silver and gold coins would not be sent to Ireland.94 Intimating that an alternative solution had been found, a third letter mentioned the enclosure of trial-pieces for a new Irish coinage. This correspondence is significant in light of a fourth letter that proposed minting between £10,000 and £12,000 in milled coins with lettered or grained edges, which implied the use of Blondeau’s technology for England’s regal coins.95

While £10,000 or £12,000 was less than Ormond’s requested £30,000 to pay the army, the difference had been reduced by London's belated agreement to one of His Lordship’s demands. In September of 1667, after months of fruitless negotiation, an allocation of £20,000 was finally granted for the benefit of the army out of the prize money expected from the sale of goods seized from Dutch ships during the preceding months of conflict between England and Holland.96 Shortly thereafter, Ormond received a letter regarding a new Irish coinage. Lord Arlington, a personal friend and England’s Secretary of State, informed him of London's concern with the pending private minting of coppers for Ireland. Notable is the opinion expressed by the Commissioners of the Treasury that the new coins should be of intrinsic value in order to deter counterfeiters.97

Among these letters crossing the Irish Sea was one that Ormond forwarded to Lord Anglesey in London on November 20, 1667. Therein, Ormond spoke of the pending passage of a patent and expressed his wish that he could have bought-out the interest of those involved for the benefit of the king. It had been Ormond’s desire that the king would benefit from the issuance of a new Irish coinage as indicated in his initial request for £30,000 in farthings. Unfortunately, there is no record of Ormond receiving a patent to mint the St. Patrick series. Ormond’s failure to pursue a patent resulted from the controversy that engulfed him over the quartering of soldiers in private homes during the winter months. This action was considered an illegal act by some in England's House of Commons, and they called for the Lord-Lieutenant’s impeachment, which was opposed by Charles II. By this time, Ormond had undoubtedly followed the advice given by the Commissioners of the Treasury since the weight and size of St. Patrick coppers greatly exceeds that of tokens issued by merchants, town officials, and more importantly those minted by Armstrong under his royally sanctioned patent.98

The premise that Ormond authorized the St. Patrick series is illustrated by the differences between these coins and typical tradesmen tokens of the era, which normally carried a merchant’s name as a pledge for redemption and a legend written in English. In instances where petitioning tokens used English, their legends often referred to the king, such as one contender’s obverse that proclaimed THE KINGS GRACE, which is comparable to the St. Patrick legend of FLOREAT REX. Such a regal reference would have been pretentious for tradesmen tokens. A common practice among petitioning tokens was to give their legends in Latin as does the St. Patrick series. This form was generally reserved for officially sanctioned money and gave a clear indication that a coinage enjoyed significant approval. Another noticeable feature of the St. Patrick coppers is their size, which greatly exceeded that of common tokens of the period. Farthings authorized by James I and Charles I were exceedingly small while Armstrong’s were not much bigger. Petitioning tokens (farthings) of the 1660s were larger, having a standard size of about 24 mm. This is consistent with the smaller St. Patrick coppers. Just as noticeable is the weight of St. Patrick coppers. The smaller pieces weigh about 90 grains (numismatists note common weights between 77 and 113 grains) while Maltravers’ farthings weigh a mere 13 to 15 grains and Armstrong’s were authorized at 20 grains. There is also the matter of anti-counterfeiting features, which is significant since it was unreasonable in the 1660s to entertain seriously any coinage proposal that did not have a feature to hinder false coiners. Whereas common tokens of the era did not have any means to protect their integrity, petitioning tokens generally included a plug insert or had their edges reeded (often crudely). Regal money as produced by Blondeau exhibited either a reeded or an inscribed edge as the best means available to protect money. The St. Patrick series with its reeded edge had all the hallmarks of a coinage intended to garner official support and meet with acceptance by an Irish populace.99 This is precisely what Ormond required when he requested £30,000 in milled farthings.

Further evidence for associating the coinage with Ormond is the display of St. Patrick as a central device on the coins. In contrast to the oppression the Irish endured during the Civil War and the repressive years under Cromwell, the 1660s represented a difficult but comparatively peaceful decade for Catholics. The basis for this relative security was the adoption of a more conciliatory approach toward Irish Catholics by Charles II. This policy was endorsed by officials in Dublin as a means to gain support for the restored monarchy although the Protestant dominated Irish House of Commons was less conciliatory. In furthering this sentiment, Ormond became involved in Catholic politics, supporting the Irish Remonstrance of Fr. Walsh and Catholic loyalty to the Crown. The display of St. Patrick in episcopal attire on the coins is consistent with Ormond’s policy of permitting Irish Catholics to retain their faith if they were loyal to the Protestant king.100

Another prominent symbol on the St. Patrick coins is the crown on the obverse. This is not an ordinary crown. It is stylistically similar to the royal or imperial crown that appeared on regal money. The main feature of the double-arched royal crown is the orb and cross at its top with fleurs-de-lis below and small pellets along the outer rim. This composition is called a "jeweled" crown by C. Wilson Peck.101 It was approved by Ormond for a series of halfcrowns and crowns, known as Dublin Money, minted in 1649 to proclaim Charles II as king. It also appeared atop the Irish harp on farthings produced under the king’s 1660 grant to Armstrong. The Viner Patent also called for the royal crown to be placed as a central device on the halfpence and atop a harp on the twopence, threepence and fourpence. This was the royal crown that appeared on the regal money of Charles II. It adorned the king on the obverse and appeared in a smaller format atop the shields of England, Ireland, Scotland and France on the reverse.102

The display of the royal crown on St. Patrick coins held great significance as the anti-token provision in the Armstrong Patent posed a hindrance to anyone who made coppers for Ireland without official endorsement. In particular, the patent forbade "all other persons whatsoever to make... any other pieces of copper, upon pain of forfeiture of. ..engines used in making thereof." This anti-token sentiment was reinforced in 1661 by a proclamation of Ireland’s Lords Justices "forbidding any person...to make, or cause to be made, any brass or copper money or tokens, without special licence from his majesty." Although Armstrong had died by 1662 along with any chance of success for his patent, the clause against token makers and the proclamation of the Lords Justices were used by officials in an attempt to stem the abuses associated with tradesmen and town tokens. It is unlikely, therefore, that Blondeau would have risked forfeiting his screw presses without some assurance that Ormond had permission to issue semi-official money. The placement of the royal crown on St. Patrick coins, enhanced by a brass splasher, is a clear indication of Ormond’s authority.103

The semi-official nature of the St. Patrick coins stands in sharp contrast to all other tokens produced in Ireland in the seventeenth century. The display of regal emblems on a coin could only occur with official approval, and this was what Ormond had in the form of his position as the king’s representative in Ireland and his receipt of a "King’s letter" in regard to money. Ormond’s plans for a mint in Dublin had to be deferred. In the interim, Ormond brought about a coinage that evoked its semi-official status through the quality of its craftsmanship, its legends, the display of the royal crown, and its distinctive anti-counterfeiting reeded edge. By this means, he was able to address the financial needs of the army at a critical time in Irish history.

End Notes

28
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1661–1662, 375.
29
Martin Allen, The Durham Mint (London, 2003), 3; Peter Seaby and P Frank Purvey, Coins of England and the United Kingdom, (London, 1978), 75; Challis, A New History, 57, 132, 138. The Ormonds expanded their domain into other regions with the notable acquisition of lands in Kilkenny in the late 1300s, which became their primary residence.
30
D. W. Dykes, "The Anglo-Irish Coinage of Edward III" British Numismatic Journal (1976): 44–45, 48–50; Michael Dolley, Medieval Anglo-Irish Coins (London, 1972), 29; Seaby and Purvey, Coins of England, 68, 75, 77, 80–81, 91, 98, 115–124; Challis, A New History, 87, 228–232, 700; Allen, Durham, 7–8; Coincrafts 2000, 101, 135, 153, 173, 185, 215, 223, 260, 289, 340–43, 357; Simon, Essay, 17.
31
Challis, A New History, 84, 224; Allen, Durham, 6–13, 66.
32
University of Oxford: Bodleian Library, Carte Calendar, vol. XXXX, June 15, 1664 and vol. XXXXI, May 19, 1665.
33
Edward Colgan, For Want of Good Money: The Story of Ireland’s Coinage (Wicklow, 2003), 123.
34
Toby Barnard and Jane Fenlon, eds., The Dukes of Ormonde, 1610–1745 (Woodbridge, 2000), 117; Thomas Carte, The Life of James Duke of Ormond... With an Appendix and a Collection of his Letters (Oxford, 1851), vol. IV, 141,142, 248–256; Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXV, February 9, 1667.
35
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXVI, July 18, 1663.
36
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXIII, June 30, 1666.
37
William Petty, The Political Anatomy of Ireland (London, 1691), 70–72; Carte, The Life of James, vol. IV, 100, 342 and vol. V, 67–68, 73; Simon, Essay, 124.
38
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 22; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1660–1661, 387. Monck’s partner in this proposal was James Powell.
39
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXIX, May, 1664 and May 15, 1663.
40
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXX, October 8–16, 1666.
41
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 24.
42
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 24–25; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1666–1667, 439 and vol. 1668–1669, 137. Ford’s proposal gained renewed interest in 1670 when he partnered with Lord Inchiquin, a prominent Irish statesman, who submitted the plan to the Irish Privy Council. Ford died later that year and London deferred any further consideration of an Irish coinage as it turned its attention to considerations of issuing regal coppers. On Ford, see Nipper above, chapter 5.
43
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 23, 37. Three years later, Whalley wrote an influential pamphlet attacking the use of pence tokens in Ireland, see Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, 1667.
44
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXII, December 24–26, 1661 and vol. XXXIII, March 1, 1662; Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 23; Barnard and Fenlon, The Dukes of Ormond, 118; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1660–1661, 386; Ruding, Annals, vol. II, 2. Two other proposals seem not to have received Ormond’s attention: a proposition to establish a bank funded at £60,000 and a proposal by John Fenwick to create a mint in Dublin, see Carte Calendar, vol. XXXII, June—December, 1661. There were also two undated proposals offered as a means to stimulate the Irish economy—one called for £50,000 in farthings and £100,000 in pence below fourpence; a second for farthings, halfpence and pence, see Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 36.
45
Patrick Finn, Irish Coin Values: A Concise Priced Catalogue (London, 1979), 11, 35; Simon, Essay, 46, 116–117.
46
Finn, Irish Coin Values, 14; Simon, Essay, 33; Colgan, For Want of Good Money, 80, 119–21.
47
Philip Nelson, The Coinage of Ireland in Copper, Tin, and Pewter, 1460–1826 (London, 1905), 14–15.
48
Nelson, The Coinage of Ireland, 14–15.
49
Simon, Essay, 124.
50
Simon, Essay, 46.
51
Lord Mountmorres, The History of the Principle Transactions of the Irish Parliament from the year 1634 to 1666 (London, 1792), vol. I, 339; Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 22–25; Carte Calendar, vol. XXXIV, December 8, 1662; Finn, Irish Coin Values, 11–16. It is questionable how helpful the Irish Parliament would have been in creating a coinage since its members were so difficult to deal with that the king granted Ormond the power to dissolve Parliament rather than adjourn it.
52
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXIV, October 1, 1666. This is inferred from Ormond’s correspondence regarding relief aid to London after the Great Fire.
53
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXIV, October 30, 1666.
54
Carte, The Life of James, vol. IV, 240–241.
55
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, November 22, 1667. Although protests came from many sectors of Ireland, but a protest by the Lord Mayor and citizens of Dublin led to impeachment hearings in the House of Commons, see Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, October 5, 1667.
56
Carte, The Life of James, vol. V, 54.
57
Carte, The Life of James, vol. V, 78.
58
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1666–1667, 436.
59
Carte, The Life of James, vol. IV, 249.
60
Carte, The Life of James, vol. IV, 141–142; Barnard and Fenlon, The Dukes of Ormond, 118–119; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1666–1667, 91.
61
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVI, July 2, 1667.
62
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVI, July 6, 1667.
63
Robert P. Mahaffy, Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland (London, 1908), vol. 1666–1669, 120.
64
Carte, The Life of James, vol. IV, 141–142; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1663–1664, 251.
65
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXI, April 5, 1665.
66
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1666–1669, 464–465.
67
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, September 18, 1667; Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 22— 23.
68
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 22; Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXIX, August 14, 1668.
69
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1666–1669, 402, 451, 465.
70
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, September 13, 1667.
71
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1666–1669, 451–452; Simon, Essay, 51; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1672, 497.
72
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1666–1669, 104–105.
73
For the right of an Irish Lord-Lieutenant to strike small change, see Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 24.
74
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1666–1669, 657.
75
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, December 17, 1667 and vol. XXXXVIII, January 18, 1668.
76
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXV, January–April, 1667.
77
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 24, 37 n. 21.
78
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1666–1669, 713.
79
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXI, June, 1665.
80
Mark Noble, Two Dissertations, upon the Mint and Coins, of the Episcopal-Palatine of Durham (London, 1780), 12, 77–78; W. A. Seaby, "A St. Patrick Halfpenny of John de Courci" British Numismatic Journal (1958–1959): 87–89; Robert Sharman, "St. Patrick for Ireland Token" Irish Numismatics (1980): 109; Allen, Durham, 3–11; Seaby and Purvey, Coins of England, 131–132, 134, 138–39; Challis, A New History, 57, 227; Finn, Irish Coin Values, 9. The last of the ecclesiastical mints, Durham had the longest tenure, dating from the eleventh century.
81
Sylvester S. Crosby, The Early Coins of America (New York: reprint, 1983), 123–132; Philip L. Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation (New York, 1993), 90–92; Louis E. Jordan, "Lord Baltimore Coinage and Daily Exchange in Early Maryland," The Colonial Newsletter (August–December, 2004): 2656, 2671–2672, 2681, 2684; Michael Hodder, "Cecil Calvert’s Coinage for Maryland: A Study in History and Law" The Colonial Newsletter (February, 1993): 1360–1362. For an illustration of Calvert’s crown, see Walter Breen, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins (New York, 1988), 19. Lord Baltimore’s rights are stated in the colony’s 1632 charter: "Priviledges, Prerogatives, Royalties, Liberties, Immunities, Royall rights...same as amply as any Bishop of Durham, within the Bishoprick, or County Palatine of Durham." See Archives of Maryland Online, Charters, 65.
82
Mossman, Money, 91; Seaby and Purvey, Coins of England, 72–73, 90, 97, 107; Coincraft 2000, 343–348.
83
William W Hening, ed., Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia (New York, 1823), vol. II, 221.
84
Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 16361667, vol. III, 506–512 and vol. V, 45.
85
W. Noel Samsbury, ed., Calendar of State Papers: Colonial Series America and West Indies (London, 1880), 30.
86
Samsbury, Calendar of State Papers: Colonial Series, 71–72. For detailed discussion of the Boston Mint, see Louis Jordan, John Hull, the Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage (Hanover, 2002), 31–43, 228.
87
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 605.
88
C. E. Challis, "The Career of Henry Slingsby" British Numismatic Journal (1991): 176— 177. Freeman and Henry Slingsby were joint-administrators from 1662 to 1666.
89
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXIII, November 30, 1666.
90
Dunsterville, Declaration, 10; Henfrey, Numismata Cromwelliana, 82–86; Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 23.
91
Simon, Essay, 122.
92
R. H. Thompson, "Central or Local Production of Seventeenth-Century Tokens," British Numismatic Journal (1989): 206–210; Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 123, 127–128.
93
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVI, July 27, 1667 and vol. XXXXVII, September–December, 1667.
94
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXV, April 20, 1667.
95
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXV, February 12, 1667 and vol. XXXXVII, September— December, 1667.
96
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVI, August 6, 1667 and vol. XXXXVII, September 30, 1667.
97
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, October, 5, 1667.
98
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXVII, November 26, 1667.
99
Michael Mitchiner and Anne Skinner, "English Tokens, c.1425 to 1672" British Numismatic Journal (1984): 134–141; Simon, Essay, 122; Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 92, 109, 123–124, 605. Breen and Nelson provide the listed weight limits.
100
Hoover, "Note," 157–175.
101
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 49.
102
Finn, Irish Coin Values, 19; Simon, Essay, 51, 125. For illustrations of the crown on Irish coins, see Finn, Irish Coin Values, 37–38. For examples on regal coins, see Seaby and Purvey, Coins of England, nos. 2660, 2679, 2719, 2776, 3191, 3302, 3308, 3350.

Monsieur Blondeau

Peter Blondeau (d. 1672) was an engineer involved in minting coins and medals using the improved technology of the mid–1600s. He had a distinguished career in Italy where his skills came to the attention of Cardinal Richelieu (Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke Richelieu [1585–1642]), supporter of the arts and chief minister to King Louis XIII. Blondeau arrived in Paris at a time when innovative approaches were underway to find an alternative to the manual process of producing money because French coins were heavily clipped and counterfeited. An early attempt to address this problem was advocated by Briot. In his 1617 demonstration before other moneyers, he promoted the advantages of mechanizing the process of making planchets and striking coins using a modified rocker-press. Unfortunately, this process was unable to produce coins as quickly as by hammer, and it had the noticeable disadvantage of tending to flatten the ends of planchets. In spite of these drawbacks, Briot promoted his rocker-press primarily as a means to differentiate himself from medalists who at times used screw presses. While Briot was inventive, he was most well-known for his artistry, enjoying the title of Engraver-General at the Paris Mint until his forced departure for England in 1625. Opposed by moneyers at the London Mint, Briot struggled to gain acceptance for a more modern method to strike English money. In addition to preparing medals, he was eventually authorized to produce a limited quantity of English milled coins during two periods, 1631–1632 and 1638–1639. He also worked briefly at the Scottish Mint on two different occasions in the 1630s. Abandoning his focus on the rocker-press, Briot used screw presses to affect fine designs on his coins. In addition to these mechanical methods, Briot employed a two-step process for edge marking through the use of parallel bars and was acquainted with the virole brisée technique. Although he was associated with the London Mint during the Civil War, he assisted the king in establishing an alternative mint at York. He died in London in 1646 and in the following year his wife sold his equipment to the government.104

Briot’s career between 1642 and his death is clouded by the chaos of the Civil War years. His whereabouts during this period is important as some writers assert that Briot had a direct impact on Blondeau’s methodology. They claim that the engraver returned to France in 1642 after assisting Charles I at York. This assertion is countered by his receipt of a mint salary through December 25, 1645. There is a record of Briot briefly visiting Paris in 1644 where his brother, Isaac, was employed as an engraver at the Paris Mint. This may account for some of the confusion. Although Briot was briefly in Paris when Blondeau’s techniques were evolving, there is no record of the former renewing his employment at the Paris Mint after his departure for England in 1625. At most, Blondeau was aware of Briot’s innovations, but the more direct influences on his evolving techniques lay elsewhere.105

At the time of Blondeau’s arrival in Paris, it is important to note the division of functions within the French minting system. In the early 1600s, preparation of medals took place at the Louvre in a comparatively modern facility that at times used screw presses. Coins were made at the Paris Mint on the Quai de Conti, employing the traditional manual process. After Briot’s departure for England, his former protégé, Jean Warin (1604–1672), slowly emerged as an innovative engraver. Warin’s experiments with medal making won favor with Richelieu. In an expression of his appreciation, Warin made several flattering medals of the Cardinal, including one casting him as the genius who directs the revolution of the planets. In 1639, due to the activities of clippers and counterfeiters, the decision was made to modernize operations at the Paris Mint. New equipment was imported from Germany and Warin’s designs for a new coinage won the approval of Louis XIII. The following year, the medalist was assigned to oversee the production of France’s new milled money.106

In 1640, when France began to strike its coins mechanically, the task was given to the Medal Mint at the Louvre, where Blondeau was employed as an engineer. The initial focus was on producing milled gold coins followed by the production of silver money in 1641. Slowly, all 22 provincial mints were modernized with the cessation of the hammer-struck process at the Bayonne Mint in 1649. The Paris Mint was fully modernized by 1645, whereupon operations at the Louvre returned to its traditional focus on medals. Throughout the 1640s, however, the division between the Paris Mint and the Louvre’s Medal Mint was blurred under Warin who was administrator at both facilities. It was during this creative period ushered in by Warin in the 1630s and 1640s that Blondeau arrived in France under the patronage of Richelieu, who was also Warin’s patron. The exact date of Blondeau’s arrival in Paris is currently unknown although it was prior to the death of Richelieu in 1642. Blondeau was housed at the Medal Mint and undoubtedly used Warin’s new methods of striking medals, which involved a screw press adapted to raise a planchet’s rim as an alternative to pearled borders. Warin’s medals were considered exceptionally well struck with high relief, an appearance achieved through the use of more powerful screw presses. He also employed the virole brisée technique for graining or lettering edges. Warin practiced this one-stroke method rather than casting his medals as was generally done by his predecessors. Blondeau was also involved in the use of these various technologies, becoming a noted minting engineer by the mid–1640s.107

In 1649, due to the establishment of the Commonwealth, England undertook a mintage in the name of the new government. At the same time, the nation faced mounting problems from coins that had been clipped, filed, and otherwise defaced to reduce their weight and create a profit for those who chose to violate English law. Worse, hammer-struck coins were easily counterfeited, threatening the integrity of the nation’s money in the same manner as had occurred in France a decade earlier. Sensing an opportunity to participate in the need to protect English coins, Blondeau submitted a proposal to England's Council of State, offering to undertake the minting of the Commonwealth’s money using a new technology he had invented. In a letter, sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Blondeau was described as an honest and inventive man.108 In a more expansive recommendation, his abilities were outlined as follows:

respecting some models for coins of a curious and new form, the invention of Peter Blondeau, a Frenchman, who presented himself to me, and offered his service to the commonwealth. I had formerly heard a fair report of his ability...and was well assured, by several men well experienced in the [Paris] Mint, that he is one of the ablest of his age in the art, and the only man that can do it, whereof he has made several proofs, both in gold, silver, and copper, with as much diligence and facility as is done by the ordinary mill...Cardinal Richelieu...who drew him from Italy, and gave him his dwelling here in the gallery of the Louvre, where his family yet remain, and where none but men of extraordinary art and skill are lodged,—he had certainly had the direction of all the coining of France. As for his life and carriage, he is a very honest and ingenious man, to whom all trust can be given in anything he undertakes...I can see no cause why any difficulty should be made in using him...nor can there happen to the State but a great and glorious advantage by his propositions.109

The hallmark of Blondeau’s inventiveness was his acclaimed ability to economically stamp, inscribe, and edge coins in a one-stroke process even on thin planchets. At the time, there were two basic techniques for inscribing or graining the edges on coins. The most common was the two-step method of running planchets between two parallel bars, a more costly process than leaving a plain edge on a coin. The other was the older virole brisée, or segmented collar, method. Here, the inscribed or grained design was placed on the inner wall of a collar that surrounded the planchet (in an eighteenth-century illustration, this collar appears to be thick and is placed inside a larger collar). At the time of striking, the force of the screw press expanded the blank, which was inscribed or grained along the inside of the inner collar. Since this technology was applicable only for thick planchets and had a tendency to destroy dies rapidly, it suited the limited production of medals rather than large mintages of coins.110

Dissatisfied with the manual process at the London Mint, officials invited Blondeau to England in 1649 in anticipation that the "famous artist" would be able to make coins "rounder & neater...after a new invention of his."111 Blondeau proclaimed his new technology as follows:

a new Invention, not yet practiced in any State of the World; the which will prevent counterfeiting, casting, washing and clipping...and will cost no more than the ordinarie unequal Coyn, which is used...As to the way of remedying those inconveniences...by the way propounded by the said Blondeau, by marking the coyn, not only on both the flat sides, but also Upon the thickness of the edges...that it cannot bee so counterfeited. Whereupon...they could never finde out the said new Invention for Coyning.112

The foundation of Blondeau’s invention was an enlargement of Warin’s screw presses to create coins with a pleasing appearance that some described as having a polished surface. His technology also produced the anticounterfeiting reeded or inscribed edge that false coiners were basically unable to duplicate because they commonly made their pieces using molds. To deter such activity, Blondeau claimed:

The ordinaire coyn marked onely on both the flat sides (can be) moulded, as the experience do shew by the great quantites of false coyn moulded, which is current now but when it is marked on the thickness or edges, the marks across the said edges can no way be moulded...where it hath been cast, to take away the superflous metal; which filing cannot be done without spoiling and taking away the said markes about the edges; and consequently make easily known not to be current.113

While his detractors claimed his methods entailed the use of older techniques, Blondeau asserted he had created a new methodology: a one-stroke instead of a two-step process for marking coins that could be employed on thick as well as thin planchets and accomplish the task economically. His technology was undoubtedly a by-product of his experience in making medals at the Louvre along with his work as an engineer at the Paris Mint. In order not to divulge fully his technique, he outlined his invention in the following vague terms:

the Engines wherewith the brims are marked, may be kept secret among few men, who shall be sworn to keep it, and not to reveal it to anie [any]...the Engines that are used therein are so big and heavie, being between 1 and 2000 l. weight...they were put to mark all the pieces at one stroke, as in the said Blondeau’s invention...it is impossible to doe it without strong and heavie Engines...The monie coined merely at the Mill can bee made with very small Engines, but that which is proposed by the said Blondeau, cannot bee coined without a great many big and heavie Engines.114

Blondeau made a clear distinction between his invention and techniques employed by others to mark coin edges. In discussing the differences between the various methods, the inventor proclaimed:

I could two several ways make the new extraordinary coin, marked with letters [as well as graining] at the circumference, upon the thickness of the brim; the first way is ancient, and may be known to several, but it is long in doing, and can not be used upon the ordinary coin that is thin. I can do it in another manner, which is my particular invention, and no man but I can do it...I hear that some would persuade you that they can do it as well...but their pieces are made by the first way. They cannot [economically] coin your money that way, though you give them 10s. [shillings] for each pound of silver [the standard rate at the London Mint was a shilling per pound of silver]. I offer myself to be committed to prison for two months, and if within that time you can find any man that knows my invention, not only in England, but all the world over, and that might coin that way I have propounded...and as cheap as I offer, I am content to lose my life, and shall acknowledge myself guilty of informing falsely...the Parliament and the Council of State.115

Blondeau’s arrival in England was not welcomed by officials at the London Mint or its employees. Their opposition stemmed primarily from fear that jobs would be lost. This was an old concern dating back to the time when Briot arrived with his labor-saving innovations. There was also resentment that the proposal to modernize the mint was offered by a Frenchman rather than by an English moneyer. Blondeau attempted to alleviate fears, stating:

I intend not to remove any workmen if possible, as, for a full Mint [production at the time was at a low ebb and the Mint Committee stated that there were "hardly 30" masters currently employed and others, when there was additional work, were hired by the day and paid between 12 and 18 pence for their labor while the moneyers claimed that 200 families were maintained by the mint—an obvious exaggeration], I should need 200 or 300, and had rather employ those already there than new men, and I am willing to teach them my way...but I beg leave to turn out such as are lazy or stubborn.116

Although instructed to assist the Frenchman, the mint’s technologically inexperienced chief administrator, Guerdain, wanted Blondeau merely to show the moneyers his new techniques and thereafter return to Paris. Blondeau’s assessment of their interaction was expressed in his letter to Parliament in 1650:

having applied myself several times unto the said Doctor, he told me plainly, that if I was to come to be an officer of the mint, they were already too many, and that the workmen were more than they had need for the coyning of their moneys, which they would do so well...The said Doctor hath told me himself in plain tearms, that he would doe his utmost to hinder my proposition.117

While unstated, there undoubtedly was resentment among moneyers regarding Blondeau’s salary request. For the most part, salaries at the facility were outdated with many left unchanged since the end of the Elizabethan era. Aside from Guerdain, whose annual compensation was set at £400, the next highest paid official and second in charge, the mint warden, received only £100, while the mint’s comptroller and assay masters received slightly more than £66. The mint’s noted engraver, Thomas Simon (1618–1665), was paid a mere £30 although he received additional compensation for engraving medals and seals. This was in contrast to Blondeau, who received £100 plus additional fees for the use of his technology when he was finally assigned to striking Commonwealth coins. It is possible, given the lack of pay Blondeau received during his initial stay in London, that he was a man of some private means, especially considering he paid for the preparation of his own specimens during his trial with David Ramage who spent over £107 of the mint’s money to produce a limited edition of coins. Another indication of Blondeau’s financial wellbeing was the honorary title of "Gentleman" used by Cromwell in authorizing the inventor’s £100 stipend in 1656.118

Attempting to discredit Blondeau, English moneyers argued that the Frenchman’s invention was not new, insisting that it was a mere modification of existing technology. To prove their point, employees requested a trial between them and Blondeau. The contestants were instructed to mark the edges of their specimens with various terms such as TRUTH AND PEACE on the halfcrown, to which Blondeau added PETRVS BLONDAEVS INVENTOR FECIT. With the equipment available at the mint, which is believed to have included Briot’s machinery, Ramage, a former assistant to Briot and now Mint Provost, acted on behalf of the moneyers and submitted a dozen pieces while Blondeau prepared 300 specimens to promote his new innovation. The Mint Committee, on examining the coins, declared: "the coin offered by the Frenchman...is a better fashion of money than the present fashion of money of England, and is for the honour and advantage of the Commonwealth" and worthy of further consideration.119

Unknown to Ramage was the assistance that Thomas Simon had given to Blondeau. Simon, as chief engraver at the London Mint, was instructed to supply Ramage with "Puncheons of the State’s Arms, and tools" to enable the moneyer to make his specimens. Apparently, Simon delayed in complying with this request, forcing mint officials to appoint Violet to secure the equipment, if Simon continued his obstruction. Meanwhile, Simon secretly engraved Blondeau’s dies, which greatly aided Blondeau in producing his finely executed specimens. While Ramage accused Blondeau of receiving unauthorized assistance during their trial, Simon’s involvement remained a secret.120

As an inducement to gain acceptance of his technology, Blondeau argued that it would generate a profit for the Commonwealth, an attractive offer given the government’s limited resources:

profits of the State will be 7s. [shillings] per lb. on gold and 5Ud. [pence] on silver; so that if 30,000£. sterling, that is 10,000 lbs. troy, be coined weekly, as formerly [mint production at the time was substantially below this amount], the profit will be 12,000£. yearly, and 91,000£. yearly if 5,000 lbs. of gold be coined weekly...The instruments will cost 1,000£. and the buildings 400£. I undertake...to employ no men but those approved by the Mint Committee. I will use the new way, known only to myself, of marking the coins on the edge, the old way spoiling many stamps and engines, and being impracticable on thin money. The cost hitherto of coining by the hammer has been greater than that now propounded.121

Exerting their influence, the mint employees requested additional time to prove their ability to match Blondeau’s workmanship—a request that was granted although it produced no better results. The main obstacle facing Ramage was his limited skills at edge making and his reliance on outdated methods, including the use of the virole brisée technique. In an attempt to achieve acceptable results, Ramage increased the thickness of some of his planchets beyond normal specifications. In spite of such efforts, the edges of his specimens were described as being crudely constructed.122 In frustration, the moneyers threatened Blondeau, calling him a counterfeiter for replicating official money, and stated, "what became of the Coyner [Mestrell, who was hanged] that made mill-monie in Queen Elizabeth’s time" would be his fate.123 Blondeau also indulged in threatening tones when he accused Ramage of being "a man ill-affected to the present Government" and accused his detractors of culling the heavier coins made at the facility for personal gain.124 In defense of their actions, the moneyers proclaimed:

we are an antient [ancient] Corporation and Company, setted by charter for many hundred yeares, and in all ages faithfully discharged our trust, and never any blot lay upon us...We do humbly hope to have so much Justice that wee shall still bee imployed in the service of the State, in regard it is the livelihood and subsistence of above two hundred Families, when the Mint is full of work, and in regard wee undertake to do it as exactly as any French-man in the world...and you may be assured that we shall discharge all and any trust that shall be put into our hands, by the just dealing you have in all ages received from us...& therefore humbly hope our fidelitie and sufficiencie to doe what we undertake, shall not be put into the scale with a French-man.125

Ironically, Violet, an outspoken critic of the mint and of Guerdain’s inexperience as a moneyer, used the arrival of Blondeau as another reason to attack officials. From his misguided perspective, Violet claimed Guerdain turned to Blondeau to solve production problems, stating: "moneyers of the Mint, finding a Frenchmen coming to work by a new way, seeing the Mint daily decay...arising for want of skilful officers."126 Of course, Violet had his own reasons for opposing Blondeau, including his desire to replace Guerdain as chief administrator.

Unfortunately for the Frenchman, the Council of State continued to allow the nation’s money to be hammer-struck. In an attempt to gain a contract to produce England's money, Blondeau proposed to "coin money marked on both sides and the edge at...extremely low terms" with the additional proviso that his brother, a fellow worker at the Paris Mint, be allowed to join him. He also requested an "Act of naturalization" and "a grant of coin to myself and children...[and]...I will teach any man selected my secret, till my children can manage it."127 Still, the Council of State continued to delay its approval since the expense of modernizing the mint, which was estimated by Blondeau at £1,400, was deemed too costly by the cash strapped government. The lack of funds was especially felt at the mint, which had historically operated at a profit. Between 1649 and 1654, however, the facility generated an overall loss that would have hindered Guerdain’s support for any modernization effort even if he had approved of it. In 1654, a frustrated Blondeau requested that he either be made an employee of the London Mint or be allowed to return to Paris with indemnification for his efforts as promised in his earlier agreement with the Council of State. Fortunately, the Frenchman’s talents had attracted the attention of Cromwell, who instructed the Council of State to address Blondeau’s concerns "speedily," whereupon the engineer was offered an opportunity to establish a mint in Dublin to address Ireland’s inadequate supply of money. Since the kingdom was being inundated with large quantities of counterfeit money, the establishment of a mint was deemed by Dublin officials as "the only expedient left to retrieve the affairs and the trade of Ireland."128

Sent to Dublin in 1654 with the meager sum of £50 to cover expenses, Blondeau explored the feasibility of establishing a mint. Although this initial amount was later supplemented, he was never given sufficient funds to accomplish the task. In spite of this obstacle, he undertook the assignment because he was promised "if he punctually performs his agreement, he might then be admitted to the charge [employment] of the Mint in England,"129 which was his prerequisite for remaining in England.

One of the key obstacles Blondeau faced in Ireland was posed by the arrival in 1655 of Henry Cromwell (1628–1674), the Lord Protector’s son. Appointed Acting Commander of the Commonwealth’s Irish forces, the young and inexperienced officer actually governed the kingdom, although the titular head of government was Charles Fleetwood, who had returned to England. The main fiscal problem Henry faced was Ireland’s inability to raise sufficient revenues to cover its expenses. This necessitated a subsidy from England, creating a debt of £1,566,848 by 1656. England, having its own financial troubles, resented sending scarce funds across the Irish Sea, and in 1655, the monthly subsidy was reduced from £24,000 to £17,000. By 1657, it was reduced further to £8,000 per month. As a result, the kingdom was unable to pay the expenses of government and its debt mounted. England was less than sympathetic to Ireland’s financial condition and reacted with hostility to requests for additional funds, going so far as to threaten to imprison Irish representatives to the English House of Commons, if they persisted with their demands for more money. Supporting England's policy of retrenchment, Henry called on Irish officials to reduce expenses. During this period, Henry developed a close relationship with the mathematician Robert Wood, who arrived in Ireland in 1656. Wood proposed a scheme for a decimal coinage entitled "Ten to One" that probably became an additional obstacle to Blondeau’s efforts. Taking a post in Henry’s household, Wood’s interest in the nation’s monetary affairs elevated him to the important position of Receiver-General of Revenues for Ireland in 1658. Into this austere fiscal environment, Blondeau arrived with the mission to establish a mint that would require the expenditure of funds not readily available.130

image

Figure 13. Protectorate gold broad of Oliver Cromwell, 1656. ANS 1906.115.8.

While Blondeau spent almost two years in Ireland, the limited financial support he received prevented him from accomplishing his task. In spite of the project’s merit, England in the 1650s was unable to commit the needed funds for the same reason it was unable to finance the modernization of the London Mint. Again frustrated, Blondeau left Dublin. Not wishing to see their talented engineer return to France, Blondeau was granted a yearly pension of £100 plus an additional fee to strike £2,000 in silver coins "after his new invention."131 This was a limited project compared to the £100,000 production undertaken by the mint employees. Initially, Blondeau’s operations were to be carried out at the London Mint. Ill feelings between him and the moneyers ran so high, however, that the Lieutenant of the Tower had to be called to protect the engineer and his assistants. Fearing for his safety, officials granted Blondeau the use of Worcester House, which was shortly thereafter exchanged for Drury House, a government workplace beyond the walls of the London Tower. Unfortunately, production was hindered because some of the rooms at the new site were being pulled down and his request for £1,440 for equipment was only partially satisfied, adding further to his general frustration with the mint.132

image

Figure 14. Commonwealth silver shilling, 1651. ANS 1954.203.351.

Overcoming obstructions, Blondeau was able to please Commonwealth officials with his work, leading to authorization to increase his role in producing the nation’s money. The assigned task was the creation of a new Commonwealth series that depicted the bust of Cromwell on the obverse, replacing the shield as a symbol of official money (Figs. 13–14). The intent was to generate a weekly output of £10,000 in milled coins. In December of 1657, Blondeau was granted £1,000 to begin retooling the London Mint. Limited production was achieved in the following spring. Simon, who had worked with Blondeau on previous occasions, was selected as the engraver for the project. The new coinage was to have inscribed or grained edges, employing the engineer’s technology. The Latin edge inscription warned, "Let no one remove these [letters] from me under penalty of death." Unfortunately, production was cut short due to Cromwell’s death on September 3, 1658, which led to Blondeau’s departure for France in late 1658 or early 1659.133

Contributing to Blondeau’s decision to return to France was the volatile political environment in England. Although succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell (1628–1712), there was a mounting call for the restoration of the monarchy. The resulting chaos created an uncertain future for the Frenchman who had served the interests of the Commonwealth. In addition, the production of silver and gold coins, which constituted a significant portion of his income, had all but ceased. Most disheartening was the Commonwealth’s failure to reimburse properly its Chief Engraver, Simon, which foretold Blondeau’s fate. The extent of Simon’s difficulties in receiving payment is outlined in the engraver’s letter to the Council of State:

A year ago, I presented you [Council of State] my account for coins, public seals for England, Scotland, and Ireland, divers medals and chains of gold, silver and gilt boxes and presses for the seals which I have made for the present Government... I beg you to consider that I and my servants have wrought 5 years without recompense, and that the interest I have to pay for gold and silver eats up my profits. I beg payment of 1,028£. 15s. 8d. due...that I may pay my creditors [six months later, Simon was paid only for the medals, receiving £171 17s].134

In 1660, the monarchy was restored in England. Charles III inaugurated a new mintage to replace the despised Commonwealth coins as well as to promote his reign. In the rush to make as many coins as possible, the outdated hammer-struck method was initially retained. In assessing the appearance of the new money, Samuel Pepys, noted diarist of the 1660s, stated, "how good they are in the stamp and bad in the money, for lack of skill to make them."135 Soon, it became evident that clippers and counterfeiters had resumed their prior activity of threatening the integrity of the nation’s money. In response, Slingsby, who befriended Blondeau in the 1650s and was now Deputy Master-Worker at the London Mint, secured permission for Blondeau’s return to England, noting the engineer’s ability to make vast improvements in striking the new money. While Henry Slingsby desired Blondeau’s speedy return, the Frenchman was in Warsaw in the service of King John II Casimir. Noting that his tenure in Poland would be brief, Blondeau designated Charles Ranvile as his representative to negotiate terms for his return to England. By late 1661, Blondeau was in Paris and Simon, who had prepared the Frenchman’s dies in the 1650s, went to France in November of 1661 to persuade a reluctant Blondeau to come to England. The task took two months to accomplish with Blondeau arriving in London in early 1662.136

Not wishing to see a repeat of the difficulties he endured during the prior decade, Blondeau set as a precondition for undertaking the modernization of the London Mint his receipt of a patent to protect his techniques and a guaranteed income. In 1662, the Crown awarded him an exclusive patent for 21 years, protecting his technology to inscribe and grain the edges of the nation’s silver and gold coins valued at sixpence or more. Shortly thereafter, he was given a patent for a term of 14 years, which pertained to the minting of coppers. Further, he was authorized to modernize the London Mint, a project he undertook with Henry Slingsby who was promoted to Joint Master-Worker in 1662. The cost of placing the mint on a modern footing exceeded his earlier estimate from the 1650s, almost doubling to £2,709. As for compensation, Blondeau’s patent provided him with certain fees:

allowance for 21 years of 3d. on every lb. of silver, and 1s. on every lb. of gold, to be coined according to his new invention...with order to all the Mint officers concerned to swear to keep the invention secret, unless it fail; and with prohibition to any others to use the same tools for 14 years. If moneys are made by press and mill, without marking the edges, he is only to have 2d. in the lb. on silver, and 8d. on gold; and if [with] hammer, 1d. for silver, and 4d. for gold. He is also to have the use of certain buildings in the Tower, the title of Engineer to the Mint, the privileges of Mint officers, and an annuity of 100£. a year for 21 years.137

It was during the period between 1662 and 1664 that Blondeau focused on producing the regal shillings, halfcrowns, crowns, guineas and two guineas that Charles II wanted as a replacement for Commonwealth money. This was an impressive start for a newly installed operation. In 1663, a warrant was issued for minting silver pence to ease the shortage of small change. Their production began between 1664 and 1665.138 Later, Blondeau produced the five guinea in 1668 and the half guinea in 1669, thereby completing the regal series of silver and gold coins of the 1660s. Although never placed into production, Blondeau prepared various pattern specimens during the decade in anticipation of the Crown undertaking a mintage of copper farthings and halfpence. While other contenders presented specimens with plain edges that offered no protection against counterfeiters who had busily replicated farthings authorized by James I and Charles I, Blondeau submitted the first known English copper with an inscribed edge. On one of his 1662 pattern farthings, he inscribed MONETAE • INSTAVRATOR •' 1662 • X • and on another ISTA • FAMA • PER • AETHERA • VOLAT • ' ' • X •, which translate as, "the initiator of the coinage" and "its fame flies through the air," respectively.139 In addition, Blondeau prepared specimens with grained and plain edges. In 1665, he produced more pattern farthings with the elaborate edges mentioned above, as well as with grained and plain edges. Intended as presentation pieces, specimens were also struck in silver and gold.140 In the year that he received the patent to protect his invention, Blondeau obtained a "warrant appointing him a free denizen, in order to enable him better to govern his workmen" along with permission "to exercise any trade within the kingdom," which gave him license to undertake private ventures.141 This enabled Blondeau to participate in the common practice among mint employees of striking tokens for various tradesmen and towns in the British Isles and laid the groundwork for the St. Patrick series.

Token making reappeared on a large scale in 1648 due to a deficiency in the supply of small change that people used to transact daily business. Although many tokens were minted locally, some merchants and many town officials turned to professional moneyers in London for the production of their pieces. Ramage of the Blondeau trials of the 1650s was a prolific producer of tokens. Blondeau’s involvement in this enterprise can be seen from the inventory of his estate at the time of his death in 1672. His ownership of five screw presses that he had imported from Poland suggests that Blondeau played a significant role in token production. Since Blondeau probably acquired one or more of these presses as early as 1664, when he was granted a "Pass" to visit Poland, it can be assumed that he was in the token manufacturing business by the time Ormond was looking for an engineer to manufacture money for Ireland.142

The hardships of the mid–1660s contrasted with the prosperity Blondeau achieved after returning to England. The plague reappeared in 1665, which at its height killed 10,000 persons weekly, forcing people to flee the city. This disaster was followed the next year by the Great London Fire that raged for a week, destroying large sections of the capital. These two catastrophes forced the London Mint to reduce its output, while people hoarded money as was common in troubled times. Exasperated by the difficulty of obtaining bullion, the king levied an import tax on wines, vinegar, cider, and beer and assumed the cost of mintage, announcing that, "all persons who shall bring bullion, etc. to the mint...should have the same there assayed, melted down, and coined...without any charge.and should receive in return an equal weight of the current coins of the kingdom."143 These events led to a decline in Blondeau’s income since payments to him were based on coin production at the rate of three pence per pound for silver and 12 pence per pound for gold coins. In such times, his possession of five screw presses served as an alternative means to earn money and made him available for Ormond’s coining venture.144

A return to better times started in 1667. In that year, Blondeau’s endeavors to modernize the London Mint were fully realized when staff positions were reorganized. Blondeau’s friend, Slingsby, was appointed Master-Worker or chief administrator; and the Frenchman gained new status upon assignment to the department of the Master-Worker. In addition, several positions that reflected the time when coins were hammer-struck were either eliminated or destined to be phased out upon termination of existing contracts. Finally, many employees received pay increases in recognition of the new skills required to operate a modern facility. With this restructuring of operations, a century-old conflict that dated to the time Mestrell first introduced the screw press for coining under Elizabeth came to an end.145

Until his death in 1672, Blondeau produced an array of coins that reflected his technology. On visiting the London Mint in 1663, the diarist Pepys marveled at the new technological advances and anti-counterfeiting methods in use and was informed that the Frenchman diligently protected his methodology as a secret.146 It was not until 1679 that Blondeau’s methods were discovered by outsiders, as revealed in correspondence between the French Minister of Finance and France’s Ambassador in London. Shortly thereafter, the Paris Mint was in possession of his secret, which was improved upon by Jean Castaing.147

End Notes

103
Simon, Essay, 51, 122.
104
Challis, A New History, 300–302; David Sellwood, "The Trial of Nicholas Briot," British Numismatic Journal (1986): 109, 113; Edward Besly, "Rotary Coining in England," in Metallurgy in Numismatics, eds., Archibald and Cowell, vol. III, 118–123; Jones, Catalogue of French Medals, 143, 167.
105
Helen Farquhar, "Nicholas Briot and the Civil War," Numismatic Chronicle (1914), 24–26, 48, 66; Forrer, Biographical Dictionary, vol. I, 285.
106
F. Mazerolle, Jean Varin: Conducteur de la Monnaie du Moulin (Paris, 1932), 6; Jones, Catalogue of French Medals, 177–180, 192. Warin’s father worked as an engraver at the Bishop of Liège’s mint at Bouillon. Warin started his career at a mint operated by the Count of Rochefort, which closed in 1626. Through family connections, he came to Paris, working for Pierre Regnier, who was Engraver-General. Thereafter, he rose to prominence as a medal maker in the 1630s.
107
George Sobin, The Silver Crowns of France 16411973 (Teaneck, NJ, 1974), 9–18; W. J. Hocking, "Simon’s Dies in the Royal Mint Museum, with some Notes on the Early History of Coinage by Machine" Numismatic Chronicle (1909): 31–32; Mazerolle, Jean Varin, 88; B. Collin, "Architecture and Production in the French Mints during the 17th and 18th Centuries" in Archibald and Cowell, eds., Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. III, 154–155.
108
Alan J. Nathanson, Thomas Simon: His Life and Work 16181665 (London, 1975), 15.
109
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1650, 504.
110
George Vertue, Medals, Coins, Great-Seals, Impressions, From the Elaborate Works of Thomas Simon (London, 1753), 18–24; Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 15–16; H. W. A. Linecar, British Coin Designs & Designers (London, 1977), 67.
111
Thomas Snelling, Miscellaneous Views of the Coins Struck by English Princes in France... Struck abroad in Imitation of English (London, 1769), 49.
112
Peter Blondeau, A Most Humble Memorandum (London, 1652).
113
W. R. Hamilton, "Blondeau’s Proposal for Reforming the Coinage of England," Numismatic Chronicle 1 (1838–1839): 174.
114
Peter Blondeau, The humble Representation of Peter Blondeau as a Warning, Touching several disorders happening by Monie ill-favoredly Coined (London, 1651); Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 15–16; Vertue, Medals, Coins, Great-Seals, 19.
115
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1650, 14.
116
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1651–1652, 154.
117
Hamilton, "Blondeau’s Proposal," 167–171.
118
Henfrey, Numismata Cromwelliana, 34, 61, 69–71, 90; Challis, A New History, 351–353. Some numismatic references give Ramage’s expenses as £87 while an itemized account lists the cost at £107:4s, which includes the value of bullion, see Vertue, Medals, Coins, Great-Seals, 22.
119
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1651, 175.
120
Vertue, Medals, Coins, Great-Seals, 19, 21; Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 18. Beginning in 1635, Simon was apprenticed for 7 years to Edward Greene, engraver at the London Mint. After Greene died, Simon was appointed joint chief engraver with Edward Wade in 1645. After Wade died, Simon became chief engraver in 1649. See Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 11–14.
121
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1651, 174–175; Craig, The Mint, 152.
122
Vertue, Medals, Coins, Great-Seals, 18–24; Hocking, "Simon’s Dies," 33, 36; Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 17.
123
Hocking, "Simon’s Dies," 24–25.
124
Farquhar, "Nicholas Briot," 19.
125
Thomas Violet, The Answer of the Corporation of Moniers (London, 1653), 23; Henfrey, Numismata Cromwelliana, 70; R. H. Thompson, "Mechanization at the 17th Century London Mint: The Testimony of Tokens," in Archibald and Cowell, eds., Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. III, 143–147; Snelling, Miscellaneous Views, 51; Vertue, Medals, Coins, Great-Seals, 18–24; Hocking, "Simon’s Dies," 33, 36. After the trial, Ramage did not grain the edges of his coins except for his 1661 silver pieces, which are noted for their poorly constructed grained edges, see Challis, A New History, 127–128.
126
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1651, 232–233.
127
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1651–1652, 154.
128
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1654, 131; Challis, A New History, 319, 328, 330, 332; Simon, Essay, 49.
129
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1656–1657, 49.
130
Barnard, Cromwellian Ireland, 20–21, 223–224.
131
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1654, 451, vol. 1655, 215, vol. 1656–1657, 78, 134, and vol. 1657–1658, 37, 169.
132
Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 26.
133
Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 27, 30; Seaby and Purvey, Coins of England, 192–193; Coincraft 2000, 477, 499, 525, 541. The Latin inscription reads: HAS NISI PERITVRVS MIHI ADIMAT NEMO with translation provided by Linecar, see Linecar, British Coin Designs, 55.
134
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1658–1659, 105–106, 265.
135
Marvin Lessen, "Notes on Simon’s Pattern (Petition) Crown of Charles II," British Numismatic Journal (2005): 95.
136
Lessen, "Notes," 95; Challis, A New History, 341; Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 34–35; Carte Calendar, vol. XXXI, December 22, 1661. Since the English calendar year ended in March, there is some confusion regarding when Blondeau exactly returned to London. Challis gives 1661 while Nathanson specifies January 1662, which at the time would have fAllen in the year 1661.
137
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1662, 522; Challis, A New History, 341.
138
Challis, A New History, 745; Coincraft 2000, 553, 561, 571, 579.
139
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 112. The translations are offered by Peck.
140
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 112–115.
141
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1662, 493, 496.
142
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1663–1664, 574; Challis, A New History, 343. Blondeau had a "Pass to embark...for Poland," where he obtained screw presses.
143
Ruding, Annals, vol. II, 12–13.
144
Challis, A New History, 340; Philip Frances, ed., John Evelyn’s Diary (London, 1963), 146, 153; Albert Feavearyear, The Pound Sterling: A History of English Money (Oxford, 1963), 123.
145
Challis, A New History, 351.

Origins of the St. Patrick Coinage

The St. Patrick series is comprised of four types: small and large coppers (Figs. 15–16), silver pieces, and a gold specimen. To assist the reader in differentiating between the coppers, I use the common numismatic designation of farthings for the small and halfpence for the large coin. While there is no known historical document that establishes this distinction at the time of issue, this assigned value was given in 1699 by the numismatist John Sharpe in his Archbishop Sharpe’s observations on the coinage of England and was restated in 1749 by James Simon, Ireland’s first numismatist, in Simon’s Essay on Irish Coins and Currency of Foreign Monies in Ireland. This designation is current today although the weight discrepancy between the two types of coppers raises consideration that this assignment of values should not be taken as definitive. Philip L. Mossman drew attention to this topic in Money of the American Colonies and Confederation. Updating his premise, Mossman presented additional evidence that both the small and large coppers may have been intended as halfpence with the replacement of the large by the small coin to ensure profitability.148

image

Figure 15. Small copper St. Patrick ("farthing"). Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.

image

Figure 16. Large copper St. Patrick ("halfpenny"). Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.

image

Figure 17. Cork copper penny token, 1659. P. Seaby, Coins and Tokens of Ireland (London, 1970), 114.

An alternative interpretation was offered by John Lindsay, who stated that the coppers were "considered by the Dean of St. Patrick, and other distinguished Numismatists, as pennies and halfpence, and I am inclined to agree."149 This is in keeping with the type of tradesmen and town tokens circulating in Ireland in the mid–1600s. At the time, the prevalence of Irish tokens in descending order were pence followed by halfpence and then farthings with the last constituting an insignificant number. As noted in George C. Williamson’s Trade Tokens: Issued in Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland, of the 160 Irish tokens dated prior to 1670 and stamped with an identifying denomination, 153 were pence, five were halfpence, and two were farthings.150 Cork uttered a typical town token with an obverse naming the corporation, A CORK PENNY 1659, and the reverse legend, THE ARMS OF CORK (Fig. 17). A common design for tradesmen tokens included the merchant’s name on the obverse and place of utterance on the reverse. Lending further support to Lindsay’s premise is the light weight of common Irish tokens in comparison to the heavier St. Patrick coppers. Finally, there is the 1670 reference to Irish tokens by the newly appointed Lord-Lieutenant, who sought permission to suppress their use as money. In his correspondence with London, he called for an end to "making and passing of all sorts of brass pence and halfpence" without any mention of farthings.151

image

Figure 18. Counterstamped copper halfpenny token of Andrew Robeson, c. 1653–1659. P. Seaby, Coins and Tokens of Ireland (London, 1970), 133.

As often happened with tokens, as they fell into disfavor, their value declined. This correlates with Swift’s comment in his Drapier Letters that St. Patrick coppers now pass as farthings and halfpence, indicating that they had previously been worth more. In some instances, to denote their lessened value, Irish tokens were counterstamped, as when HAPNEY was struck over 1D on Marcus Archer’s penny token and when V D was struck over HIS 1D on Andrew Robeson’s token (Fig. 18). One token, uttered in Clonakilty had farthing stamped over PENNY to indicate its greatly reduced value. Another practice was to devalue tokens officially. In 1672, Kilkenny announced that the penny pieces it authorized during the mayoralty of Thomas Adams were to pass thereafter as farthings. The refusal of merchants to redeem their tokens also negatively affected their value. In one such instance, Kilkenny threatened to officially devalue John Beavor’s pence unless he gave assurance for their future redemption.152

In Ormond’s time, two of the more productive counties uttering tokens were Kilkenny, where Ormond maintained his primary residence, and Tipperary, which had been held by the family as a county palatine since the fourteenth century. The Corporation of Kilkenny uttered halfpence and pence in the late 1650s with one marked, FOR THE POORE, while Thomas Davis uttered a penny referring to the Excise Office. Most common were various merchant tokens uttered as pence in the 1650s and 1660s. Richard Inwood depicted a windmill that stood for the inn he operated; the goldsmith William Keovgh displayed a mermaid; Edward Sewall, a tallow chandler, illustrated a candle-maker; and many others engraved their family’s arms on their tokens. Tipperary uttered numerous merchant tokens. Among these, Edmond Kearney made four varieties of pence plus one type of halfpence while Robert Hutchinson made two unspecified denominations of different sizes. Notable in this assortment of tokens is that of Kearney, featuring the Kearney Crux on the reverse. This symbolically represented St. Patrick’s crozier, a relic held by the family until it was donated to the Archbishop of Cashill in the 1800s. Another illustrated the county’s cathedral. Of the 779 Irish tokens identified by Williamson, 163 were associated with Dublin, 77 with Antrim in northern Ireland, 65 with Cork, 50 with Galway, 38 with Tipperary, and 27 with Kilkenny. Some counties uttered very few tokens. For example, only eight were vented in Wicklow, five in Clare, three in Longford, one in Leitrim, and none in Mayo.153

Coppers had been a fixture in English and Irish monetary affairs since the Elizabethan era. The queen’s halfpence and pence minted between 1601 and 1602 to finance the suppression of the O’Neill Rebellion were deemed pledge pieces and were considered not much better than tokens. Under James i and Charles I, farthings were authorized under various private patents, producing controversial pieces due to their light weight. The continuing rise in the price of silver led to a sharp decline in the minting of halfpence during the reign of Charles I and an end to their issuance in the 1650s. The demise of silver farthings had occurred a century earlier. This gave rise to the potential use of an alternative metal to make small change. The Commonwealth explored the possibility of minting copper farthings. Pattern pieces were prepared, but the venture did not proceed beyond this initial stage. A major obstacle was the limited supply of domestic copper, since England's mining industry had collapsed during the Civil War. Violet, an old foe of Blondeau’s, proposed making farthings with copper imported from Sweden. The importation of foreign metal, however, was contrary to the economic principles of mercantilism, which gave rise to the idea of using locally mined tin in 1661. Although an abundant domestic metal, the use of tin was opposed by the London Mint, since it could be easily mixed with lead by counterfeiters. Officials deemed "copper is the fittest metal."154 As an alternative to copper from Sweden, a former adversary whose coffers officials were not pleased to enrich, an experiment was conducted to import it from Japan. The Comptroller of the Mint gave an "Account of the said copper, that it is equal to the best Swedish copper in fineness and is pliant and easy to work."155 In the end, the London Mint decided on copper, but only pattern farthings and halfpence were made. Their detail, especially those with a reeded edge, reflect the quality of craftsmanship that could be achieved with Blondeau’s new technology. The decision to produce English regal coppers, however, was delayed until 1672. Until this date, the London Mint focused on making bullion coins rather than retooling its operations to accommodate the production of farthings and halfpence.156

image

Figure 19. Silver St. Patrick ("shilling?"). Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.

The silver St. Patrick pieces with their varying weights have generated a debate among numismatists concerning their use as a circulating medium of exchange (Fig. 19). The historical record of the period clearly shows that Ireland was saddled with an array of heavily worn English bullion coins that were clipped, outdated, counterfeited, and otherwise lacked full value. This was a great concern to Irish officials and merchants. This deplorable situation was made worse by an array of Irish silver coins of questionable value produced during the Civil War. As a potential solution to this state of affairs, Commonwealth officials sent Blondeau to Dublin in the mid–1650s to explore the feasibility of reestablishing the mint. Confirming Ireland’s desire for silver coins was a proposal submitted to officials circa 1660, requesting permission to mint £100,000 in various denominations up to threepence.157 Later, when the London Mint began its production of new English bullion coins, it was well known that production would not be sufficient to satisfy England's monetary needs let alone Ireland’s. This problem gave rise to the contemplation of a separate Irish silver mintage by the English treasury in 1668.158 The production of bullion coins for circulation would have been in keeping with Ormond’s mission to create a new supply of money.159

Numismatists generally refer to the silver pieces as shillings, a denomination ascribed to them by James Simon, who stated that the coins were intended "to pass for shillings" although other writers of the early 1700s described them as medals.160 Part of the dispute surrounding them is the lack of any mark to denote their denomination although Charles II shillings, halfcrowns, and crowns of the 1660s also lacked an indication of value. The size of a coin along with its metal content was deemed sufficient to indicate its denomination: the English shilling had a diameter varying between 25 mm and 26 mm while the St. Patrick silver pieces have approximately the same diameter, varying between 24 mm and 25 mm; the halfcrown measured between 33 mm and 34 mm and the crown between 38 mm and 40 mm. It was not until 1668 that silver pence started to be stamped with an indication of value.161

The existence of a gold coin within the St. Patrick series has generated questions regarding its significance. As with silver coins of the 1660s, the specimen lacks any indication of value. Given the general consensus among numismatists that only one genuine specimen exists, any assumption regarding its contribution to the series must be guarded.

Absent any documentary evidence to the contrary, the existence of finely designed silver and gold coins in the St. Patrick series is indicative of their execution by London's professional moneyers. As Peck stated, nonregal coins executed in bullion constitutes almost conclusive evidence of involvement by London Mint workers, which adds support to the argument for Blondeau’s involvement.162 Furthermore, the existence of bullion coins is an indication of Ormond’s intent to create a proper coinage for Ireland as well as to introduce money whose design would hinder counterfeiters.

The production of the St. Patrick series is unique in Irish numismatics. In discerning its origins, numismatists have limited records available, which are often contradictory. In discussing the series, therefore, a different approach has been adopted herein that bases its mintage on the technology available to make coppers in the seventeenth century. From this vantage point, there are three specific hallmarks that distinguish the coins from all other English and Irish coppers made prior to 1675: first, the edge is vertically reeded by means of a mechanical process; second, the technique was applied to thin planchets; and third, the method was able to produce coins at an affordable cost.

Prior to Blondeau, there were two methods of placing a reeded edge on a coin. The older virole brisée or segmented collar method was not applicable to thin coins and had a tendency to destroy dies prematurely, which confined its use primarily to medals. In minting coins, the use of parallel bars was a common method in the 1600s although it was more suitable for thick planchets and was not feasible economically for low valued coppers. In contrast to these methods, the one-stroke process invented by Blondeau worked economically on thin planchets. Evidence that a separate edging machine was not the primary method employed in manufacturing the St. Patrick series was presented by the coins. Planchets that pass through two grooved parallel bars for graining generally reveal the common side effect of an overlap or double graining at two opposite points on the coin, a feature that results from slippage as the planchet is processed. This feature is noticeable on bullion coins produced at the London Mint during the period when the two-step edging process was employed.163 There are some St. Patrick farthings that also exhibit this feature. In addition, there are a limited number of farthings with a circumferential line that at times oscillates across the vertical graining. This feature also appeared on some of the first shillings produced by Blondeau for Charles II in 1663, and is often described as a center line, a marking of unknown meaning. It can be reasonably stated that in the production rush Blondeau encountered on becoming Ormond’s minter in 1667, he used various equipment at hand to produce as many coins as quickly as possible in order to satisfy the army. This was similar to the pressure he encountered in minting regal money in 1662 and 1663, when Charles II wanted to replace Cromwell’s "usurper’s coin" as quickly as possible. During this first stage in the production of Charles II’s milled money, equipment other than Blondeau’s was employed in a limited capacity to increase output at the London Mint. This decision was further necessitated by the king’s proclamation that no Commonwealth money would be accepted in payment to the Crown after May 1, 1662. By 1663, £495,653— two-thirds of the Commonwealth’s coins—had been removed from circulation. To satisfy both the king’s desire to issue his own money as well as to have an adequate supply to replace Cromwell’s money, Blondeau had to accelerate production. He accomplished this task between 1662 and 1663 by minting £801,756 in silver and £32,417 in gold coins. Such a high mintage would not be matched until the Great Recoinage at the end of the century when five auxiliary mints were used to assist the London Mint in the effort to upgrade the nation’s money. Once production reduced in intensity in 1664, the center line and overlap in graining disappeared on regal coins, which led to current speculation that St. Patrick farthings with such markings are among the first coppers Blondeau made for Ormond.164

The process of producing the St. Patrick series with its reeded edge was achieved by using heavier than normal screw presses to force metal to the perimeter of a planchet, where it was contained by a collar. Along the inner wall of the collar, a thin grooved metal strip was inserted. As metal flowed to the planchet’s perimeter, the insert under pressure created the grained edge. This process was highlighted in Blondeau’s Last Will & Testament wherein he stipulated that a sequence of beneficiaries had to pay the cost of engraving the rings for edge-marking.165 However, coppers exist within the series that have a plain edge. Taking into account Blondeau’s technology, plain edged coins probably resulted from a failure to place the grooved metal insert along the inner wall of the collar. Such coins are, in my opinion, minting errors since their production varied from normal practices. Coins that exhibit signs of preparation in a two-step process through the use of grooved parallel bars also represent a procedural process that differs from Blondeau’s common practice. But these coins are varieties within the series rather than errors, since they were deliberately manufactured as a means to accelerate production.

In a mintage as large as the St. Patrick series, it is not surprising that Blondeau experienced some difficulties using the extra heavy engines or screw presses that were one of the hallmarks of his new technology. One notable problem stemmed from die misalignment. Likewise, dies were destroyed faster than normal due to excess pressure. At times, this led to the breakage of the collar and an outflow of metal. This problem is consistent with the inordinate number of die varieties associated with the farthings in the series.166

Although Blondeau had the necessary technology to manufacture the St. Patrick series, he was not able to undertake the venture alone. An outline of the key persons involved is gleaned from his Last Will & Testament of 1672 wherein he specified the following bequests: Slingsby, Isaac de Caux, and John Colborne were to share the income from the production of coins at the London Mint using his technology in accordance with the terms of his patent; Slingby’s share was dependent on paying the cost of engraving the rings for edge-marking; and these beneficiaries jointly were to compensate Peter La Castill £20 per year for his contribution to the edging process. Later, Colborne bequeathed one-half of his interest to his brother Robert and the other half to Henry Slingsby with the stipulation that if Henry Slingsby failed to perform his obligation—Slingsby’s availability was in question due to his appointment as Secretary of the Council of Trade—then his brother and Peter Johnson were to receive said share. Finally, Blondeau bequeathed his five screw presses to Slingsby. Although making private tokens had all but ceased after 1672, the patent generated a sizable income and the screw presses had an estimated value of £300.167

It is important to note that these men were all associated with the London Mint. According to its roster of employees, De Caux and Colborne were engineers, La Castill was one of Blondeau’s workers within the mint establishment, and Henry Slingsby was the facility’s chief administrator. In addition to his position at the mint, Henry Slingsby also enjoyed the patronage of influential officials, such as Lord Ashley, Chancellor of the Exchequer, which enhanced the success of any coining venture he undertook. This mix of professionals associated with manufacturing money is precisely what was required to make coins for Ireland. Slingsby, as chief administrator of the London Mint and the chief advocate of its right to produce all money, had the power to curtail any private coinage. If the project were to succeed, his participation was necessary. De Caux’s and Colborne’s skills as engineers for coin manufacturing were valuable in overseeing daily operations. La Castill obviously contributed, as noted in Blondeau’s bequest. The reference to Johnson is important as Blondeau relied on his newly created hardened dies to withstand the pressure of the heavy screw presses that he used.168

The public acknowledgement of those who were associated with minting the St. Patrick series may appear in one notable contemporary document. In 1670, Ireland’s newly appointed Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Berkeley, desired to suppress the use of tokens as money. At the time, England was contemplating the issuance of regal farthings and halfpence. As part of a warning to defer any action until a final decision had been reached on the minting regal coppers, his secretary was told that, "Mr. Slingsby’s patent, if he have one, may not include Ireland for small money."169 It is not surprising that among the participants in producing Ormond’s coins, Henry Slingsby rather than Blondeau should be mentioned. As the chief administrator of the London Mint, he was the most prominent partner involved in producing the St. Patrick series. Further, it was well known that he had expressed a strong interest in any proposal to mint small change for the kingdom and contemplated undertaking such a venture personally. Finally, it was Slingsby, rather than Blondeau, who was personally known to Ormond. Under these circumstances, Slingsby’s involvement in minting the St. Patrick series would have been significant.170

In examining the time frame for minting the St. Patrick series, it is improbable that the coins could have been produced earlier than the 1660s. Irish coinage of the Civil War years is generally described by numismatists as having "a battered and poorly struck appearance,"171 which stands in sharp contrast to the finely executed St. Patrick pieces. For the most part, the coins of this era were made of silver with a limited production using gold. As for farthings and halfpence, there are two instances when coppers were issued. Between 1642 and 1643, the Confederated Catholics produced a limited mintage known as Kilkenny Money consisting of hammer-struck pieces that were crudely made with a crown and two scepters on the obverse and a crowned harp on the reverse, bearing no resemblance to the St. Patrick series. The other mintage was siege money struck between 1645 and 1647 in support of the Parliamentary cause in the Munster towns of Cork and Youghall (coins issued by Bandon and Kinsale, once considered part of this series, are now deemed to date to the 1650s). These hammer-struck coppers on irregularly shaped or square planchets with simplistic designs lack the quality of production associated with the St. Patrick series. Taking a different approach, it has been asserted that the St. Patrick series was produced at the London Mint between 1641 and 1642 as a coinage to finance the king’s army fighting in Ireland to suppress the Ulster Rebellion.172 However, the king already had at his disposal Maltravers’ farthings with their well-known regal obverse and Irish harp reverse. Likewise, by granting patents to various minters of farthings during his reign, the king had agreed to prohibit anyone else from striking coppers.173 Equally significant is the role of money as propaganda in the 1640s. Royalists deemed it important to promote the king in a clear manner on the money that they sanctioned. The silver coins struck at auxiliary royal mints such as those in Oxford, Bristol, and Exeter prominently displayed images of Charles I. Such depictions along with legends that proclaimed the king’s justice were seen as a means to reinforce the Royalist cause. Under these circumstances, it would have been counterproductive to retool auxiliary royal mints—which operated only briefly due to the successes of Cromwell’s advancing army—to strike coppers that were only linked to the king on an interpretive level.174

With Blondeau’s method identified as the technological basis for the St. Patrick series, these reeded-edged coins could not have been struck economically prior to the 1650s. Even then, there was a technological stumbling block that would have hindered a large mintage. During the decade, Blondeau relied on Thomas Simon for his dies, which were acceptable given Blondeau’s limited assignment to produce Commonwealth money. During the early 1660s, when Blondeau’s heavy screw presses undertook the production of Charles II’s milled money, it was discovered that such dies could not withstand the extra pressure exerted by the presses. With Johnson’s perfection of hardened dies in the early 1660s, Blondeau was able to undertake the extensive mintage authorized by Charles II. Another significant obstacle in the 1650s was posed by Blondeau’s opponents at the London Mint who constantly harassed the engineer in this period. In particular, he would have been opposed by influential moneyers who were also prolific token makers, such as David Ramage and Thomas Rawlins. The latter is noted for producing corporation coins for Oxford. Ramage in particular coveted his role as a token maker, trying in 1661 to control token manufacture through an unsuccessful bid to outlaw all coppers not made by him. For Blondeau to have undertaken an unauthorized mintage in the 1650s would have confirmed the charge of counterfeiting leveled against him during the trials with Ramage. Most damaging in such an accusation would have been the regal legends on the St. Patrick coins, which would have been viewed as an act of treason during the Commonwealth era. Finally, in order for his undertaking to succeed, Blondeau needed a sponsor, which he surely lacked in Henry Cromwell, but later would have found in Ormond. Part of such a sponsorship probably would have involved advancing some funds for the venture. Prior to 1667, Ormond was unable to offer any assistance as his personal finances were in disarray. He was so short of money in 1665 that he defaulted on a loan. To avoid forfeiture of part of his estate, he asked his creditor, Bellingham of the Viner Patent venture, to accept interest payments until His Lordship received money owed him under the Act of Settlement. Two years later, the king authorized Ormond to receive £50,000 from the Commissioners of Settlement as compensation for some of the lands he lost during the Commonwealth era. Ormond paid £25,000 to satisfy his creditors. For the first time since returning to Ireland, Ormond had surplus funds. These events, as well as the crisis of the unpaid army make the later 1660s the optimal time for the production of the St. Patrick series.175

Other dating evidence pointing to the later 1660s is the production curve for Irish tokens between 1660 and 1674. Local production basically ceased when Armstrong received his grant. The patent contained a strong anti-token provision that was reinforced in 1661 when the Lords Justices prohibited making tokens without a license. Unlike in England, where manufacturers of tokens were tolerated due to the shortage of small change, the 1661 proclamation called for the "pain of such penalties and punishments, as by laws of this kingdom could be justly inflicted."176 As it became obvious that the Armstrong Patent would not succeed, Kinsale reissued its town token farthings in 1661. This was followed in 1662 by the passage of the Viner Patent whereby Ormond was instructed to suppress unauthorized small money. After the recall of the Viner Patent, token production resumed in earnest in 1663. London's contemplation of striking regal coppers in 1665 caused a sharp decline in the utterance of tokens that year. London's failure to pursue the project, compounded by the negative impact that the plague and the Great London Fire had on output at the London Mint, caused an acceleration of Irish token production. This peaked in 1667–1668, at the height of Ormond’s fiscal crisis with the army. Thereafter, the number of tokens uttered declined noticeably, reflecting the appearance of a new supply of money: the St. Patrick coins. Since this infusion of money was modest—Ormond’s correspondence indicates a mintage between £10,000 and £12,000—it was not able to satisfy completely the need for small change and the manufacturing of tokens continued into the 1670s.177

The most significant factor that dates the conception of the St. Patrick series to 1667 is the crisis Ormond faced with an unpaid army where arrears amounted up to a year for many troops. In considering a copper mintage, Ormond’s goal was to satisfy six months of back pay as a means to quell discontent among the troops. By the fall of 1668, His Lordship had met this key objective. As noted in a report by Ireland’s Treasurer, not only had six months in arrears been satisfied, but some soldiers had received additional funds.178 By this arrangement, the crisis with the army had passed with the St. Patrick mintage constituting part of the solution to maintain a loyal army during a difficult period of crisis in Ireland. This was also a transitional period for Ormond. In 1668, he left Ireland at the king’s request in order to become a more effective royal advisor. At this time Charles II faced several problems with his ministers and with the House of Commons. Ormond placed the Deputy Lord-Lieutenant, his son, Lord Ossory, in charge of a caretaker government and set aside any hope for a Dublin Mint.

The period from 1669 onward is also important for its noted decline in the production of non-regal coppers. Lord Robartes, who replaced Ormond as Lord-Lieutenant, took a somewhat disinterested approach to Irish affairs, remaining in England for part of his tenure in office. Fortunately, as the London Mint recovered from the damaging effects of the plague and the Great London Fire, it increased the availability of money. At the same time, England started to review the possibility of minting regal coppers, which would have had a negative effect on the production of the St. Patrick series. As noted in a report to the king, the contemplated regal coins would have an intrinsic value unlike circulating tokens since the king’s intent was "so there might be good money current amongst the poorest of Our Subjects."179 In 1673, the newly appointed Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Essex, proclaimed that henceforth it would be illegal "to make or stamp, or cause to be made or stamped, any brass or copper, or other tokens whatsoever."180 By that year, the mint’s production of regal farthings and halfpence exceeded £60,000. This lessened the viability of making St. Patrick coins, especially in light of the king’s prior proclamation that outlawed all future production of tokens.181 The next year, Essex used various means to increase the supply of new regal coppers in Ireland in order to address the kingdom’s shortage of small change.182

Overall, the St. Patrick series sharply contrasts with other tokens of the era, which often lacked the craftsmanship that resulted from Blondeau’s production methods. Although town or corporation tokens were often made at a higher standard that was achieved by hiring London die makers to produce more professional looking money, none can compare with the St. Patrick series, which was produced using Blondeau’s technology under the hands of experts in the business of manufacturing money.183

End Notes

146
The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Los Angeles, 1971), vol. IV, 144–147.
147
Denis R. Cooper, The Art and Craft of Coin Making: A History of Minting Technology (London, 1988), 47–48.
148
Mossman, Money, 129–130; Philip L. Mossman, "A Second Errata to Money of the American Colonies and Confederation," The Colonial Newsletter (April, 2006): 2970–2971. See also Mossman above, chapter 1.
149
John Lindsay, A View of the Coinage of Ireland, from the Invasion of the Danes to the Reign of George IV (Cork, 1839), 56.
150
Williamson, Trade Tokens, vol. II, 1355–1418. The halfpenny was the most common token denomination circulating in England during the same period.
151
Williamson, Trade Tokens, vol. II, 1365, 1371; Nelson, The Coinage of Ireland,1415; Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1669–1670, 314.
152
Aquilla Smith, "The Origin of Mark Newby Coppers," American Journal of Numismatics (October 1872): 25; Williamson, Trade Tokens, vol. II, 1363–1370, 1393.
153
R.A.S. Macalister, "A Catalogue of the Irish Traders’ Tokens in the Collection of the Royal Irish Academy," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 40 (1931): Section C, 48–49, 112; Williamson, Trade Tokens, vol. II, 1363–1367, 1393–1396, 1409.
154
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1623–1625, 389 and vol. 1661–1662, 3.
155
Calendar of State Papers,, vol. 1665–1666, 98 and vol. 1660–1670 Addenda, 560.
156
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 112, 590–591, 598–599; Coincraft 2000, 394, 401; Nelson, The Coinage of Ireland, 3. The mint’s report on the pending production of coppers noted the lack of modern equipment at the facility and stated that screw presses would have to be acquired to undertake the project.
157
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 36.
158
Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 24.
159
Nathanson, Thomas Simon, 18. For a discussion of St. Patrick silver coins, see Brian J. Danforth, "St. Patrick Coinage Revisited," The Colonial Newsletter (April, 2005): 2786–2796. For the assertion that they were favor pieces similar to presentation coins, see Harrington E. Manville, review of "St. Patrick Coinage Revisited" by Brian J. Danforth, British Numismatic Journal (2003): 213–216.
160
Simon, Essay, 48.
161
Breen, Encyclopedia, 23–35; Manville, review of Danforth, 213–216. Aquilla Smith had a St. Patrick silver coin weighing 176½ grains, but it is probably a piedfort or a presentation piece.
162
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 108.
163
Peter P Gasper, "Simon’s Cromwell Dies in the Royal Mint Museum and Blondeau’s Method for the Production of Lettered Edges" British Numismatic Journal (1976): 62; Cooper, Art and Craft, 102.
164
Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1663–1664, 89; Challis, A New History, 338–340, 342; Coincraft 2000, 525; Leo Shane, "St. Patrick Coinage Discovery" The Colonial Newsletter (August 2003): 2494. C. Wilson Peck stated Blondeau was "conversant with at least three processes." For edging coins, see Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 141–143.
165
Challis, A New History, 343.
166
For further information, see Danforth, "St. Patrick Coinage," 2371–2402.
167
Challis, A New History, 343, 348–349; Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1671, 692.
168
C. E. Challis, "Mint Officials and Moneyers of the Stuart Period," British Numismatic Journal (1989): 177, 180–181, 184; Challis, A New History, 363, 365; C. E. Challis, "Presidential Address," British Numismatic Journal (1991), 175.
169
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1669–1670, 179, 314.
170
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 104.
171
Finn, Irish Coin Values, 17.
172
Breen, Encyclopedia, 33.
173
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 45.
174
Colgan, For Want of Good Money, 118; Coincraft 2000, 373–375.
175
H. E. Salter, Surveys and Tokens (Oxford, 1923), 359–60; Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 98; Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXI, April 5, 1665; Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1666–1669, 266, 301; Challis, A New History, 349–350.
176
Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, 104; Simon, Essay, 51.
177
Williamson, Trade Tokens, vol. II, 1355–1428; Carte Calendar, vol. XXXIII, May 4, 1662; Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 23.
178
Carte Calendar, vol. XXXXIX, October 3, 1668.
179
By the King: A Proclamation For Making Current His Majecties Farthings & Half- pence (London, 1672); Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1670, 560.

Conclusion

The St. Patrick series was produced during a troubled period in Ireland’s history. As a kingdom subservient to London's interests, its monetary requirements were seldom considered. In a moment of desperation, Ormond turned to professional moneyers in London to address his fiscal woes. There, he secured the services of Blondeau, whose reeded edge technology was desired to curtail the activities of clippers and counterfeiters that degraded the value of Irish money and posed a serious threat to Ireland’s financial stability. Regarding the production of the coinage, the following arguments have been presented herein:

  • Blondeau’s detractors at the London Mint in the 1650s erroneously claimed that he had not invented a new process, but rather used existing technology to produce prototype coins;
  • as a condition of his return to London and allowing his new one-stroke technology to dominate the minting of Charles II’s money, Blondeau received a patent to protect his new method, which would have been unnecessary if he were using existing technology;
  • Blondeau received authority to protect his new technology "wherewith the brims are marked, may be kept secret among few men, who shall be sworn to keep it, and not to reveal it to anie [any],"184 which would have been unnecessary if he were merely employing a process already know among English moneyers;
  • Blondeau’s one-stroke process for edging coins was economical and worked on thin planchets, which was crucial for minting coppers;
  • Ormond’s receipt of the "King’s letter" to suppress undesirable tokens followed by correspondence for minting between £10,000 and £12,000 in new coins, resulted in the issue of the St. Patrick series between 1667 and 1669 to satisfy the army;
  • Blondeau in partnership with others, especially Henry Slingsby whose participation was crucial, was responsible for striking the St. Patrick series;
  • the minting of silver coins as part of the series indicates the involvement of professional moneyers in a sanctioned project, otherwise the act of production would have been treasonable; and
  • the St. Patrick coins were issued as non-regal money in the manner of contemporary petitioning tokens, enjoying a semi-official status as indicated by the royal crown on the obverse and Latin legends referring to the monarchy.

Given the circumstances outlined above, it is inconceivable that officials at the London Mint and royal authorities would have granted concessions, monetary compensation, and a patent to Blondeau if he were merely using commonly known procedures. Rather, the engineer employed a new technology to strike three sides of a coin economically in a one-stroke process that was applicable to thick and thin planchets, as was required for making coppers.185 If Ormond wanted to address the inadequate supply of Irish money, he had to turn to professional moneyers in London to succeed. Further, if His Lordship wanted to protect his envisioned Irish coinage from clippers and counterfeiters, his only alternative was to secure Blondeau’s involvement because his invention was protected by a royal patent. Based on the convergence of historical events, the production of the St. Patrick series must have occurred between 1667 and 1669, during Ormond’s tenure as Ireland’sLord-Lieutenant. This coincides with Ormond’s request for £30,000 in farthings, his receipt of the "King’s letter" or warrant, his correspondence with London officials regarding his proposed issuance of money as a solution to the problem of the unpaid army, and additional correspondence in 1667 pertaining to minting between £10,000 and £12,000 using Blondeau’s technology.

The circulation of St. Patrick coins in Ireland lasted for several decades. While Ormond’s successor as Lord-Lieutenant requested permission to suppress the use of tokens in 1670, the king responded that His Lordship should await a final decision regarding production of official coppers.186 That decision was finalized in 1672 with the issue of the nation’s first regal coppers (Fig. 20). Within four years 246 tons in farthings and halfpence valued at £40,252 were produced.187 In support of the new coinage, all tokens were demonetized by royal proclamation:

Whereas We...have thought fit, by the Advice of Our Privy Council, to cause certain Farthings and Half-pence of Copper to be Stamped at Our Mint...[they] shall pass and be received in all Payments...And if any Person or Persons, Bodies Politique or Corporate, shall...presume to make, vend, or utter any Pence, Half-pence, Farthings, or other pieces of Brass, Copper, or other Base Mettal...We shall hold all such Offenders utterly inexcusable, and shall cause their Contempt of Our Laws and Government to be chastised with Exemplary Severity.188

While the regal coppers of the 1670s were intended for both England and Ireland, a separate Irish coinage was authorized in 1680, granting Sir Thomas Armstrong (Jr.) and Colonel George Legge a patent to strike halfpence (Fig. 5). This privilege was assigned in 1684 to the Dublin alderman John Knox. He had the patent reissued to him the following year at which time he was Lord Mayor of Dublin. The patent was thereafter transferred to Roger Moore who continued the venture until his mint in Dublin was seized to make gun-money for the deposed James II in 1689 (Fig. 21). After the defeat of the former king’s forces, Moore resumed minting halfpence until 1696. The desire for farthings was addressed by William Wood in 1722, although the controversy surrounding his money forced the patentee to surrender his grant in 1725 (Fig. 22). This eventually led to a shortage of small change and the reemergence of tradesmen tokens in the mid–1730s, which in turn led to the minting of regal farthings and halfpence between 1737 and 1755. The cessation of their production led to another shortage of small change that was addressed partially by the Voce Populi tokens of 1760 (Fig. 23). As an alternative to privately made coppers, the London Mint again issued regal Irish farthings and halfpence. Throughout this chaotic monetary history, the St. Patrick series stands out as a unique attempt to place the kingdom on a firm financial footing by creating a distinctive coinage consisting of both copper and bullion coins.

image

Figure 20. English copper halfpenny of King Charles II, 1675/3. Baldwin’s Auctions Ltd., St. James Auction 2, May 11, 2005, lot 190.

image

Figure 21. Irish copper Gunmoney shilling of King James II, February 1689. Baldwin’s Auctions Ltd. 42, September 26, 2005, lot 1231.

image

Figure 22. Irish copper farthing of King George I by William Wood, 1722. Courtesy of Sydney Martin.

image

Figure 23. Irish copper Voce Populi halfpenny, 1760. Department of Special Collections of the University of Notre Dame

End Notes

180
Simon, Essay, 134.
181
By the King: A Proclamation For Making Current His Majecties Farthings & Half- pence (London, 1672); Calendar of State Papers, vol. 1672, 283.
182
Essex’s success in this endeavor, as well as that of the Irish government in directly acquiring coppers for distribution, is doubtful, see Gallagher, "Irish Copper," 25; Challis, A New History, 368.
183
Williamson, Trade Tokens, vol. I, xxiii.
184
Blondeau, The Humble Representation of Peter Blondeau as a Warning.
185
The historiography of Blondeau’s methodology is as follows: G. F. Ansell in The Royal Mint (1870) stated that Blondeau used a thin flexible metal band to inscribe and grain his coins in a one-stroke process; in 1909, Hocking, "Simon’s Dies," restated this premise in greater detail; Peter P Gasper in "Simon’s Cromwell Dies in the Royal Mint Museum and Blondeau’s Method for the Production of Lettered Edges," British Numismatic Journal (1976) stated that the engineer used parallel bars although the focus of his paper was on coins with lettered edges made in the 1650s; in 1964, Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze, stated Blondeau was conversant with several ways to affect edging and it is not possible to discern his methodology due to the secrecy of his work, although he believed a modified two-step process was used; and in 2005, Lessen, "Notes," stated it was possible that Blondeau did not use parallel bars although he supporeted Gasper’s conclusion. For additional commentary, see Danforth, "St. Patrick Coinage Revisited."
186
Mahaffy, Calendar of State Papers Ireland, vol. 1669–1670, 314.
187
Challis, A New History, 368. Minting of regal coppers was suspended after four years of production followed in 1679 by £1,409 in farthings.
188
By the King: A Proclamation For Making Current His Majecties Farthings & Half- pence (London, 1672).

References

Allen, Martin. The Durham Mint. BNS Special Publication 4. London: British Numismatic Society, 2003.
Ansell, G. F. The Royal Mint: Its Working, Conduct and Operations Fully and Practically Explained. London: No Publisher,1870.
Archives of Maryland Online. www.amol.net.
Barnard, T. C. Cromwellian Ireland: English Government and Reform in Ireland 1649–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Barnard, Toby and Jane Fenlon, eds. The Dukes of Ormonde, 1610–1745. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2000.
Besly, Edward. "Rotary Coining in Britain." In Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. 3. RNS Special Publication 24, edited by M. M. Archibald and M. R. Cowell, 118–127. London: Royal Numismatic Society, 1993.
Blondeau, Peter. The humble Representation of Peter Blondeau as a Warning, Touching several disorders happening by Monie ill-favoredly Coined. London, 1651.
Blondeau, Peter. A Most Humble Memorandum. London, 1652.
Brand, John D. "Scissel and Swarf." In Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. 3, RNS Special Publication 24, edited by M. M. Archibald and M. R. Cowell, 87–98. London: Royal Numismatic Society, 1993.
Breen, Walter. Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Burns, Edward. The Coinage of Scotland. 3 vols. Edinburgh: No Publisher, 1887.
Carte, Thomas. The Life of James Duke of Ormond ... With an Appendix and a Collection of his Letters. 6 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1851.
Challis, C. E. "Mint Officials and Moneyers of the Stuart Period." British Numismatic Journal 59 (1990): 157–197.
——. "Presidential Address." British Numismatic Journal 61 (1991): 164—
——, ed. A New History of the Royal Mint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Coincraft’s 2000 Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins 1066 to Date. London: Coincraft, 1999.
Colgan, Edward. For Want of Good Money: The Story of Ireland’s Coinage. Wicklow, Ireland: Wordwell, 2003.
Collin, B. "Architecture and Production in the French Mints during the 17th and 18th Centuries." In Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. 3, RNS Special Publication 24, edited by M. M. Archibald and M. R. Cowell, 154–166. London: Royal Numismatic Society, 1993.
Cooper, Denis R. The Art and Craft of Coin Making: A History of Minting Technology. London: Spink, 1988.
Craig, John. The Mint: A History ofthe London Mint from A.D. 287 to 19481. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953.
Crosby, Sylvester S. The Early Coins of America. Reprint, New York: Sanford J. Durst, 1983.
Danforth, Brian J. "St. Patrick Coinage" The Colonial Newsletter (December 2002).
——. "St. Patrick Coinage Revisited" The Colonial Newsletter (April 2005).
Dolley, Michael, Medieval Anglo-Irish Coins. London: Seaby, 1972.
Dolley, Michael and Margaret Warhurst. "New Evidence for the Date of the So-called ‘St. Patrick’s’ Halfpence and Farthings." Irish Numismatics (September—October 1977): 161–163.
Dunsterville, Thomas. A Declaration Concerning State-Farthings. London, 1654.
Dykes, D. W. "The Anglo-Irish Coinage of Edward III." British Numismatic Journal 46 (1976): 44–50.
Farquhar, Helen. "Nicholas Briot and the Civil War." Numismatic Chronicle (1914): 169.
Feavearyear, Albert. The Pound Sterling: A History of English Money. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963.
Finn, Patrick. Irish Coin Values: A Concise Priced Catalogue. London: Spink, 1979.
Forrer, Leonard S., Biographical Dictionary of Medallists: Coin, Gem, and Seal-engravers, Mint-masters &c, Ancient and Modern, with References to their Works B.C. 500–A.D. 8 vols. London: Spink, 1902–1930.
Frances, Philip, ed. John Evelyn’s Diary. London: The Folio Society, 1963.
Gallagher, Colm. "The Irish Copper Coinage 1660–1700; Notes Towards a History." Numismatic Society of Ireland Occasional Papers 26 (1983): 21–39.
Gasper, Peter P. "Simon’s Cromwell Dies in the Royal Mint Museum and Blondeau’s Method for the Production of Lettered Edges." British Numismatic Journal 46 (1976): 62.
Green, M.A.E., ed. Calendar of State Papers1: Domestic Series. London: Longman, 1858.
Hamilton, W. R. "Blondeau’s Proposal for Reforming the Coinage of England." Numismatic Chronicle (1838–1839): 165–180.
Henfrey, Henry W. Numismata Cromwelliana: or, the Medallic History of Cromwell. London, J.R. Smith, 1877.
Hening, William Waller, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619. 13 vols. New York: Bartow, 1823.
Hocking1, W J., "Simon’s dies in the Royal Mint Museum, with Some Notes on the Early History of Coinage by Machine." Numismatic Chronicle (1909): 56–118.
Hodder, Michael. "Cecil Calvert’s Coinage for Maryland: A Study in History and Law." The Colonial Newsletter 93 (February 1993): 1360–1362.
Hoover, Oliver D. "A Note on the Typology of the St. Patrick Coinage in its Restoration Context." American Journal of Numismatics 16–17 (2004–2005): 185–204.
Jones, Mark. A Catalogue of French Medals in the British Museum. vol 2. London: British Museum, 1988.
Jordan, Louis. John Hull, the Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage. Hanover: Colonial Coin Collectors Club, 2002.
——. "Lord Baltimore Coinage and Daily Exchange in Early Maryland." The Colonial Newsletter 126 (August/December 2004): 2651–2768.
By the King: A Proclamation For Making Current His Majesties Farthings & Half-pence. London, 1672.
Latham, Robert and William Matthews, eds. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. 11 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971–1983.
Lessen, Marvin. "Notes on Simon’s Pattern (Petition) Crown of Charles II." British Numismatic Journal 75 (2005): 91–112.
Lindsay, John, A View of the Coinage of Scotland, with copious tables, lists, and descriptions, and extracts from acts of Parliment; and an account of numerous hoards of parcels of coins discovered in Scotland, and of Scottish coins found in Ireland. Cork: Printed by Messrs. Bolster, 1839.
Linecar, H. W. A. British Coin Designs & Designers. London: G. Bell, 1977.
Macalister, R. A. S. "A Catalogue of the Irish Traders’ Tokens in the Collection of the Royal Irish Academy." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 40 (1931): Section C.
Mahaffy, Robert P. Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland. London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1908.
Manville, Harrington E. Review of "St. Patrick Coinage Revisited" by Brian J. Danforth. British Numismatic Journal 72 (2003): 213–216.
Mazerolle, Fernand. Jean Varin: Conducteur de la monnaie du Moulin tailleur général des monnaies, controleur général des poingons et effigies. Paris: Bourgey, 1932.
Mitchiner, Michael and Anne Skinner. "English Tokens, c. 1425 to 1672." British Numismatic Journal 54 (1984): 86–163.
Mossman, Philip L. Money of the American Colonies and Confederation. New York: American Numismatic Society, 1993.
——. "A Second Errata to Money of the American Colonies and Confederation." The Colonial Newsletter 130 (April 2006): 2967— 2982.
Lord Mountmorres. The History of the Principlal Transactions of the Irish Parliament from the year 1634 to 1666. London: T. Cadell, 1792.
Nathanson, Alan J. Thomas Simon: His Life and Work 1618–1665. London: Seaby, 1975.
Nelson, Philip. The Coinage of Ireland in Copper, Tin, and Pewter, 1460–1826. Liverpool: W M. Murphy, 1905.
Noble, Mark, Two Dissertations, upon the Mint and Coins, of the Episcopal-Palatine of Durham. Birmingham: Pearson and Rollason, 1780.
Peck, C. Wilson. English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum 1558–1958. 2nd ed. London: The British Museum, 1964.
Petty, William. The Political Anatomy of Ireland. London: Robert Clavel, 1691.
Ruding, Rogers. Annals of the Coinage of Britain and its Dependencies from the Earliest Period to the End of the Fiftieth Year of the Reign of King George III. London: No Publisher,1840.
Salter, H. E., Surveys and Tokens. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923.
Samsbury, W Noel, ed. Calendar of State Papers: Colonial Series America and West Indies. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1880.
Seaby, Peter and P. . Frank Purvey. Coins of England and the United Kingdom. 16th ed. London: Seaby, 1978.
Seaby1, W. A. "A St. Patrick Halfpenny of John De Courci." British Numismatic Journal 29.1 (1958): 87–90.
Sellwood, David. "The Trial of Nicholas Briot." British Numismatic Journal 56 (1986): 108–132.
Shane, Leo. "St. Patrick Coinage Discovery." The Colonial Newsletter (August 2003): 2494.
Sharman, Robert. "St. Patrick for Ireland Token." Irish Numismatics (May–June, 1980): 109.
Sharpe, John. Archbishop Sharpe’s observations on the coinage of England. London: No Publisher, 1699.
Simon, James, Simon’s Essay on Irish Coins and Currency of Foreign Monies in Ireland. 2nd ed. Dublin: G. A. Procter, 1810.
Smith, Aquilla. "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s." Proceedings and Transactions of the Kilkenny and South-eastern Archaeological Society (1854).
——."The Origin of Mark Newby Coppers." American Journal of Numismatics 7 (October, 1872): 9, 25.
Snelling, Thomas. Miscellaneous Views of the Coins Struck by English Princes in France Struck Abroad in Imitation of English. London: T. Snelling, 1769.
Sobin1, George. The Silver Crowns of France 1641–1973. Teaneck, NJ: Margolis, 1974.
Thompson, R. H. "Central or Local Production of Seventeenth-Century Tokens" British Numismatic Journal 59 (1990): 198–211.
——. "Mechanization at the 17th Century London Mint: The Testimony of Tokens." In Metallurgy in Numismatics, vol. 3, RNS Special Publication 24, edited by M. M. Archibald and M. R. Cowell, 198— 211. London: Royal Numismatic Society, 1993.
Vertue, George, Medals, Coins, Great-Seals, Impressions, From the Elaborate Works of Thomas Simon. London: J. Nichols, 1753.
Violet, Thomas. A Discoverie to the Commons of England, HOW THEY HAVE BEEN Cheated of almost all the Gold and Silver Coin of this Nation. London: WB. 1651.
——. A Most Exact Letter sent From a judicious Gentleman to his Friend in London. London: No Publisher, 1653.
——.Mysteries and Secrets of Trade and Mint. London: William Du-Gard, 1653.
——. The Answer of the Corporation of Moniers. London: Corporation of Moniers, 1653.
Williamson, George C., ed. Trade Tokens: Issued in Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland. 2 vols. London: E. Stock, 1889.

End Notes

1
James Simon, Simons Essay on Irish Coins and Currency of Foreign Monies in Ireland (Dublin, 2nd ed., 1810), 47–48.
2
Michael Dolley and Margaret Warhurst, "New Evidence for the Date of the So-called ‘St. Patrick’s’ Halfpence and Farthings," Irish Numismatics (September-October, 1977): 161— 163; John Sharpe, Archbishop Sharpe's observations on the coinage of England (London, 1699), 73; Aquilla Smith, "On the Copper Coin Commonly Called St. Patrick’s," Proceedings and Transactions of the Kilkenny and South-eastern Archaeological Society (1854): 1; Oliver D. Hoover, "A Note on the Typology of the St. Patrick Coinage in its Restoration Context," American Journal of Numismatics 16–17 (2004–2005): 157–175; Brian J. Danforth, "St. Patrick Coinage," The Colonial Newsletter 121 (December 2002): 2371–2402.

Coinage in the English Colonies of North America to 1660

Louis E. Jordan

Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, New York

November 11, 2006

© 2009 The American Numismatic Society

Introduction

The varieties and uses of coinage and coin substitutes in the English colonies of seventeenth century North America is a complex topic.1 The most frequently cited reference on this subject is a 300-page monograph from 1934 by Curtis Putnam Nettels, The Money Supply of the American Colonies before 1720. However, this work is somewhat more limited in scope than the title implies. The first sentence in chapter one begins with the English acquisition of Jamaica in 1655, and by the third paragraph moves into the 1680s. The remainder of the text almost exclusively concentrates on 16801720, a seminal era in the transformation of the colonial money supply. In this paper I shall focus on the earlier period of colonial occupation up to 1660, with a few concluding comments regarding the decade of the 1660s.

Evidence regarding the use of money in colonial America for the period before the opening of the Massachusetts Bay Mint in 1652 is sparse and it is primarily based on anecdotal descriptions of coin recoveries and occasional references in period documents. Many numismatic surveys of the colonial period overlook this material, briefly discussing the Somer Islands Hogge Money emission of 1616 along with providing a few general comments on wampum, tobacco and other commodity monies, before turning their attention to the Boston Mint. However, over the past quarter-century a significant number of controlled archaeological excavations of early English settlements have provided us with many newly recovered artifacts, including coins, which can help us reinterpret the fragmentary written record and thus clarify our knowledge of the earliest periods of colonization.2 In order to truly appreciate the nature and function of money in colonial America we must understand the economic environment of the early colonial plantations and the various roles performed by money and money substitutes in developing those economies during the formative initial decades of settlement.

Early English New World settlements were private enterprises financed by either a proprietor or group of investors who had successfully obtained a charter to some land and wanted to make a profit. The investors financed an initial voyage to secure the land and establish a colony. The expedition typically included a few stockholders along with some artisans and a number of laborers. All of these settlers hoped to better their economic status, although some groups also had a religious agenda, like the Pilgrim Separatists in Plymouth, the Puritan reformers at Massachusetts Bay or the Maryland Catholics. Colonists were expected to transform the wilderness into farms, fisheries and fur-trading posts that would yield a profit both for them and for the investors back in England. The early years of colonization were always difficult. The plantation at Jamestown, Virginia, founded on May 14, 1607, was almost completely decimated by starvation and disease by the end of the first year, while its sister settlement to the north, Popham Colony at Fort Saint George on the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine, established on August 19, 1607, did not survive beyond the fall of 1608.3

End Notes

1
This essay is limited to a discussion of the early English plantations, thus New Netherland, New Sweden and other non-English settlements along the North Atlantic coastline have been excluded, while French outposts are only mentioned insofar as they directly influenced English colonies. The inclusion of the Dutch and the French colonial economies would require far more research than I could conduct in the time available. See below at footnote 131 for a preliminary draft of a study I am writing on wampum, beaver and other money substitutes in New Netherland. Additionally, although Mexico is located in North America, a study of the Spanish-American coinage of Mexico is a separate area that is more properly treated along with coin emissions from the Spanish colonies of Central and South America. I have restricted my remarks in this area to the influence of Spanish-American cobs on English settlements.
2
For an extremely useful 121-page bibliographical guide to archaeological literature, see Henry M. Miller et al., eds. The Archaeology of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century British Colonization in the Caribbean, United States, and Canada (Tucson, Arizona, 1996). This can be updated by the bibliographies to the essays in The English in America 1497–1696, a special issue of the journal Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003), published by the Colony of Avalon Foundation in Ferryland, Newfoundland.
3
William M. Kelso, Jamestown: The Buried Truth (Charlottesville, 2006), 1119 for a recent discussion of the initial year at Jamestown; for Popham Colony see, Jeffrey, P Brain, "Popham: The First English Colony in New England," Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 8798. In an e-mail of May 30, 2006, Jeffrey Brain informed me that no coins or tokens have been recovered at the Popham Colony excavation. Updates on the excavation are available on the web see, Jeffrey P Brain and the staff of the Popham Project at http:// www.pophamcolony.org/ (last accessed November 24, 2006). Both Jamestown and Popham Colony were subsidiaries of the Virginia Company, which was divided into two independent investor groups. One of these groups consisted of a joint stock company of London adventurers, often called the London Company, who were authorized to colonize America from Cape Fear, North Carolina, up to Port Chester, Long Island. The charter also authorized a second joint stock company of adventurers from the western county towns of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, called the Plymouth Company, to colonize the area from the mouth of the Potomac River up to Deer Island. This was expressed in the charter as giving the London Company from the 34th to the 41st parallel and the Plymouth Company from the 38th to the 45th parallel. There was significant overlapping territory, consisting of the area occupied by present day Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and part of New York, which was open to either company as long as they did not encroach within 100 miles of a settlement by the other company. Clearly this was done to stimulate competition between the two companies to quickly settle these unclaimed lands. The first charter of the Virginia Company, of April 10, 1606, also allowed the company, and thus allowed each of the two divisions of the company, the privilege of minting coins, stating, "And that they shall, or lawfully may, establish and cause to be made a Coin, to pass current there between the people of those several Colonies, for the more Ease of Traffick and Bargaining between and amongst them and the Natives there, of such Metal, and in such Manner and Form, as the said several Councils there shall limit and appoint." William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619, (New York, 1823; reprint, Charlottesville, 1969), vol. 1, 62, article 10.

Somer Islands Hogge Money

A rather unusual set of circumstances occurred in Bermuda, then called the Somer Islands, during its initial colonization. The land survey of the main island was delayed for several years, which meant individual farm plots could not be assigned as quickly as was the case at other plantations. Therefore, a large portion of the population remained in St. George’s Town, the port of arrival, much longer than anticipated. These colonists had no farmland and thus were unable to homestead. Their situation looked bleak for they had counted on the farmland both to produce food to sustain themselves and to grow a cash crop that could be sold, affording them a means to purchase clothes, manufactured goods and other imported provisions necessary for survival in the American wilderness. Further, in addition to the problems related to the surplus population in St. George’s Town, the English investors wanted to attract even more settlers to Bermuda, so that there would be enough farmers to cultivate the entire "Maine" island once the survey was completed. Therefore, during this interim period, in order to retain the original colonists and to attract others, the Bermuda Company offered to supply provisions and clothing to settlers, along with some payment, in return for work on municipal projects and company ventures.4

According to the Bermuda Company plan, under the supervision of the governor, some colonists would spend time working on company owned communal farms growing grain and other basic foodstuffs, with the harvest distributed throughout the population. Further, other colonists would participate in company sponsored whaling and fishing expeditions, timber harvests and cash crop production, with the marketable goods from these enterprises sent to England and sold. Profits would be divided between the Bermuda Company shareholders and the colonists. The money from the profits that were owed to the colonists would be used to purchase supplies that would be shipped to St. George’s Town and then distributed to the settlers from the company storehouse, based on the number of work credits each participating settler had accumulated.

Investors realized this scheme would require the colonists to wait several months for any remuneration. Marketable goods had to be shipped from Bermuda to London and sold, then the supplies purchased from the profits had to be shipped from London to St. George’s Town before the colonists would see any return. It was understood several colonists would prefer a weekly wage for their labor rather than the promise of future profits. Thus, it was deemed necessary that a supply of surrogate coinage be delivered to the islands for this purpose. Therefore, as authorized in their charter, the investors in England produced tokens for use in the colony, adapting the model of the farm tokens used throughout the English countryside, and, as we shall see below, modifying the system used in Jamestown about a decade earlier by their parent organization, the Virginia Company. When Daniel Tucker was appointed governor of Bermuda in 1616, the token coinage was sent to the island from England in the form of Somer Islands Hogge Money shillings (Pl. 1, 1), sixpences (Pl. 1, 2), threepences, and twopences. The coins had no intrinsic value and therefore were not negotiable outside the colony. They were simply a local expedient to be used to pay workers and could be redeemed at face value for merchandise in the company store. Once the land survey was completed in 1619, and the boundaries were plotted, the colonists immediately settled on the farms and planted to- bacco, which had a negotiable value in international trade and thus quickly replaced Hogge Money as the standard of exchange.5

End Notes

4
The first governor of the islands, Richard Moore, with a contingent of sixty settlers, arrived in St. George’s Harbour on the afternoon of July 11, 1612, under the auspices of the London office of the Virginia Company. The London shareholders quickly realized it would be more efficient for the administration of the Virginia Company to distinguish this subsidiary venture from the Jamestown Plantation. Consequently, in November of 1612, a group of 118 members of the Virginia Company purchased the rights to the Somer Islands from their fellow Virginia Company stockholders for £2,000, effectively making the new plantation a separate entity within the Virginia Company.
5
For a more complete explanation of the events briefly summarized here see, Louis Jordan, "Somer Islands ‘Hogge Money’ of 1616: The Historical Context," The Colonial Newsletter 123 (August 2003): 24652493. I have not had an opportunity to read Mark A. Sportack, "Myths and Mysteries of the Somers’ Ilands Hoge Money," in Richard G. Doty and John M. Kleeberg, eds., Money of the Caribbean, Coinage of the Americas Conference, held at the American Numismatic Society December 4, 1999, Proceedings no. 15 (New York: American Numismatic Society, 2006), 21115, because it appeared as this paper was being submitted for publication. Sportack’s paper predates my 2003 article by several years, but was not available in print until early 2007. Almost all recoveries of Hogge Money derive from Bermuda, although it was announced in the Spink Coin Newsletter of June 2005, that a well-preserved sixpence with some original silvering was recently located by a metal detectorist on the Isle of Wight; this issue is archived at http://www.spink.com/news/ newsletters/2005/200506coin_news.asp (last accessed December 20, 2006). Subsequently, the item was offered in the Spink auction catalogue of June 30, 2005, where it was reported the coin had been dug up as a single find in a field on the west end of the island (the Yarmouth/Totland side), Spink & Son, Thursday, 30 June 2005, sale 5010, 24, lot 300 and online at http://www.spink.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=5010+++++300+&refn o=+8077645 (last accessed December 20, 2006). There is no evidence suggesting how the sixpence ended up at that location. Possibly the coin originally arrived via Cowes Harbour at the north end of the island, the location of the English customs house used by ships that had an international destination. All outgoing and incoming vessels were required to stop at one of the customs houses (the customs offices located at Cowes, Portsmouth, and Bristol were the most common exit and entry inspection ports for ships heading to or returning from America). The Hogge Money sixpence may have been lost during a customs inspection stopover, although there is no way to know for sure how the token ended up on the island. Since the token retains some original silvering it is possible the specimen was lost while on its initial voyage to America, before entering circulation, or possibly, the recently minted token arrived in a pocket of a sailor or settler returning to England from Bermuda soon after the tokens were emitted. Also, during the 1950s a completely smooth copper disk lacking any surface impression was recovered at Fort La Tour, New Brunswick. In 1957, a staff member of the ANS tentatively identified this specimen as a Somer Islands Hogge Money shilling based solely on the diameter of the disk, see Norman Forthum Barka, "Historic Sites Archaeology at Portland Point, New Brunswick, Canada: 1631—c. 1850 A.D." (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1965), 318. This tentative and highly questionable attribution of the La Tour copper disk certainly needs further investigation and verification beyond the diameter measurement. It cannot be used as evidence that Hogge Money circulated in Canada and at this point should not even be taken as proof that a specimen of Hogge Money made its way to New Brunswick. Also, the recovery of a sixpence on the Isle of Wight does not necessarily imply the circulation Hogge Money tokens outside of Bermuda.

Money in the English Colonies of Mainland North America to ca. 1640

During the early decades of English colonization, several plantations actually had some coinage available for local trade, although contemporary sources typically comment that the money supply was minimal. Archaeological recoveries are primarily smaller denomination coins of a shilling or less in value and indicate that half or more of the available coinage was English, with a number of foreign coins and tokens added to the mix, including a few rather exotic items from distant lands.6 However, it should be noted that some of the more prevalent foreign items, such as Nuremberg jetons, freely circulated in England at that time and are regularly recovered by metal detectorists throughout England.7 In many ways the mix of coinage in early colonial settlements would not seem overly odd to a contemporary Englishman.

In England, for almost 120 years, from the accession of Queen Mary in 1553 until the first regal copper issues of Charles II in 1672, small change at a farthing value was not supplied by the crown but was primarily issued by merchants, or was privately produced under a royal patent. Indeed, even silver halfpence were not commonly encountered.8 These denominations, particularly the farthing, were locally produced in lead and later in copper at weights that had a far lower intrinsic value than face value. Englishmen of the period regularly accepted and traded greatly overvalued tokens as their small change.

Jetons, Tokens and Foreign Coppers

Jetons and tokens were used for a variety of purposes in the New World. Occasionally, they served for limited periods as surrogates for shillings, sixpence and other silver denominations, as we have already encountered with the Hogge Money tokens. However, in most situations it appears copper and brass jetons and tokens, and possibly even some lead specimens, were employed along with any available foreign monetary coppers, to pass as small change of a penny, halfpenny, or farthing.9 Copper jetons were additionally used as Indian trade items and possibly also served as counters for illiterate tradesmen, as was the case in Elizabethan and early Stuart England. At the short-lived colony of Roanoke, North Carolina, founded in 1585, three Hans Schultes Nuremberg copper jetons have been recovered, of which one is holed, suggesting that it was suspended, probably on a necklace. An identical jeton was found at an Indian site forty miles away at Buxton, near Cape Hatteras.10 In Jamestown at James Fort, which was erected in 1607 but abandoned by 1624,11 over one hundred copper and brass jetons have been recovered in the context of structure 165, identified as the original storehouse where, according to Captain John Smith, the Cape merchants distributed supplies during the years 1607–1610,12 several additional specimens were recovered from other locations within the fort. It is thought that these jetons served as a token coinage, a precursor to the Somer Islands Hogge Money tokens of 1616 and, additionally, the jetons may have served as copper ornaments traded to the Indians. A crewman on the Sea Venture, named R. Rich, who was at James Fort during the summer of 1610, mentioned that"copper coin" was used in the colony. He further explained that anyone planning to return to London could turn over his coppers to the governor, who then would give the individual a receipt that could be exchanged for cash at the treasurer’s office of the Virginia Company in London.13 Most likely the recovered jetons are the "copper coin" mentioned by Rich. One of the recovered jetons is a Hans Schultes product (Pl. 1, 3), with the vast majority of the specimens being the cruciform orb varieties of Hanns Krauwinckel II, (master in Nuremberg, Germany, 1586–1635) along with a few examples from his other series, including a jeton depicting David from his biblical series and another variety attributed to Krauwinckel, that imitates a jeton from Dordrecht (Pl. 1, 4–6).14 Other James Fort recoveries in this category include two Groningen City Council jetons dating 1583 and 1590,15 another from France attributable to the reign of Henry III,16 as well as two lead "phoenix" medals of Elizabeth I, possibly originally issued as a memorial commemorative after her death in 1603 (Pl. 1, 7).17 At Martin’s Hundred, three Nuremberg jetons of Hanns Krauwinckel II have been unearthed in an archaeological context dating to 1620–1622 and a fourth was recovered in a context of ca. 1623–1640.18 Krauwinckel tokens have been found as far north as Ferryland, Newfoundland, and a holed specimen was located at a trading post in Pemaquid, Maine.19

In Virginia, recoveries also include some English tokens. In addition to the two phoenix medals of Elizabeth I, just mentioned, five examples of a copper English token or medalet displaying an intertwined rose and thistle with a crown above have been unearthed. This copper clearly represents the unification of England and Scotland under James I, although the original function of the copper has not been determined. It has been tentatively, and probably incorrectly, identified as a touch piece that was handed out at royal ceremonies. One specimen has been recovered at the Governor’s Land settlement in Jamestown, another example of this copper was uncovered at Jamestown during excavations conducted by the National Park Service. Recently, two additional specimens have been found at James Fort, while a fifth example was unearthed about 25 miles away at the Flowerdew Hundred excavation.20 It seems that these medalets were traded to Indians, because a necklace containing eighteen holed specimens of this same variety was recovered from a contemporary Indian burial site about 150 miles up the Potomac River from Jamestown, on the south side of the Piscataway Creek in Maryland.21

In Jamestown and other settlements, there is also evidence of the use of royal patent farthings. At Martin’s Hundred two Harington farthings were uncovered in an area that was only inhabited during 1620–1622 (Pl. 1, 8).22 At James Fort, both a Harington and a "rose" farthing have been unearthed, while a "rose" farthing was recovered during the 1954–1956 excavation of Jamestown (Pl. 1, 9).23 In June of 1636, before returning from London to Virginia as the reinstated Colonial Governor, John Harvey petitioned James I for a supply of patent farthings because there was "little or no money in the colony." He explained that the coins were needed in order to pay day laborers throughout the year during the months before the tobacco crop was ready in late autumn.24 We do not know if this request met with any success, but it is clear that some patent farthings did eventually end up in Virginia. In 1955, two Richmond and one Maltravers farthings were unearthed at "the Chesapean Site" at Virginia Beach in a context datable to 1645–1665 (Pl. 1, 10–11); also, a "rose" farthing was recovered at the River Creek site in York County, Virginia, in a context of ca. 1650–1680.25 More recently, two clay pots have been discovered in Yorktown, Virginia, one containing about 80 farthings and the other 100 farthings. These two hoards included Richmond, Maltravers, Lennox (Pl. 1, 12) and "rose" farthings, with the "rose" farthings (produced in the 1640s) predominating. There were also two silver pennies of Charles I from ca. 1644 and a Scottish turner dated 1663 in the hoards, suggesting the caches were buried after ca. 1665 (Pl. 1, 13–14).26 Patent farthings have also been recovered in the excavations at St. Mary’s City in Maryland.27 Furthermore, in 1972, a Charles I Richmond "round" farthing was uncovered during the excavation of the site of the Isaac Allerton residence in Kingston, Massachusetts (Pl. 1, 15).28 Also, four patent farthings have been recovered from the RM site, on the Eel River at Plymouth Plantation, three of the specimens appear to be Richmond issues of 1625–1634, while one smaller and very corroded example may be a "rose" farthing of 1635–1644.29 The Allerton and RM sites are the two earliest archaeological excavations associated with Plymouth Plantation.30 In this context it is interesting to learn that in March of 1635, the Massachusetts Bay General Court ordered that brass patent farthings would no longer be current but rather musket balls would serve as farthings.31 The Puritans considered these farthings to be a symbol of royal power and privilege and thus discouraged their use.32 However, it seems that patent farthings were sporadically encountered, for a "rose" farthing was recovered at the Clarke and Lake fur trading post at the mouth of the Kennebec River, an establishment run by two Boston merchants during the third quarter of the century. An unspecified variety of Charles I patent farthing was found along with some Pine Tree coins and other artifacts in Salem, Massachusetts, during the mid-nineteenth century.33

Throughout the northern settlements we find the French double tournois, equal to two deniers or 0.15d sterling, has been recovered in some quantity (Pl. 2, 16). To date at least nine doubles tournois have been unearthed at the English settlement in Ferryland, Newfoundland, with another specimen uncovered at Cupers Cove, the initial English outpost in Newfoundland, about fifty miles to the north of Ferryland. Further, eight doubles tournois have been reported from the early occupation of Champlain’s fortified settlement at Quebec City. An additional five were unearthed at the French trading post of Fort La Tour, New Brunswick, and two have been found at Fort Pentagoet (Pentagoet, Maine).34 It is interesting to note that the double tournois also circulated in Scotland. Under King James VI (James I of England) it was replaced by the turner, (Pl. 2, 17) which took its name and its original design from the tournois.35 A Scottish turner of 1623 has been unearthed in a refuse pit at Governor’s Land in Jamestown, Virginia.36 Along with the French and Scottish coppers, we also find coppers originally produced at the Tower mint for circulation in Ireland. Six Irish copper pennies and one halfpenny from the reign of Queen Elizabeth (Pl. 2, 18–19), emitted in 1601 and 1602, have been recovered at James Fort.37

Among other coppers unearthed in an early colonial context are two eight-maravedis and one four-maravedis coppers from Spain (Pl. 2, 20–21) found in Ferryland and a Swedish copper öre of Queen Christina (Pl. 2, 22), dated 1639, uncovered at Fort La Tour, New Brunswick .38 At Saint Mary’s City, Maryland, the most unusual recovery to date is a Venetian copper soldo minted for use in its Adriatic colonies (Pl. 2, 23).39 However this is topped by what may be the most exotic copper coin find of the early colonial period, from the trading post at the mouth of the Pentagoet River, archaeologists unearthed a copper dam that was minted at the port city of Surat, India (Pl. 2, 24).40

Elsewhere I have discussed the recently discovered lead DK tokens (Pl. 2, 25), the first coins produced in the English colonies of North America. Dating to the 1640s, these items were issued by David Kirke in Ferryland and apparently were emitted in various denominations.41 Finally, it should be mentioned that several unidentified and unmarked thin lead disks of between 10 and 21mm in diameter have been recovered from the RM site at Plymouth. These items were found along with a group of clearly identified lead cloth seals, including one seal displaying the City of London coat of arms. Since none of the unmarked lead disks was holed the Plimoth Plantation archaeological staff have segregated them from the lead cloth seals. These unmarked lead disks have occasionally been loosely referred to, in passing, as tokens, although no such suggestion has been made in published discussions of the artifacts. Many of these disks were recovered in pairs having precisely the same diameters; also, one specimen has a tab protRuding from the rim, suggesting that the artifacts may have been lead cloth seals. At present the items await further analysis by a cloth seal specialist to determine if they are lead seal remnants.42

End Notes
8
The last silver small change coins were the highly debased issues of the third coinage (15501553) of Edward VI, who died in July 1553. Silver farthing production was terminated following this issue, while silver halfpenny emissions were suspended for thirty years; indeed, the Edward VI halfpenny was so debased, it often passed as a farthing. The silver halfpenny was finally reintroduced in Elizabeth’s fifth (15821600) and sixth (16011602) issues and was continued in the three issues of James I. Charles I minted some halfpennies at the tower mint and a few at Aberystwyth with the final silver halfpenny issued during the Commonwealth. Regal copper farthings and halfpence were first minted in 1672, by Charles II; for details see Jordan, "DK Token," 30333042.
9
Jetons, tokens, foreign monetary coppers and even medalets, although numismatically distinct genera, were often used for a variety of interrelated functions during the seventeenth century, due to the dearth of small change. To clarify the technical distinctions for archaeologists and historians reading this essay, the Oxford English Dictionary defines a jeton as, "a counter in casting up accounts and in card-playing;" a token as, "a stamped piece of metal, often having the general appearance of a coin, issued as a medium of exchange by a private person or company, who engage to take it back at its nominal value, giving goods or legal currency for it;" while a medalet is, "a small medal, usually one smaller than an inch or 25mm in diameter." [A medal is defined in numismatics as having obverse and reverse images that are oriented in the same direction (head to head), while on a coin or token the reverse is oriented in the opposite direction (head to tail), usually called a 180° reverse die rotation.] I use foreign monetary coppers to refer to government authorized small change coinage as opposed to private token issues. The English did not produce regal copper coins during this era, so monetary coppers were French, Spanish, Swedish, Venetian, and other government issued copper coins used by English settlers that were found at colonial sites. However, it should be noted that even the distinction between the issuing agencies for coins and tokens (i.e., government or private issues), was not fully discrete during this era. For example, the regal patent farthings of the early Stuarts were issued privately but under a patent from the crown and were to trade as authorized coinage in accordance with several royal promulgations. The distinctions in the definitions of jeton, token and copper coin are useful for understanding the primary or original purpose of a specific product, but should not be considered exclusive, since the uses of the items shifted as necessity dictated. Also, regarding the term token, all small change coppers, both private and government authorized issues are tokens in the sense that the face or nominal value is far higher than the intrinsic value of the copper (i.e., they are all lightweight issues with a token or symbolic value that does not correspond to the actual intrinsic value of the metal); this is also true for jetons used as negotiable change. In numismatic discussions, the term "coppers" frequently refers to all circulating small change in copper or brass including tokens, jetons, government issue coppers, and illegal counterfeits that circulated as money.
10
Ivor Noël Hume, The Virginia Adventure, Roanoke to James Towne: An Archaeological and Historical Odyssey (New York, 1994), 38.
11
On the dating of James Fort see Kelso, Jamestown, 14–27.
12
Structure 165, called the "longhouse," had various functions over time, probably serving as a storehouse, blockhouse, rubbish heap, workshop, and later converted into a factory. The top foot of soil in that area was plowed up as farmland at some later period, thus disturbing the chronological sequencing of the soil layers, but the foundation of the structure was below the plow zone and remained intact. The jetons were recovered both from the plow zone and were also imbedded into the clay floor of structure 165. This long rectangular structure (72 feet x 17 feet) was attached to the end of a fifty-foot palisade, thus extending the fort. At the west end, one portion of this three or four room structure is thought to have served as a storehouse because that area included a waterproof timber and clay lined cellar. Kelso has determined the cellar was used during the first three years of the colony, from 1607–1610, when it seems the walls of the structure collapsed into the cellar (a Nuremberg jeton of 1580 and an Elizabeth sixpence of 1573 were among the recovered items that had been imbedded into the cellar sub-floor). The remaining hole was used as a garbage pit, for it contains over 37,000 domestic, industrial and military artifacts dating to 1610 or earlier. Most likely the use of the cellar as a garbage pit represents an event from the summer of 1610, when Lord De La Warre brought fresh troops to Jamestown. In a letter of July 7, 1610, De La Warre stated that he "cleaned the town" which probably meant clearing the litter and debris throughout the settlement and repairing the buildings. While the section of the building with the cellar was at the southern end of the structure, at the northern end was a workshop with a hearth, which is where about one hundred jetons and a 1607 James i silver halfpenny were located. Kelso, Jamestown, states that the hearth shows evidence of two periods of construction, suggesting the room was originally used by the Cape merchants from 1607–1610 and later turned into a distillery. Smith mentions this structure in his Generali Historie of Virginia when discussing his election as head of the colony on September 10, 1608, see, John Smith, The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580–1631), ed. Philip L. Barbour, (Williamsburg, 1986), vol. 2, 180; it is also mentioned in his Proceedings, Smith, The Complete Works, vol. 1, 233. Smith mentions the longhouse again in discussing Jamestown up to the year 1611, where he stated that one building was "three large store houses joined together in length," Smith, The Complete Works, vol. 2, 242. On the archaeology of this structure see Kelso and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery, 54–67, which is revised and updated in the book published two years later, Kelso, Jamestown , 96–106, with the jetons mentioned on 104–105.
13
R. Rich, possibly Richard Rich or Robert Rich, was a sailor on the Sea Venture, under the command of George Somers, which was wrecked off the coast of Bermuda on July 28, 1609, while transporting settlers and supplies to Virginia. After about a ten-month stay on the Island of St. George constructing two vessels, the Deliverance and the Patience, the passengers and crew set sail on May 10th, arriving at Jamestown on May 21, 1610, with a supply of bacon, pork, turtles and fish from Bermuda. Upon his return to London, Rich composed a poem called News from Virginia , which was probably the "ballad called the last news from Virginia" that was entered for publication at the Stationers’ Hall in London by John Wright on August 16, 1611. In the poem, written to encourage people to emigrate to Virginia, Rich explains that a day laborer was to receive a daily wage as well as a portion of the general profit equal to that of someone who had purchased a share in the Virginia Company, which sold for £12 10s. He then went on to mention that in Virginia payments were made with what he called "copper coins" whose value was assured by the Virginia Company in London. See, Edward Wright Haile, ed., Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony, The First Decade: 1607–1617 (Champlain, 1998): 54 and 372–379 for the text, as well as a discussion identifying the author as Richard Rich; for the identification as Robert Rich, see Vernon A. Ives, ed., The Rich Papers, Letters from Bermuda 1615–1646: Eyewitness Accounts Sent by the Early Colonists to Sir Nathaniel Rich (Toronto, 1984): 389. The relevant verses from R. Rich, News from Virginia, are:
And he that in Virginia / shall copper coin receive / For hire or commodities, / and will the country leave, / Upon delivery of such coin / unto the governor, / Shall by exchange at his return / be by their treasurer / Paid him in London at first sight, / no man shall cause to grieve. / For ‘tis their general will and wish / that every man shall live.
14
The James Fort Hans Schultes token depicting St. Mark as a lion was recently recovered during the excavation of a pit that was originally thought to be a well but is now considered to be a cellar; see the website Historic Jamestowne: Unearthing Americas Birthplace, under "The Dig," update of June 19, 2006, at http://www.historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/ dig_2006_06_19.php (last accessed November 23, 2006). The illustrated jeton is complete, without a hole. On the Krauwinckel jetons (some of which are holed) see, Nicholas M. Luccketti, William M. Kelso and Beverly A. Straube. Field Report 1994; Beverly A. Straube and Nicholas M. Luccketti, 1995 Interim Report (Jamestown, 1996), 8 and 29–30; Nicholas Luccketti and Beverly Straube, 1997 Interim Report on the APVA Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia (Jamestown, 1998), 20–21 with fig. 26; and Nicholas Luccketti and Beverly Straube, 1998 Interim Report on the APVA Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia (Jamestown, 1999): 7 in passim. See also William M. Kelso, Nicholas M. Luccketti and Beverly A. Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery V (Richmond: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1999), fig.10 and William M. Kelso et al., Jamestown Rediscovery VII (Richmond, 2001): 4 and 18, with figs. 4, 15 and 26a; further, some illustrations and discussion of these jetons can be found on the APVA Jamestown Rediscovery website at www.apva.org/ngex/xcoins.html (last accessed October 21, 2006). The website Historic Jamestowne, "The Dig," update of July 22, 2005 at http://www.historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2005_07_22.php (last accessed November 23, 2006), mentions the recovery of a brass Hanns Krauwinckel II biblical series token from James Fort. The item dates to ca. 1590 and depicts David with a harp facing Jonathan with a bow; one side of the jeton is illustrated on the website, showing that it is holed at the top for suspension. This variety is recorded in Michael Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets & Tokens: Vol. 1, The Medieval Period and Nuremberg (London, 1988), 458, items 1628 and 1628a, where it is dated to the 1590s; another similar variety is attributed to Hans Lauffer I (fl. 1607), cited in Mitchiner, Jetons, vol. 1, 482, item 1071; also, the Historic Jamestowne website mentions a recently recovered Krauwinckel cruciform orb jeton (unholed) and a 1613 farthing extracted from a pit; see the dig update for March 31, 2006 at http://www.historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2006_03_31.php (last accessed November 23, 2006) and the update for May 28, 2007 at http://www.historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/ dig_2007_05_28.php (last accessed September 8, 2007). Additionally, Kelso, Jamestown, 57–58, 88, 100 and 103–104 mentions recovered lead tokens and jetons. On the tinned, copper jeton in imitation of a Dordrecht jeton of 1580, attributed to Hanns Krauwinckel II (the specimen is holed), see Luccketti, Kelso and Straube, Field Report 1994: 25 and figure 25 (item on the left) and William M. Kelso, Jamestown Rediscovery II: Search for 1607 James Fort (Jamestown, 1996), 7 with a much better illustration on page 6 as figure 6; this variety is Mitchiner, Jetons, vol. 1, 467, item 1656. Nuremberg jetons were also used in Jamestown after James Fort was abandoned. Cotter illustrates at least seven Nuremberg jetons that were recovered at Jamestown in an archaeological context dating to the mid-seventeenth century during the excavations of 1954–1956. The excavation report discusses two of these finds. See John L. Cotter, Archeological Excavations at Jamestown Colonial National Historical Park and Jamestown National Historic Site, Virginia (Washington, 1958 [1959]), 13 and 141 with photographs of several examples on 191 in the lower portion of plate 89, the jetons are the first three items in row one, items one and three in the second row and items one and three (and possibly the holed and completely effaced copper disk that is item four) from row three. These token finds from mid-seventeenth century Jamestown may relate to the Virginia coinage legislation of 1655, which is discussed below at the end of the section on coin emissions in mid-seventeenth century British America.
15
The brass Groningen City Council token of 1590 is illustrated in William M. Kelso, Nicholas M. Luccketti and Beverly A. Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III (Richmond, 1997), 55, fig. 44. This item is catalogued in Michael Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets & Tokens: Vol. 2, The Low Countries and France (London, 1991), 926, item 2878 as a variety bearing the date 1583 with similar issues dated 1538 and 1590. William M. Kelso and Beverly Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery 1994–2004 (Jamestown, 2004), 67, mentions a Groningen City Council token dating from 1583. Bly Straube has confirmed to me in an e-mail that the Jamestown Rediscovery 1994–2004 citation does indeed refer to a second recently unearthed specimen; there are now two Groningen City Council tokens that have been recovered at James Fort, one dated 1583 and another dated 1590.
16
Luccketti and Straube, 1997 Interim Report: 20–21 and figure 27. This jeton pairs the Conseil du Roi obverse as found in Mitchiner, Jetons, vol. 2, 1017, item 3066, with a reverse bearing the inscription MANET VLTIMA COELO surrounding a central image of three crowns, as listed in Mitchiner, Jetons, vol. 2,1021 under "Henry III: dated regnal jetons not citing a department, item c." This specific variety is not listed. It is possible, but less likely, that this variety may be an unlisted issue of Henry IV (1589–1610); several other Conseil du Roi obverse combinations are listed in Mitchiner, Jetons, vol. 2, 1023, however all of these varieties are dated.
17
The first phoenix medal Jamestown recovery, found in pit 1 (JR1), is APVA item JR1P 22-JR; the second specimen, found in the site plow zone, is item JR42A, 89-JR. The obverse of the medal displays a crowned Tudor double rose with the initial E to the left and R to the right (for Elizabeth Regina) and the rim legend REGINA BEATY (which could be "Regina Beati," Queen of the Blessed; possibly the word "Beati" was lifted from the phrase "Rex et Regina Beati," thus what was meant was "Regina Beata" or Blessed Queen). On the reverse a crowned phoenix with outspread wings and the rim legend SOLA PHENIX MVNDYE, (that is, Sola phoenix mundi, Alone the phoenix of the world) which is adapted from Elizabeth’s accession medal motto, Sola phoenix omnia mundi et Angliae gloria (Alone the phoenix, above all, is the glory of the world and of England). The items have been referred to as tokens, and indeed they are tokens in the sense that they are a sign or symbol of an event, but more properly they are medals or medalets; they are far superior in production quality, as well as in the intricate details of the images and legends, in comparison to Elizabethan era merchant trade tokens. An excellent summary on the phoenix token, with an illustration, is found in Straube and Luccketti, 1995 Interim Report, 43–44 and 53, endnote 12. In this discussion Straube and Luccketti suggested the medal might have been a gaming token or a memorial medal. They also suggest that the "phoenix tokens" may have arrived on the Phoenix, the first resupply ship at Jamestown bringing supplies and 40 new settlers in April, 1608. One problem related to the phoenix medal regards the original date of issue. The attribution of the lead phoenix token to 1603, as a commemorative medal issued at the death of Elizabeth (who died March 24, 1602/3), is found in Michael Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets & Tokens: Vol. 3, British Isles Circa 1558 to 1830 (London: Hawkins, 1998), 1655, where he lists two varieties, differing in size, with Mitchiner variety 4744 made of tin and Mitchiner variety 4745 in pewter. This suggests the lead Jamestown recovery pieces, which have the same images and legends as the Mitchiner varieties, were a less expensive lead reissue. The 1603 dating for the medal is used in William M. Kelso and Bly Straube, "Jamestown Phoenix," Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 57–58, fig. 1 (it is also illustrated in Kelso, Jamestown Rediscovery II: 8, fig. 7). However, in subsequent publications Kelso uses a different dating for the medal and typically refers to it as a token. The earliest reference to a Jamestown specimen of the Elizabeth I phoenix medal was in Luccketti, Kelso and Straube, Field Report 1994: 25 where the item is tentatively identified as a token from "a series of official issues dating to the 1570s." In Kelso, Jamestown Rediscovery II, 7–8, the 1994 field report information is repeated and used by Kelso and Straube in 2004 in Jamestown Rediscovery, 52–53. Kelso, Jamestown, 88, mentions that among the precisely datable James Fort artifacts recovered from pits related to structure 160 (the barracks) are three coins dating from 1590 to 1602, jetons dating as early as 1580 and "Elizabethan lead tokens from the 1670s," but giving no further elaboration except in on page 220 of endnote 30 recognizing the expertise of Bly Straube for the identification of the artifacts discussed. Bly Straube explained to me the phrase "lead tokens of the 1670s" is a reference to the two phoenix medals, previously identified in their 2003 article as datable to 1603. Further, Bly has informed me the attribution of the lead phoenix medals to the 1670s comes from Edward Hawkins, Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the Death of George II (London, 1885; reprint, 1969). Currently, there is no firm evidence supporting either the 1670 dating of Hawkins or the 1603 dating by Mitchiner. At this stage in the research the Mitchiner thesis, suggesting the item was issued as a memorial medal, seems more plausible to me. Since Elizabeth had selected the phoenix as her personal device there was extensive use of phoenix imagery in her published funeral memorials (such as: Thomas Churchyard, Sorrovvfull verses made on [the] death of our most Soueraigne Lady Queen Elizabeth, my Gracious Mistresse [London, 1603?] at the end of his verses; Henry Petowe, in both: H[enry] P[etowe], Elizabetha quasi viuens Eliza’s Funerall. A fewe Aprill drops, showred on the Hearse of dead Eliza. Or The Funerall teares af [sic] a true hearted Subiect (London: Printed by E. Allde for M. Lawe, dwelling, in Paules Church-yard, neere vnto Saint Austens gate, 1603), B3 verso and Henry Petowe, Englands Caesar. His Maiesties most Royall Coronation. Together with the manner of the solemne shewes prepared for the honour of his entry into the Cittie of London. Eliza. her Coronation in Heauen. And Londons sorrow for her visitation (London, 1603), C2 recto, as well as in Anthony Nixon, Elizaes Memoriall. King Iames his arriuall. And Romes Downefall, (London, 1603), B3 verso). The phoenix was used on Elizabeth’s accession and coronation medals (see Mitchiner, Jetons, vol. 3, 1609–1610) and, it seems, in conjunction with its use in her memorial sermons, the phoenix image would also be appropriate for her memorial medals. Furthermore, it seems far more likely that the very well-preserved specimen of the ornately designed lead medal that is illustrated by Kelso and Straube had been issued only a few years before it was lost at Jamestown. Lead is a fairly soft metal so that a lead medal with an intricate design produced some forty years earlier, that is, in the 1670s, would typically display far more surface wear than the specimen recovered at Jamestown.
18
Ivor Noël Hume and Audrey Noël Hume, The Archaeology of Martins Hundred, 2 vols. (Philadelphia and Williamsburg, 2001), vol. 1, 175 and vol 2., 372–374. Three Krauwinckel tokens, artifacts 1, 2 and 4 in the catalogue were recovered from site C, which is the fort at Wolstenholme Towne, constructed ca. 1620 and abandoned after it was destroyed during an Indian attack in 1622 (the tokens are two cruciform orb varieties and one Meliager and Apollo/Diana specimen, which is Mitchiner, Jetons ,vol. 1, 453, item 1608). The other Nuremberg Krauwinckel token (a cruciform orb variety), artifact 3 in the Noël Hume and Noël Hume catalog, was unearthed at site B, the Jackson/Ward homestead dating to ca. 16231640.
19
For Ferryland see Paul S. Berry, "The Numismatic Record of Ferryland," Avalon Chronicles 7 (2002): 64 listing two examples as items 86 and 87; neither specimen is holed. For updates on the Ferryland excavations see the Colony of Avalon Foundation, Colony of Avalon, http:// www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon/default.html and for Pemaquid see Robert L. Bradley and Helen B. Camp, The Forts of Pemaquid, Maine: An Archaeological and Historical Study, (Augusta, 1994), 213 and figure 5.372.
20
See footnote 17 above for references to the two Elizabeth I medals. On the James I copper "touch piece," see Alain Charles Outlaw, Governor's Land: Archaeology of Early Seventeenth-Century Virginia Settlements, (Charlottesville, 1990), 73–76 for the Governor’s Land specimen (Governor’s Land is also known as the "Maine" at Jamestown); and for the James Fort specimens, see Kelso, Luccketti, and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III, 52–53 and 57, n. 71 as well as William M. Kelso and Beverly Straube, 1996 Interim Report on the APVA Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia (Jamestown, 1997), 25, with figure 32 on p. 24 and endnote 42 on p. 32; this text is available as a pdf download at http://www.apva. org/pubs/index.html (last accessed October 21, 2006). Outlaw, Governor's Land, 75. In addition to plating the Governor’s Land specimen Outlaw also illustrates the Flowerdew Hundred example in figure 48, it is the smaller example on the right. I would like to thank Bly Straube for questioning the identification of this copper as a touch piece; most of what follows in this footnote is based on comments she forwarded to me. The copper was identified as a touch piece, dating to the 1630s or 1640s, by staff at the British Museum during the start of the Second World War and was described as such by Alice Ferguson in 1940 (cited in footnote 21 below). Clearly the suggested dating is incorrect because these items have been recovered in an archaeological context that dates no later than 1610, thus the coppers must refer to James I. Further, touch pieces distributed by the king, like Maundy coinage, were typically silver or gold rather than copper. In light of the revised dating and the base metal composition of the token, the original intended function of the token needs to be reexamined; possibly it was produced in conjunction with the accession of James to the English throne.
21
See Alice L. L. Ferguson and T. D. Stewart, "An Ossuary near Piscataway Creek with a Report on the Skeletal Remains," American Antiquity 6 (1940): 13 and pl. V, item C for an illustration of the necklace, also, maps locating the burial site are included as figs. 1 and 2. See footnote 58 below for a contemporary account of an Indian using gold coins to make a necklace in 1636. There are many early Jamestown references to trading copper to Indians. Captain John Smith in his Map of Virginia (1612), states regarding Indian trade, "Their manner of trading is for copper, beades, and such like, for which they give such commodities as they have, as skins, fowle, fish, flesh, and their country corne." Smith, The Complete Works, vol.1, 168. Haile, in his edition of Jamestown narrative accounts dating from 1607–1617 cites over 75 references to copper in his index. See, Haile, Jamestown Narratives, 926. See also Seth Mallios and Shane Emmett, "Demand, Supply, and Elasticity in the Copper Trade at Early Jamestown," The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 2 (January, 2002). They document a significant demand for copper by the Indians during the initial years of colonization leading to a major increase in the supply of copper imported from England. Further, they show that during the period 1610–1620, the copper supply decreased as Indian demand was saturated; both the demand for and the supply of copper, as an Indian trade item, continued to diminish over the period 1620–1650. Additionally, see Straube and Luccketti, 1995 Interim Report, 46–49 on the copper trade with the Indians at Roanoke and Jamestown; on other uses of copper, see Carter C. Hudgins, "Old World Industries and New World Hope: The Industrial Role of Scrap Copper at Jamestown," The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 2 (January 2002). For the use of beads at Jamestown, along with copper, in trading with the Indians, as mentioned in the quote from Smith, see Heather A. Lapham, "More Than A Few Blew Beads’: The Glass and Stone Beads from Jamestown Rediscovery's 1994–1997 Excavations," The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 1 (January 2001) an online e-journal at http://www.apva.org/resource/jjrc/vol1/hltoc.html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
22
Noël Hume and Noël Hume, The Archaeology of Martin's Hundred, vol. 1, 175 and vol. 2, 370–371; also see Ivor Noël Hume, "The Very Caterpillers of This Kingdome: or, Penny Problems in the Private Sector, 1600–1660," in The Scope of Historical Archaeology: Essays in Honor of John L. Cotter, ed. David G. Orr and Daniel G. Crosier (Philadelphia, 1984), 241, fig. 4, and 247. The coins were uncovered at site C, in a construction ditch for the fort at Wolstenholme Towne.
23
See Kelso and Straube, 1996 Interim Report, 22–23, for the well-worn patent farthing located in a plow zone, tentatively identified as a Harington variety; both this poorly preserved example and a very well preserved "rose" farthing, recovered the following year, are described in Kelso, Luccketti and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III, 49. Cotter includes a "rose" farthing in an illustration of coins and jetons recovered during the Jamestown excavations of 1954–1956, however the coin was not identified in the report; see Cotter, Archeological Excavations at Jamestown, 191, lower portion of plate 89, with the farthing being the last coin in the first row.
24
William Noël Sainsbury, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574–1660, Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty’s Public Record Office (London, 1860), 238–239, June 26, 1636, London, letter from Harvey to Secretary of State Francis Windebank; also see Philip Alexander Bruce, Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People Based Upon Original and Contemporaneous Records, (New York, 1895; reprint, 1935), vol. 2, 413 and 500. For Harvey’s commission of April 2, 1636, as the new governor see Sainsbury, Calendar 1574–1660, 232. The request for farthings was made while Harvey was preparing to depart from Portsmouth, England, for Virginia. See Sainsbury, Calendar 1574–1660, 237, for a summary of the instructions to Captain William Smythe from Hampton Court on June 12, 1636, about transporting Harvey to Virginia. A few years earlier, in 1634, Henry Frederick Howard, Lord Maltravers, received the royal patent to produce farthings, and then on March 1, 1636, was granted a 21-year privilege to mint a newer, smaller diameter farthing, which we now call the "rose" farthing. Harvey, in his request of June 1636, was probably hoping to get some of the earlier varieties that would be recalled with the emission of the new "rose" farthings. A few years later, on February 16, 1639, Lord Maltravers was given permission to supply patent farthings to all the English plantations, with the exception of Maryland, where the crown had ceded the authority to make such decisions to Lord Baltimore, see Louis Jordan, "Lord Baltimore Coinage and Daily Exchange in Early Maryland," The Colonial Newsletter 126 (August/ December 2004): 2656–2657. However, even Virginia opposed the mass importation of "rose" farthings. The members of the House of Burgesses understood these patent farthings had a very low intrinsic value in relation to their face value (i.e. they were lightweight). The Burgesses suggested that laborers would not accept such tokens and thus requested a petition be sent to the King requesting £5000 in sterling coins annually be sent to Virginia, but his a request that was denied; see Sainsbury, Calendar 1574–1660, 290, also Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, vol. 2, 500–501 and C. Wilson Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum 1558–1958, 2nd ed. (London, 1970), 46–47. It appears patent farthings were used to some extent as small change in early Virginia, but they never replaced tobacco as the basic unit of exchange.
25
Noël Hume, "The Very Caterpillers of This Kingdome," 247.
26
Thomas Kays, "Yorktown Farthing Caches," The Virginia Numismatist 39.2 (2003): 14–16, explains one hoard of "Eighty odd coins" primarily contained "rose" farthings, minted ca. 1642–1643 but also included the earlier Richmond, Maltravers, and Lennox farthings; the "second hoard of a hundred similar coins" included the 1663 Scottish turner of Charles II. On page 16, Kays illustrates two hammered silver pennies of Charles II, minted about 1644, (these are the Tower mint, portrait / oval shield varieties) which were the only non-copper coins in the two Yorktown hoards. These two hoards probably do not represent tokens that arrived in Virginia during the first decades of colonization. Certainly, they were not brought to Virginia in response to Harvey’s request of 1636, since most of the farthings in the hoards were not minted until 1642–1643. Possibly the hoards represent some small change that was put away in England in 1644, or soon thereafter, during the Civil War (hence the 1644 pennies), and was later brought over to Virginia following the Restoration, probably during the mid–1660s, which may be when the 1663 turner entered the grouping. See the brief discussion on the influx of small change at that time in the final section of this essay under the heading "Small change in the Middle Atlantic and Chesapeake regions after 1660." For other examples of patent farthings recovered in Virginia in an archaeological context datable to this period, see the Virginia Beach and York County finds mentioned in Noël Hume, "The Very Caterpillers of This Kingdome," 247.
27
The Saint Mary’s City coin recoveries have not been published, however, I was allowed to examine several specimens when visiting their archaeological offices in December 2004. Most likely the archaeological context of these coins date to the period after 1660, when St. Mary’s City was expanding with the introduction of an ordinary (tavern) and other businesses as described in Henry M. Miller, "Lord Baltimore’s Colony of Maryland and its Capital of St. Mary’s City 1634–1695," Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 225–260. However, confirmation of the dating of the archaeological context of these farthings awaits the publication of these specimens.
28
See James Deetz and Patricia Scott Deetz, The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony (New York, 2000), 220–230, on the Allerton site and Craig L. Chartier, Plymouth Archaeology Rediscovery Project (PARP) website "C–21 Allerton/Cushman Site 1632–1635, 1652–1699" at http://plymoutharch.tripod.com/id188.html (last accessed December 14, 2006). Allerton purchased the land in 1628 and deeded it to his son-in-law, Elder Cushman, in 1646. The site is on the Jones River (at the Elder Cushman Spring), near the border of Kingston and Plymouth, along a trail used by the Pilgrims to travel from Plymouth to Duxbury. Excavations determined that there were two habitations, one related to a house constructed soon after Allerton acquired the land in 1628, while the second habitation related to a structure built about 1650, after the earlier building had been taken down. The coin recovery is discussed in Deetz and Deetz, The Times of Their Lives, 226 and it was found along with an unused lead cloth seal bearing the initials I R, probably for Jacobus Rex. Lead seals were attached to bundles of cloth or furs as a means of identification. An excellent illustrated discussion of cloth seals is found in Kelso and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery, 174–178. The I R seal places the farthing in the context of the original structure, which dates to between the time Allerton purchased the land in 1628 and mid-century, thus the deposit was apparently made sometime after the coin was produced (Richmond "rounds" date to 1625–1634), but not after mid-century. The farthing now resides in the Kingston, Massachusetts, Public Library, where Archivist Carrie Elliot allowed me the opportunity to examine and photograph the specimen. The copper, along with a few other fragments from the excavation, was glued onto a plexiglass mount by the owner of the property, who later donated the display to the public library. The reverse of the farthing is completely obscured by the glue used to adhere it to the plexiglass. In both the book by Deetz and Deetz, and on the plexiglass mount, it states that the coin is from the reign of James I, but actually the farthing is a Charles I Richmond "round," Peck type 1c, variety 159 (Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins, 59); this is the single arch crown with nine jewels on the lower circlet and the legend: CARLO : D : G : MAG : BRI (with the ermine privy mark). A lead disk with a diameter of 17mm was also recovered at the Allerton site. It is now at Plimoth Plantation, item C21–333, and may represent a portion of a cloth seal.
29
These finds have not been published but brief descriptions and digital images of one side from three of the four coins were e-mailed to me in the fall of 2006 by Karin Goldstein, the chief archaeologist at Plimoth Plantation. Pipe stem fragments found at the RM site (the site, numbered C1, for Colonial 1, was later named the RM site because the initials RM were scratched into the end of a spoon handle recovered there) indicate the house was occupied ca. 1620–1680, see Deetz and Deetz, The Times of Their Lives: 236–239; Mary C. Beaudry, Karin J. Goldstein and Craig Chartier, "Archaeology of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts," Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 157–160 and Chartier, Plymouth Archaeology Rediscovery Project (PARP) website report "C–1 RM Site Thomas and William Clarke Site 1635–1676" at http://plymoutharch.tripod.com/id189.html (last accessed December 13, 2006). Three of the four Plymouth farthing specimens are so corroded that the specific varieties and privy marks cannot be readily identified, although sufficient clues remain to determine the types. When I visited Plimoth Plantation on December 5, 2006, I saw the three highly corroded specimens but was unable to examine the well-preserved example, which, fortunately, had been among the three images previously sent to me. Of the three specimens I was able to examine, item C1— 628 is smaller than the other examples and is almost completely illegible, possibly a "rose" farthing; Item C1—NN is in slightly better condition, portions of the crown and some letters in the legend are visible on the obverse, and may be a Richmond "oval." Item C1–628 is listed as an Irish halfpenny of James I on the specimen bag (which also states that the item was recovered above plow zone M6) but it is a royal patent farthing of Charles I. On the obverse I could read CARO : D [illegible] BRI and on the reverse FRA : E [illegible]. The specimen may be a Richmond "round," Peck type 1 or a Richmond "oval," Peck type 4. The better preserved farthing was unavailable for my inspection, but from a digital image of the reverse (there was no image of the obverse) I could read the legend FRA : ET HIB : REX · with a six-string harp bearing an eagle’s head and a crown with nine jewels. It appears to be a Richmond "round," possibly a Peck variety 4. Inspection of the obverse would make a more precise identification of the variety possible.
30
Deetz and Deetz, The Times of Their Lives, 235. In 1960, Roland Wells Robbins excavated what was believed to be the first of two houses erected by John Alden in Duxbury (the second Alden house at 105 Alden Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts, still stands and is now a museum). The original foundation, excavated in 1960, appears to have been from a residence that was occupied from 1620–1680, but I found no reference to coinage among the recoveries, see Deetz and Deetz, The Times of Their Lives, 239–240 and the discussion by Alden Museum Curator, Linda Ashley, "The John Alden House, Duxbury, Massachusetts: A Narrative History," (reprinted from Their Mayflower Quarterly [Spring, 1998]), on the Alden House Historic Site by the Alden Kindred of America, Inc. at http://www.alden. org/our_house/househistory.htm (last accessed December 23, 2006). Many of the other Plymouth colony excavations are discussed in Deetz and Deetz, The Times of Their Lives, 211–254. Most of these sites contain no artifacts that date earlier than the second half of the seventeenth century. Of these other locations only one site was mentioned as having any coin recoveries: the Edward Winslow homestead in Marshfield, known as site C–2, included "several coins, bale seals, and a silver whistle with the initials E W." See, Mary C. Beaudry and Douglas C. George, "Old Data, New Findings: 1940s Archeology at Plymouth Reexamined," American Archeology 6.1 (1987): 23. Winslow acquired the land in 1632 and presumably constructed a house at that time, where he and then his son lived until his son, Governor Josiah Winslow, died in 1680. However, it seems most of the recovered artifacts from the site belong to archaeological contexts of 1650 to 1680; see Deetz and Deetz, The Times of Their Lives, 245.
31
Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England (Boston, 1853–1854), vol. 1, 137, item 187. At a General Court of March 4, 1634/5, held in Cambridge (then called New Towne), the following legislation was enacted, "It is ordered, that hereafter farthings shall not passe for currant pay. It is likewise ordered, that muskett bulletts, of a full boare, shall passe currantly for a farthing a peece, provided that noe man be compelled to take above xiid att a tyme in them." In his journal Winthrop gave a slightly more precise explanation, stating that the "farthings" mentioned in the legislation referred to brass farthings. This confirms that the legislation was meant to eliminate patent farthings, frequently referred to as brass farthings in contemporary sources, rather than the lead merchant token farthings that were becoming common again in England at that time, but apparently were not common in Massachusetts Bay. Winthrop stated, "At this Court brasse farthings were forbidden. & muskett bullettes made to passe for farthings" as transcribed in John Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop: 1630–1649 (Cambridge, MA and London, 1996), 142; for a more readily available, but modernized, transcription see John Winthrop, Winthrof's Journal: History of New England 1630–1649, ed. James Kendall Hosmer (New York, 1908; reprint, 1959), vol. 1, 148.
32
See Jordan, "DK Token": 3037–3039.
33
Emerson W. Baker, The Clarke & Lake Company: The Historical Archaeology of a Seventeenth-Century Maine Settlement (Augusta, 1985), 43, listing a Charles I "rose" farthing minted between 1636 and 1644, illustrated on 47 in plates 20 and 21. Also see p. 72 in the listing of artifacts found in square G–2. Clarke and Lake moved to Arrowsic Island at the mouth of the Kennebec River in 1654 and remained there until Indians looted and burned the Arrowsic garrison on August 14, 1676. For a general history of the company, see Baker, The Clarke & Lake Company, 1–16. It is quite possible the American use of this "rose" farthing dates to the period after the Restoration of 1660. On the specimen from Salem, Matthew Stickney stated, "...I have in my collection a copper farthing of Charles I, of the size of a three cent piece, found by Hardy Phippen, Esq., on his lot on the extreme eastern end of Hardy Street, on the harbour, where he also found four or five pieces of the N.E. Pine Tree pieces, numerous Indian arrow-heads, a pipe, and also what appears to be the ruins of a house. ..." Matthew A. Stickney, "Notes on American Currency—No. 1," Historical Collections of the Essex Institute 1 (1859): 155 in an unnumbered footnote. This citation is mentioned in Philip L. Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation: A Numismatic, Economic and Historical Correlation (New York, 1992), 107, n. 11. Hardy Street, in Salem, Massachusetts, goes west from Essex Street, crossing Derby Street and ending at the harbor. In colonial times, it was used to get to the lower meeting house and the harbor. The Phippen find may represent another recovery of a farthing that circulated in early colonial Massachusetts.
34
See Berry, "The Numismatic Record," 44–48 and 50, items 41, 43–48, 52–53, for the nine Ferryland specimens; also in Berry, among the unidentified items that have been worn smooth, which are listed on 61–62, there are three additional recoveries that might be doubles: items 79 and 82–83; William Gilbert, "Finding Cupers Cove: Archaeology at Cupids, Newfoundland 1995–2002," Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 133. On the Louis XIII double tournois dating to between 1635 and 1640 found at Cupers Cove, in the northern portion of the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland. On the Quebec City doubles see, Françoise Niellon and Marcel Moussette, L'Habitation de Champlain: Les Recherches Arkhis (Québec, 1985), 139, items, 2, 6–11 and probably 12, also see the illustration on 518. For Fort La Tour see, Barka, "Portland Point," 317 list doubles tournois dated 1610, 1643 and 1659 as well as two well-worn examples, one of Louis XIII or XIV and one of Louis XIV along with a Louis XIII jeton. On Pentagoet, see Alaric Faulkner and Gretchen Fearon Faulkner, The French at Pentagoet 1635–1674: An Archaeological Portrait of the Acadian Frontier (Augusta, 1987), 259 and 260, fig. 9.9, listing two doubles of Louis XIII, of which one specimen is too worn for the date to be read, while the other is dated 1643. The trading post at Pentagoet was first established by the Plymouth Plantation Pilgrims, who controlled it from 1629 through 1635 as the Pentagoet trading post. The French then took control of the post and constructed the stone Fort Pentagoet. The English subsequently retook the fort and held it from 1654 until 1670. In 1670 the French retook the fort, remaining in control until the Dutch destroyed Pentagoet in 1674 (Faulkner and Faulkner, The French at Pentagoet: 1–3).
35
J. D. Bateson, Coinage in Scotland (London, 1997), 122 and 129–32 and Nicholas Holmes, Scottish Coins: A History of Small Change in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1998), 52–65. Both authors explain that the design for the Scottish copper twopence and penny proposed by mintmaster James Acherson in April of 1597 was closely modeled on the French double tournois, which was in general circulation in Scotland at the time. In fact, Holmes, Scottish Coins, 54, explains, "It was not long before the French name tournois, corrupted to "turner," was applied to the twopenny pieces." French coppers continued to circulate once the Scottish coppers were introduced. Foreign copper coins were officially banned from Scotland on May 20, 1613, and to fill the void, significant emissions of Scottish coppers were authorized. In 1614, an emission weighing 200 stone, later increased to 500 stone (yielding £13,335 or 1,485,900 twopence and 228,600 pennies) was produced with an additional 500 stone emission in 1624. However, foreign coppers continued to circulate and several subsequent proclamations were issued banning their import. One of these acts, of February, 1635, specifically mentioned "doubles" (doubles tournois) and "Holland doyts" (Netherlands duits), which were the more prevalent foreign coppers in Scotland.
36
Outlaw, Governor's Land, 73 and 74, figure 47 as well as the caption in appendix VIII on 202. This is the triple thistle variety, produced after James ascended to the English throne. it is the second issue of that variety with the FRAN & HIB REX legend, emitted in 1623, see Spink & Son, Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Man & Lundy): Pre-Decimal Issues, 2nd ed., (London, 2002), 77. Also, as mentioned above in footnote 26, a single 1663 turner was part of one of the two patent farthing hoards from Yorktown, Virginia.
37
See Kelso and Straube, 1996 Interim Report, 23, for the totals of six pennies and one halfpenny with an illustration in figure 27. When the text of Kelso, Luccketti and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III was written, only five pennies and one halfpenny had been recovered. The illustration of these coins, in figure 37 on page 47 of Jamestown Rediscovery III, is the same illustration used in the 1996 Interim Report (a star privy mark is visible on two of the pennies). These coppers were part of Elizabeth’s third coinage for Ireland. They were produced at the tower mint in London under an indenture to Richard Martin and his son, authorizing billion shillings, sixpence and threepence at 92.9 grains (with a remedy of 3 dwt. per pound, or a 91.7 grains minimum) of 0.250 fine silver per shilling and copper pennies and halfpence at 30 and 15 grains respectively; namely one pound of copper, valued at 6.5d, to be converted into 16s in Irish coppers. The Irish people and the English occupation forces shunned the highly debased silver denominations in the series, namely, the shilling, sixpence and threepence (the English standard at this time, in Elizabeth’s sixth English coinage, was 0.925 fine silver at 92.9 grains per shilling). Even after the Irish third coinage silver issues had been devalued in relation to Elizabeth’s earlier, second Irish coinage, which had been issued in 0.916 fine silver at 72 grains per shilling, the silver of the base third coinage was rejected. Subsequently, English authorities issued a proclamation threatening imprisonment for refusal to accept the silver. However, the coppers met a need for small change and were used at face value. On January 22, 1604, the third coinage silver was devalued once again to put it in line with a new coinage of James I Irish silver. The Elizabeth I silver shilling for Ireland had previously been devalued from 12d down to 4d and was then set at 3d! The Elizabeth I irish coppers retained their face value, but were limited to no more than four pence in coppers per transaction. James I did not mint any coppers for Ireland, however, starting in 1613, the Harington coppers, followed by the other patent farthing issues, were emitted in Ireland. On the Elizabeth and James I coinages for Ireland see Edward Colgan, For Want of Good Money: the Story of Ireland's Coinage, (Bray, 2003), 95–104; Spink & Son, Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands, 151–155, and for the specifications of the indenture of 2 February 1601 to Martin see, Christopher E. Challis, ed., A New History of the Royal Mint (Cambridge, 1992), 737.
38
Berry, "The Numismatic Record," 51–52 and Barka, "Portland Point." 317–318. The Swedish öre had been a silver coin until 1625. In fact, a bent silver öre of John III, recovered recently in a well pit at James Fort, Jamestown, Virginia. Starting in 1627, after a few years of minting square one-öre pieces in copper, the öre became a larger round coin with a shield on the obverse and crossed arrows on the reverse. The denomination on the reverse was listed as I OR, however in the legend, the coin was described as MONETA NOVA CVPREA DALARENSIS (New Copper Money of a Dalar).
39
I saw this item briefly during my visit to St. Mary’s City in December 2004 and subsequently, on December 17 and 20, 2004, corresponded with Dr. Silas D. Hurry of the Historic Saint Mary’s City archaeological staff regarding this coin. The central design on the obverse of this copper is a winged lion (which is the symbol of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice) with the rim legend ★ S • MARC • VE ★ and ★ I ★ in exergue and on the reverse is ???? / DALM • / E • T / ALB • in four lines down the center of the planchet. See, Corpus Nummorum Italicorum: Primo tentativo di un catalago generale delle monete medievali e moderne coniate in Italia o da Italiani in altre Paesi, vol. 6, Veneto (Zecche Minori) Dalmazia—Albania (Rome; reprint, Bologna, 1982), 634, this series is incorrectly listed under the heading of Zara mint issues by the Republic of Venice. The specimen is close to variety 147, however, the Corpus entry for variety 147 lacks a rosette above DALM, as is found on the St. Mary’s City recovery. This is one of 48 varieties (varieties 107–154) of the copper, which were authorized by a decree of May 9, 1626, and several succeeding decrees up to 1710. See also, Nicolò Papadopoli-Aldobrandini, Le Monete Venezia: Descritte ed Illustrate con i Desegni di C. Kunz, (Venice, 1893–1919; reprint, Bolonga, 1997), vol. 3, 936, who lists a variety as item 71 that includes rosettes both above and below the reverse legend. Thus, the closest match in the Corpus has no rosettes and the nearest match in Papadopoli has two rosettes, while this specimen has only one rosette. Alan Stahl informed me by e-mail that these coppers were minted in Venice for issue in its colonies along the Adriatic coast, which were generally subsumed under the names of Dalmatia and Albania. He further commented that finding such a coin in a New World context is interesting, but not surprising since bronze or low value billon coins were essentially interchangeable as small change throughout Europe. The Saint Mary’s coin was found in the archaeological context of Pope’s Fort, a palisade and ditch built around the structure that had previously been Leonard Calvert’s house. Richard Ingle and his parliamentary troops constructed the strongest and most significant portion of the palisade during the winter of 1645, following their surprise assault on the colony. On the archaeology of the fort, but no mention of the copper, see Miller, "Lord Baltimore’s Colony": 237–239; see also the extensive discussion on the fort by Timothy B. Riordan, The Plundering Time: Maryland and the English Civil War 1645–1646 (Baltimore, 2004), 219–238. Throughout Riordan’s excellent study of this era in Maryland’s history there is extensive information on Ingle and his contingent from England that arrived on the Reformation, as well as details on Dutch merchants out of Rotterdam on the ship De Spiegle (The Looking Glass), who were trading in Maryland at that time and were captured by Ingle. It is possible the Venetian copper may have been transported to Maryland in the pocket of one of the Dutch seamen, or, less likely, arrived with a member of Ingle’s English crew. It is also possible that the coin arrived with another overseas trader, because St. Mary’s City was the capital of Maryland and therefore a port-of-call for all foreign merchants trading in the colony.
40
Faulkner and Faulkner, The French at Pentagoet, 259 and 265, endnote 39. See footnote 34 above, on the history of this trading post, called Fort Pentagoet, which was controlled alternately by the English then the French. The English established the trading post but lost it to the French who constructed the fort; the English retook the area in 1654 and held it until 1670, when the French returned and remained in control until the Dutch destroyed the fort in 1674. The recovered copper dam was minted at Surat between 1658 and 1672, during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhayyi-ud-din Aurangzeb Alamgir. Surat was under Portuguese influence until the British East India Company took control in 1612. Although the dam dates to the third quarter of the century, I have included it in this discussion of coins circulating to ca. 1650, because it is an excellent example of how an exotic coin from a distant country occasionally entered into circulation in the American colonies during the colonial era. Undoubtedly this dam came to America via the Far East trade sometime after the variety was first minted in 1658 and possibly was lost at the fort during the English occupation that ended in 1670.
41
Jordan, "DK Token," 3005–3059 and Paul S. Berry, "The DK Token—Revisited," The Colonial Newsletter 132 (December 2006): 3065–3068.
42
A 17mm lead disk was also recovered at the Allerton site, which may also be a cloth seal, see footnote 28 above. The RM site artifacts currently catalogued as lead cloth seals are items: C1-X, C1–133, C1–139, C1–140 (with arms of London, illustrated in Beaudry, Goldstein and Chartier, "Archaeology of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts": 160, fig. 5), C1–141, C1–142, C1–309 (which contains the initial R but is thicker than the other specimens), C1–347 (Norwich, 1633), C1–843 and C1–885. A second group of RM lead disks are unclassified and have occasionally been referred to as tokens. This grouping includes the following in small bags, starting with five unnumbered bags: C1 (one disk, 17mm), C1 (one disk, 18mm, with seven nicks and two scratches on one side, possibly as a primitive design or maybe just stray marks; Pl. 2, 26), C1 (three disks, 13mm), C1 (one disk, 12mm), C1 (one disk, 11mm), C1-X (two disks, 15mm), C1–130x (two disks, 12mm), C1–131 (one disk with tab, 10mm) C1–132 (one disk, 13mm, probably part of a lead seal to be paired with item C1–131; Pl. 2, 27–28), C1–131 + 134 (four disks in two pairs of about equal size, no measurements listed; note that item number 131 was used for a disk with a tab housed in an individual bag and also for another disk, without a tab, in this bag), C1–494 (one bent disk, 21mm), C1–494x (two complete disks and one-half of a disk, 15mm), C1–535 (one disk, 17mm), C1–535x (two disks, 14 mm) and C1–826 (one disk, 19 mm). For a history of the RM site see Craig L. Chartier, Plymouth Archaeology Rediscovery Project (PARP) website, specifically the page, "Clarke Garrison House Massacre" at http://plymoutharch.tripod. com/id16.html (last accessed December 13, 2006). The house was attacked and burned on March 12, 1676, during King Philip’s War. At that time the building was operating as a trading post and warehouse. A London newspaper account of an attack states that the house was "Plundered of Provisions and Goods to a great Value" along with eight weapons, thirty pounds of powder, "an answerable Quantity of Lead for Bullets and 150 l. in ready Money," quoted in Deetz and Deetz, The Times of Their Lives: 238.

British Coinage

Small denomination English silver from the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and the first part of the reign of Charles I, up to the outbreak of the Civil War, circulated throughout the American Plantations during the early decades of colonization. These coins account for over one-half of the silver coinage finds at Ferryland that date to the era before mid-century and seem to have been the predominant coinage in Massachusetts Bay until 1640.43 English silver has even been found at the early settlement of Roanoke. About the year 1700 an English traveler examining the ruins of the fort at Roanoke mentioned that some old English coins had been discovered at the site. Recently this observation was validated when the owner of nearby property recovered a 1563 sixpence, which was sold to a New Jersey coin collector.44

Much of the recovered English silver from the southern colonies appears to have been cut for use as small change, although uncut examples have also been found. James Fort excavations have unearthed some English silver from the reign of Queen Elizabeth: a one-eighth wedge of a shilling (Pl. 3, 29) at 1.5d; three sixpence (Pl. 3, 30), of which one had been cut into a rectangle of about one-quarter of a complete coin and holed, possibly for use as a pendant and another, dated 1565, cut in half to make a threepence; two halfgroats (Pl. 3, 33), one of which was halved to 1d while the other was rolled into a cylindrical shape and used as jewelry; a threehalfpence (Pl. 3, 34), halved to 3 farthings, and a silver penny of James I (Pl. 3, 37), halved to a halfpenny.45 Among the uncut English silver are three sixpence, dated 1573, 1593, and 1602, and a James I halfpenny (the Tudor rose/ Scottish thistle variety of 1606–1608; Pl. 3, 38). Archaeologists have also recently recovered a Scottish billon eightpence groat (Pl. 3, 36) from the reign of James I (VI) dated 1597 (0.6d sterling).46 Although no gold has been recovered, James Fort archaeologists have unearthed coin weights for the Elizabeth I ryal (15s) and the James I double crown, angel, and unite as well as a weight for the French gold écu of Henry II (1546–1559) and a specimen of an écu weight issued under Elizabeth I stating the value of the coin as 6s.47 Certainly some gold found its way to Jamestown. At the Jamestown Court session of November 19, 1623, it was mentioned that an estate included £7 in money, meaning coin, with "some peeces of gold among [it]."48 At St. Mary’s City, Maryland, some silver coins of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, have been unearthed but the finds have not yet been published.49 In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, excavations of six early residential sites occupied from ca. 1649 to 1679 have uncovered a very worn one-sixth section of an Elizabeth I sixpence (i.e., a penny).50 In searching the court records of Maryland to 1651, there is only one reference to a coin. This comes from the inventory of the estate of "Richard Lee gent deceased" that was delivered to the court on March 31, 1639. Among his possessions was a cut coin, namely, a one-third piece of a hammered gold Angel, most likely dating from the reign of Henry VIII (Pl. 4, 43). The inventory entry stated, "It[em]. a piece of a broken Harry Angell" valued at 3s 4d.51

In the northern colonies several uncut specimens of English coinage have been unearthed. At Ferryland the seventeenth-century recoveries with pre–1650 minting dates include from Elizabeth I: two threepence, one groat and two sixpence (Pl. 3, 30–33); from James I: a penny (portrait variety) and a gold quarter-laurel cut down to 1s, as well as a James I Irish sixpence and two Irish shillings (Pl. 3, 39–40). In addition, a James I Tudor rose/ Scottish thistle penny variety was found in a post–1696 fill layer. From the reign of Charles I, Ferryland archaeologists have found two shillings (Pl. 4, 41) and a Scottish 20d piece (Pl. 4, 44) in a seventeenth-century context, as well as a silver penny that was recovered in an eighteenth-century fill layer (Pl. 4, 45). The seventeenth-century English silver coin finds at Ferryland with post–1650 mint dates include a William III sixpence and a James II irish gun money shilling of December 16 8 9.52 In the smaller Newfoundland settlement at Cupers Cove, English coin recoveries from the earliest occupation include a groat of Elizabeth I dating to 1560–1561 and a twopence of James I of 1603–1604 along with the Louis XIII double tournois mentioned above. Among the burnt timbers in the destruction layer at Cupers Cove, dating to the mid–1660s, was a Charles I i half-crown of 1662.53 In Portland, Maine, an Elizabeth I sixpence was found and, at the nearby Richmond Island trading post, several English silver coins were recovered including four shillings, 16 sixpence, one groat and two threehalfpence of Elizabeth I; four shillings and one sixpence of James I; and one shilling and one sixpence of Charles I (Pl. 4, 41–42). Also, English gold was recovered at Richmond Island along with these silver coins, which will be discussed below.54

Greater Boston and Plymouth have been continuously built-up over the past four centuries, leaving little opportunity for extended archaeological investigations. Consequently, just a few early, pre–1650, archaeological sites have been excavated in this historically important area. To the best of my knowledge only one of those sites, the RM excavation at Plymouth Plantation, has yielded English silver: a penny from the mint of the Archbishop of York emitted during the reign of Henry VII (Pl. 4, 46) and a James I third coinage penny of the Tudor rose/Scottish thistle variety.55 However, many records and probate inventories from Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colony mention sums or values in ready money or silver, thus we know coins were available. For example, the probate inventory of Stephen Deans of Plymouth, which was taken on October 2, 1634, stated that he had money that came to a total value of 7s as well as five pounds of beaver valued at £2 10s.56 Unfortunately, the inventory simply states "In Monye" and then gives the appraised value as 7s, so we have no idea what varieties or denomination of coins were present. In a few cases the inventories mention specific varieties of coins and it is clear that English coinage was present. The 1633 probate inventory of Richard Lackford of Plymouth lists among his possessions a box containing three one-shilling coins.57 We also know that in late July 1636, Lieutenant Lion Gardener, commander of a Massachusetts Bay outpost at Saybrook (now Old Saybrook) at the mouth of the Connecticut River, purchased goods for five gold pieces from the merchant and fur trader, John Oldham, in whose possession Gardner witnessed a cloth sack containing £50 in gold, quite possibly English gold.58 On July 27, 1640, the ship Mary Rose, out of Bristol, exploded in Charles town harbor, having over £300 in money on board. John Winthrop related that a 20s gold coin was found embedded in a chip of wood from the wreck and that several more silver and gold coins were recovered during the 1642 salvage operation.59 The last will and testament of Francis Lightfoot of Lynn, from 1646, mentions that he had paid James Axe 19 groats and 11 pence,60 while the probate inventory of John Whittingham of Ipswich, from 1650, states that he had a hoard of twenty-five shilling coins.61

End Notes
43
Berry, "The Numismatic Record," especially 17–21 and Jordan, "DK Token," 3022–3033.
44
Noël Hume, Virginia Adventure, 37–38.
45
Kelso and Straube, 1996 Interim Report, 22 with figures 25–26; Kelso, Luccketti and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III, 47–48 with figs. 35–36; Kelso et al., Jamestown Rediscovery VII, 4 and fig. 4; see also some illustrations and discussion of these coins on the APVA Jamestown Rediscovery website at www.apva.org/ngex/xcoins.html (last accessed October 21, 2006). On the cut James I penny, which is a the Tudor rose/Scottish thistle variety of 1619–1625, see the Historic Jamestowne, website, "The Dig," update of September 22, 2005 at http://www.historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2005_09_22.php (last accessed November 24, 2006).
46
Kelso, Jamestown, 83, 88, and 103, with an illustration of the halfpenny on 83, as well as the citations in the previous footnote. The APVA Jamestown Rediscovery website at www. apva.org/ngex/xcoin.html (last accessed October 21, 2006) states that eleven English silver coins have been recovered to date and probably includes cut coins in this tally. Excavation updates from October 2003 to the present are on the Historic Jamestowne website. The 1593 Elizabethan sixpence was recovered in 2005; see the Historic Jamestowne website, "The Dig," update of July 22, 2005 at http://www.historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2006_08_31. php (last accessed November 24, 2006). A fourth Elizabethan threepence was recovered at the north end of James Fort in a ditch with a zig-zag shape. However, the ditch dates to the second half of the seventeenth century, long after the fort was gone. This complete but extremely worn threepence is from either Elizabeth’s third or fourth issues, which were minted between 1561 and 1582; see the Historic Jamestowne, website, "The Dig," update of August 31, 2006 at http://www.historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2005_07_22.php (last accessed November 24, 2006). The Scottish eightpence groat is briefly mentioned in Kelso and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery, 67, as a copper of James VI from 1597, but a full catalogue description of this billon eightpence groat was provided to me by Bly Straube. The issue contains 75% copper and 25% silver, thus it is easy to understand the initial characterization of the coin as a copper.
47
Kelso, Luccketti and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III, 51 and fig. 40 and the APVA Jamestown Rediscovery website at http://www.apva.org/ngex/c6weight.html (last accessed October 21, 2006). The écu was a gold coin of three livres (or pounds tournois) until the introduction of the Louis d’or in 1640, after which the écu, in 1642, became a silver crown size coin, issued over time at varying values from three to eight livres. For the Elizabethan écu weight (Paul Withers and Bente R. Withers, British Coin-Weights: A Corpus of the Coin-Weights Made for Use in England, Scotland and Ireland [Llanfyllin, 1993], 31, item 362], see the Historic Jamestowne website, "The Dig," update of July 22, 2005 at http:// www.historicJamestowneorg/the_dig/dig_2005_07_22.php and for the Henry II écu weight see the update of September 22, 2005 at (last accessed November 24, 2006). The update of September 22, 2005 also illustrates one side of a recently recovered square coin weight: on the upper half in the center, stamped in relief, is a numeral I surmounted with a crown that is decorated with three fleurs-de-lis (a full fleur-de-lis in the center and a half fleur-de-lis on each side), independent of this relief stamp and below the numeral II has been incised with a punch, the two Is are widely spaced and tilt to the left. I have not been able to identify this item in Withers, however the Historic Jamestowne website attributes the weight to James I.
48
Henry R. McIlwaine, ed., Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, 2nd ed. (Richmond, 1979), 7–8, records the official court summary of the testimony of the widow, Sibill Royall, explaining "shee knoweth of no money, but what was [counted] out in the presence of Mr. Pountis, which was neere [as] shee remembereth, seuen pounds, some peeces of gold among [it]." This statement suggests the money was coinage consisting of silver with some gold coins included in the mix. Court rulings from August 20, 1623, also suggest there was some specie, since prices for various wines, beer and hard liquor were set both in ready money and tobacco. For example, sack sherry was not to be sold above 4s the gallon in ready money or above 6s the gallon in tobacco, when tobacco was 3s per pound (see McIlwaine, Minutes of the Council and General Court, 5). The court records are quite fragmentary, but in subsequent years payments mentioned in the surviving records were typically expressed in tobacco, or occasionally corn, but not coin, suggesting coin payments became rare.
49
This information is based on an e-mail correspondence of November 26, 2004, from Professor Henry M. Miller of the Historic St. Mary’s City Archaeological Department and from my personal inspection of the collection in December 2004.
50
Al Luckenbach, Providence 1649: The History and Archaeology of Anne Arundel County Maryland’s First European Settlement (Annapolis, 1995), 7, 16 and fig. 22. I am indebted to John J. Kraljevich, Jr., for this citation.
51
William Hand Browne, ed., Archives of Maryland, vol. 4, Judicial and Testamentary Business of the Provincial Court 1649/50–1657 (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1891), 79, with the inventory starting on 76. The gold angel, named for the image of St. Michael the Archangel spearing a dragon on the obverse of the coin, was first minted under Edward IV during his second coinage issue of 1464–1470 and was originally valued at 6s 8d, later raised to 10s. At 10s per coin a one-third piece would equal 3s 4d. A "Harry Angell" could refer to an angel of Henry VII (1485–1509) or Henry VIII (1509–1547). In 1639 it seems more probable that a Henry VIII example is the Harry Angel being described (although, as discussed below, a Henry VII penny from the mint of Archbishop Rotherham of York, was recovered at Plymouth Plantation).
52
Berry, "The Numismatic Record," 25–44 and 65–66, with one Irish shilling (listed on 65 as item 89 [well-worn but probably from the second coinage]) from a post–1696 refuse layer. The other two pieces of James I Irish silver are: a sixpence, on 42, item 37 worn at the top so the privy mark is lost but from the form of the legend (discussed at the end of this note) we know it is from the first coinage of 1603–1604, while the other shilling (66, item 90) is from the second coinage and bears a martlet privy mark, dating it to 1604–1605. Due to mixed deposits and plough zone recoveries not all items are accurately datable as to a precise archaeological context as to when the coins were first deposited (i.e., when they were lost). The archaeological context of the Ferryland finds as listed in Berry are as follows. Elizabeth I: threepence, one mixed deposit and the other before 1650; the groat, between 1660 and the end of the century; the sixpence, one from a mixed deposit and one from a plough zone; James I: penny, a pre–1650 recovery, cut laurel, a pre–1650 recovery; Irish sixpence, a surface find, Irish shillings, one undated find at the bottom of a defensive ditch and the other from post–1696 refuse layer; and Charles I: penny, from a eighteenth century fill layer, shillings, one from a plow zone and another from a late seventeenth century context and the Scottish 20d piece is from the Kirke midden, dating to the mid to later seventeenth century. See also Jordan, "DK Token": 3022–3033, which explains the interpretation of the dating of the recoveries in more detail. It is interesting to note that James I Irish shillings and sixpence also circulated in England. Several specimens are cited in Edward Besly, English Civil War Coin Hoards (London, 1987), 12, 20, 36, 39, 47. Besly also mentions that some Scottish 20d coins of Charles I were recovered in English hoards on 36 and 39. See also Colgan, For Want of Good Money, 103–107, on the two coinages of Irish silver under James I, which had a higher intrinsic value than Elizabeth’s third coinage silver for Ireland (see footnote 37 above on the Irish issues of Elizabeth). The James I issues passed at a value of 9d sterling per Irish shilling, however they were actually slightly overvalued for, although they were three-quarters of the weight of English issues, 72 grains to the English 92.9 grains per shilling, they were only .758 fine silver, which is below the English .925 sterling fineness. Interestingly, the royal proclamation of October 1603, authorizing the coinage stated that the shilling "shall goe current and be taken of all persons in this kingdome for twelve pence sterlinge" and other denominations proportionally. This phrase caused confusion in England, since it literally put the lighter Irish emission on par with English silver, however, it was not until three years later that a proclamation was issued clarifying that the value was only "twelve pence Irishe... but nyne pence English." See Colgan, cited above, for extended passages from the proclamations quoted in this footnote. The privy marks of the bell (1603–1604) and the martlet (1604–1605) are associated with the first Irish coinage of 1604, which includes in the obverse legend ANG • SCO, while the second coinage of 1604–1607 revises the legend to MAG • BRIT and employs the martlet (1604–1605), rose (1605–1606) and escallop (1606–1607) privy marks.
53
Gilbert, "Finding Cupers Cove," 133 and 139, with illustrations of the groat as figure 9 and the half-crown as figure 12. Additionally, 589 glass beads for the fur trade were uncovered from the early occupation layer. The initial occupation of the site dates from 1610–1615, when John Guy headed a colony of 39 settlers established by the London and Bristol Company. In 1615, Guy and several of the settlers departed, moving north to Mosquito, now Bristol’s Hope, at Harbour Grace. Cupers Cove continued to be inhabited after Guy’s departure. The fire of ca. 1665 was possibly the result of a Dutch attack during the Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1668). See Jordan, "DK Token," 3009–3010 and especially n. 10, for further details and references.
54
William Willis, "Remarks on Coins Found at Portland in 1849, and Richmond’s Island in 1855; with a General Notice of Coins and Coinage," Collections of the Maine Historical Society 6 (1859): 129–137, describes a sixpence of Elizabeth dated 1579 found in June 1849, in the garden of William P Fessenden (who was later a U.S. Senator and Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln) on State Street in Portland and a Dutch "leg" dollar of 2.5 guilders, dated 1655, uncovered in August 1849, from a vacant lot at the corner of Brackett and Vaughn Streets in Portland (see footnote 99 below for information on "leg" dollars) . Willis also discusses some coin finds that date to the later seventeenth or eighteenth century, including the recoveries of a Pine Tree shilling and a Pine Tree threepence. The remainder of the Willis article is concerned with the Richmond Island hoard.
55
Karin Goldstein showed me these recoveries when I visited Plimoth Plantation on December 5, 2006. The coin labeled "C1-Low Countries silver," which is well-worn, clipped and slightly bent, is actually a Henry VII (1485–1509) sovereign penny from the ecclesiastic mint of York issued by Archbishop Rotherham. It can be identified because the Tudor shield with two keys below is clearly visible on the reverse (keys are not included below the shield on coins from other ecclesiastic mints). The James I penny, listed as item C1–119, has a reverse rim legend that lacks stops between words and displays two pellets above the thistle, placing it in the third coinage of 1619–1625. It is the variety with an inner beaded circle.
56
The Mayflower Descendant 2 (1900): 87–88.
57
Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 85.
58
Gardener had recently emigrated from England and thus probably possessed English coins. Also, it seems the £50 in gold held by Oldham was not in chunky Spanish-American cobs but rather in hammered European coinage, again, probably English (as we shall also see below with the Richmond Island hoard), because, as is explained below, Indians holed the coins and used them in necklaces. We have encountered an Indian coin necklace made up of James I copper tokens recovered at the Indian burial site on the south side of the Piscataway Creek in Maryland (see footnotes 20 and 21 above) and have also noted that several recovered copper jetons were holed for suspension. The Scottish Puritan soldier and fortification engineer, Lion Gardener arrived in Massachusetts Bay on November 28, 1635, and was directed to what is now called Old Saybrook, Connecticut, where he constructed a fort and commanded a contingent of twenty soldiers. John Oldham was a merchant, who originally settled in Plymouth in 1623, and then moved to Watertown in Massachusetts Bay sometime before July of 1632. In 1633, he became engaged in the Connecticut Valley fur trade. In 1634, he opened a trading post at Wethersfield on the Connecticut River (just south of Hartford). In late July of 1636, during the Pequot War, Oldham traveled down to the mouth of the Connecticut River stopping at Old Saybrook, where he sold Gardener some items before setting sail into Long Island Sound heading east for Block Island. It seems Oldham was planning to trade with the Indians and possibly either acquire some goods from Dutch traders or return to Massachusetts Bay, since he was carrying his gold. While at Block Island, Oldham was murdered by an Indian, who was allied with the Narragansett tribes. Gardener related this incident in his narrative of the Pequot War as follows, "But I wonder, and so doth many more with me, that the Bay [Massachusetts Bay] doth no better revenge the murdering of Mr. Oldham, an honest man of their own... The Narragansets that were at Block Island killed him, and had £50 of gold of his, for I saw it when he had five pieces of me, and put it up into a clout [a rag or scrap of cloth] and tied it up all together, when he went away from me to Block Island; but the Narragansets had it [the gold coins] and punched holes into it, and put it about their necks for jewels; and afterwards I saw the Dutch have some of it, which they had of the Narragansets at a small rate." Gardener’s account is in Charles Orr, ed., History of the Pequot War: The Contemporary Accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent and Gardener (Cleveland, 1897; reprint, New York, 1980), 139. See also, Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Hosmer, 161–162 (Gardener) and 71 and 179–184 (Oldham); Winthrop, Winthrops Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 1, 165–66 ( Gardener) and vol. 1, 83 and 183–185 (Oldham). For a recent analysis, see Alfred A. Cave, The Pequot War (Amherst, 1996), 91–92 (Gardener) and 102–108 (Oldham). See footnote 80 for the predominance of gold over silver coinage manufacture in the emissions of James I. Thanks to Oliver Hoover for directing me to the Gardener reference about John Oldham’s gold being used by Indians in necklaces.

Foreign Silver

There is little recovered foreign silver found in pre–1650 archaeological contexts. For the most part, the finds are small denomination coins, with only one documented eight-reales, which was recovered in Newfoundland. Certainly some eight-reales were available in the southern colonies. Governor Butler’s contemporary account of the Bermuda or Somer Islands Plantation relates that in 1615, "Spanish dollars" estimated at about £20 in value (about 90 coins) were discovered at the Flemish Wreck, a bay at the northern point of Sandys Tribe bordering on Somerset.62 These valuable coins were kept secure and spent on imported goods. Unfortunately for us, it seems Spanish dollars were rarely misplaced or lost. However, a few smaller denomination foreign silver coins were lost and have been unearthed. At James Fort, excavations have uncovered a German sechsling of 1629 from Lubeck (a silver six-pfennig coin; Pl. 4, 47), a Dutch two-stuivers from Zeeland, dated 161[—] (Pl. 4, 48), a silver Swedish one-öre of John III (Pl. 4, 49), dated 1576 and a shilling from Livonia dated 1577 (Pl. 4, 50).63 In Ferryland the few foreign silver coins that have been unearthed reflect the colony’s partners and destinations in the fishing trade. The coins recovered in a seventeenth-century archaeological context, up through the 2002 summer excavation, have been reported by Berry and include: two examples of the douzain from France; a sIngle one-stuiver coin, two two-stuivers and one six-stuiver coin cut down to 1d from the Netherlands; a 60-reis, a 100-reis (Pl. 4, 51), and a 120-reis coin from Portugal; a half-real of Ferdinand and Isabella from Spain (Pl. 4, 52) and a one real (Pl. 4, 53) and an eight-reales cob (Pl. 5, 54) from Spanish America.64 In Maine, no foreign silver datable to a pre–1650 context has yet been recovered from excavations at English trading posts.65 At the RM site on Plymouth Plantation, so far only one coin has been recovered that may be of foreign origin. Unfortunately, it cannot be accurately identified because the planchet is worn almost completely smooth. The artifact has a diameter of 30mm and appears to be from continental Europe based on the few letters that can be distinguished on the legend (Pl. 5, 55).66

All of these coins, coppers and tokens helped facilitate exchange in an economy that heavily depended on barter and the use of money substitutes, such as beaver, wampum, corn and tobacco. I shall come back to the question of the circulation of Spanish-American silver later, but before leaving the pre–1640 period, I would like to present a vignette of the economy at a Maine trading-post from the 1630s, that, at first glance, appears to be an economy without coinage, but on closer inspection demonstrates the dichotomy of local and international exchange.

End Notes
59
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, eds. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 331–332; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 9–10. In July of 1642, the wreck was salvaged. A "wet and foul" wad of rope yarn was pulled out of one of the recovered cannon and about eight or nine days later the wad was loaded into the cannon and used as shot, while testing the salvaged ordnance. The canon was aimed toward the harbor, but it was observed that the wad of rope quickly broke apart. It was then learned from surviving ship crewmen that £30 in gold and silver coins had been hidden in the rope. Several Bostonians immediately began searching the harbor at low tide and took the coins. John Winthrop stated that Edward Bendall, the individual who recovered the wreck, brought action in court to recover the coins and was judged to be the rightful owner of the booty. No mention of this case survives in the records of the court. It is only mentioned in Winthrop’s journal, and it is unknown if Bendall actually recovered the money. Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 399–401; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 67–69.
60
George Francis Dow ed., Probate Records of Essex County Massachusetts (Salem, 1916), vol 1, 55–56, ".. .I Owe to James Axe ffor tending mye sheepe ye Sumer tyme : with ye month Octob, & one weeke : in November, onelye in pte off payment I haue payed vnto him nineteen groats : & eleven pence,. ." A groat is 4d so this partial payment contained 76d (6s 4d) in groats plus 11d in some other form of payment, probably wampum, for a total value of 87d (7s 3d).
61
Dow, Probate Records of Essex County, vol. 1, 106: "in Mony, 25s–1li. 5s."
62
Bermuda was originally divided into tribes. Under the current division into Parishes, the tribe of Somerset and the islands up through Ireland Island have been incorporated into Sandys Parish. Nathaniel Butler, The Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands , ed. J. Henry Lefroy (London: 1882; reprint, New York, 1964), 67–69, cites the discovery as occurring during the time of the six governors, 1615–1616 (that is, a period when there were six consecutive short-term interim governors). He relates that a report reached the governor stating there was a large treasure containing "Spanish dollars and Portugall crusadoes," but, "arriueinge at the hopefull place, instead of the heapes they looke for, behold some smale aspersions of dollers (to the totall value of about some twenty poundes sterlinge) are found." See Nathaniel Butler, The Historye of the Bermudaes, 68 and Henry C. Wilkinson, The Adventurers of Bermuda: A History of the Island from its Discovery until the Dissolution of the Somers Islands Company in 1684, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 74–75. At the time, a Spanish eight-reales, or dollar, was valued at 4s 4d, thus making about £20 value somewhere around 90 to 95 coins. According to Ives, the place name "Flemish Wreck," dates back to 1619, when a Flemish man-of-war of 30 tons with a crew of 27 was cast upon the shoals near Somerset. The crew abandoned their ship, making it to the shore on a raft; as described in a letter by Lewis Hughes to Nathaniel Rich of August 12, 1619, see Ives, The Rich Papers, 137–139. Thus, the use of the place name "Flemish wrack" by Butler as the location of an event that occurred in 1615, is probably an anachronism; Nathaniel Butler was governor of Bermuda from 1619 until 1622 and wrote his history of Bermuda after returning to England.
63
Kelso and Straube, 1996 Interim Report, 23 and fig. 28 (Zeeland two-stuivers); Kelso, Luccketti and Straube, Jamestown Rediscovery III, 50 and fig. 38 (Zeeland two-stuivers) and the Historic Jamestowne website, "The Dig," update of June 16, 2005 at http://www. historicJamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2005_06_16.php (last accessed November 23, 2006) which states, "In the pit furthest from the western bulwark a Swedish silver coin was found which dates to 1576." An illustration of the reverse of the coin is provided showing that the top quarter is bent (this is the portion with the central crown located above the shield). The coin is well-worn and corroded but much of the shield, the extended cross, and some of the legend MON NOVA STOK HOL (New money of Stockholm), are visible. Bly Straube, the Senior Curator at the Jamestown Rediscovery site, provided me with her full catalogue entry for this specimen. A Swedish copper one-öre dated 1639, recovered at Fort La Tour, New Brunswick, is discussed above at footnote 38. The Livonian shilling is briefly mentioned in Kelso, Jamestown , 105. Bly Straube also provided me with a full catalogue entry for this specimen. Livonia, which is now Latvia and southern Estonia, was a member of the Hanseatic League when this coin was minted. The area was occupied by Poland in 1581and later the Swedes took control in 1621.
64
Berry, "The Numismatic Record": with the billon douzains on 45, item 42 and 62, item 80; the Dutch coins are on 56–58, items 65, 67 and 68 and on 66, item 91; the Portuguese coins are on 54–55, items 61–63; and the Spanish coins on 51, item 54 and on 53, item 59, additionally, on 54, item 60 is a 1672 one-real from a late seventeenth century refuse layer. It seems a number of Ferdinand and Isabella half-real coins circulated in England, for several specimens are cited in Besly, English Civil War Coin Hoards, 21, 36, 39, 47 and 50.
65
French douzains have been found at French outposts in Maine; also, near Fort Pentagoet a gold, demi-Louis of 1642 was found. At Fort La Tour, New Brunswick, a well-worn disk was tentatively identified as a Somer Islands Hogge Money shilling, with the attribution based solely on the diameter of the disk (see footnote 5 above). On these coins, see Wheeler, "Castine," 81, for the demi-Louis, see also, Faulkner and Faulkner, The French at Pentagoet, 43 and 259–261, for most of the other items and Barka, "Portland Point," 316–318, with the disk tentatively considered to be a Hogge Money shilling on 318.
66
Karin Goldstein showed me this recovery when I visited Plimoth Plantation on December 5, 2006. It is labeled as "C1- French or English?" The item is a silver, or possibly billon, disk of 30mm, whose surfaces are worn almost completely smooth. Just a few letters in the rim legend are barely visible when viewed at the proper angle in good light. I was able to distinguish GDG CO, which may represent GDG COMES (Comes is Latin for Count), a title used by some rulers in the German or Switzerland Confederations and occasionally employed by independent rulers in southern France along the Swiss border.

End Notes

6
The varieties and quantities of the coins and tokens reported in this essay are derived, for the most part, from published archaeological reports, representing identified items found in a controlled archaeological context. Most of the recoveries I discuss were found in soil layers that can be dated to a period before 1660, that is, the item was lost in the ground sometime before 1660. However, one must remember archaeological context does not always allow us to date precisely when an item was lost, especially when dealing with recoveries from plow zones or areas with continuous occupation. Some of the problems related to identifying the date of deposit for coin recoveries are addressed in Louis Jordan, "The DK Token and Small Change in the Seventeenth Century Settlement at Ferryland, Newfoundland," The Colonial Newsletter 131 (August 2006): 30223031. For the most part, coins that clearly date to the later part of the century are excluded from this discussion, but occasionally may be mentioned in the footnotes. Additionally, one must realize there are several recovered coins that have not yet been published and, further, every season more coins are found as archaeological digs continue. The varieties and totals given here should only be taken as an indication of the quantities and varieties of coins that circulated in the early colonial period.
7
For Thames recoveries see, Michael Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets & Tokens: Vol. 1, The Medieval Period and Nuremberg (London, 1988), 3336, especially 34 for the Elizabethan era and also 435 for the Hanns Krauwinkel II rose/orb jetons.

Coinage and exchange during the 1630s at Richmond Island, Maine

We are extraordinarily fortunate that a substantial correspondence survives from the manager of an early trading and fishing settlement on Richmond Island, which is located about ten miles south of Portland, Maine, off the coast of Cape Elizabeth, at the south end of Casco Bay. From these records we get a glimpse of how exchanges occurred in this area and the way in which coins were used in trade and commerce. Further, from a Richmond Island coin hoard that dates back to this era, we can identify some of the coinage that was available in the region.

John Winter supervised a small fishing community of about sixty individuals centered on Richmond Island who worked for a company of investors in Plymouth, England, headed by the merchant Robert Trelawny. The workers signed on for a term of three years and were paid a portion of the catch, with craftsmen, farmers, and other non-fishing personnel drawing an annual wage. The company also ran a trading post, with Winter as the manager. Each year the annual catch of cod was sent to Spain where it was sold for hard currency. Profits were then disbursed to the shareholders and workers with a portion of the funds being used to purchase manufactured goods that were then shipped to Richmond Island for sale at the trading post.67

There were several small English outposts in the Portland area where settlers did a mixture of farming, fishing and some fur trading. Additionally, some independent fur traders annually purchased supplies from John Winter before leaving for the backcountry on fur trading expeditions. The Richmond Island trading post stocked a variety of imported manufactured items that could be traded to the local Indians for beaver pelts. These items were usually called "truck" and came to include various types of cloth and blankets along with kettles, knives, hatchets, pins, hooks, and needles among other things. Fur traders had no money and so could not afford to make over-the-counter purchases at the trading post. Therefore, Winter extended them credit for truck items, anticipating that they would pay him with beaver pelts upon their return from the backcountry. Winter bluntly explained to Trelawny that locals wanted the products he sold but they did not have any good method to pay for them, stating, "The most parte of the dwellers heare ar good buyers but bad payers."68 The result of this situation was that when the traders had beaver, Winter’s products sold at profitable rates, but this was only the case if the price of pelts remained stable or increased, otherwise profits would decline, "for heare [Winter declared] with vs theris [there is] no other payment for goods byt bever."69

In addition to stocking truck for the fur trade, Winter also sold goods to be consumed by the local English inhabitants. These were two distinct clienteles. For unlike the fur traders who made quantity or bulk purchases each season before leaving on an expedition, the local inhabitants came to the post periodically to make small purchases. Company employees could obtain goods on credit against future earnings but independent local residents needed to have some means of paying for their necessities. The local population did not have much coin, but they were all involved in the beaver trade to some degree. Goods at the trading post sold for beaver pelts and were priced accordingly. In 1634, Winter wrote to Trelawny,

Heare, I put away goods to the English now & then, bread at 6 lb. of bever [per hogshead], pease at 7 lb. [per hogshead], Cootes [coates], somm at 2 lb., somm 2 lb. 1/4, stockins 2 lb. per dozen, shues at 6 ounces & som at 7 ounces, but I sell but few; sacke & acquavite 2 gallons per lb. of bever, & som tymes but 6 or 7 quartes per lb., as the tymes do serue of plenty or scanty...70

Thus, John Winter accepted larger annual payments in beaver pelts from the fur traders for the truck they bought on credit and also accepted beaver for over-the-counter purchases from local settlers.

When items were sold to company employees, prices were denominated in sterling in the ledger and charged against future earnings. Thus, when reporting to Trelawny, post manager Winter used two monetary systems, namely beaver and sterling. For instance, soon after enumerating the beaver prices just quoted, Winter went on to explain that he sold waistcoats to local residents at three-quarters of a beaver pelt, while a company employee’s account was debited six shillings per waistcoat.

From Winter’s letters and ledger entries it appears that on the local level most trading post transactions were conducted using beaver or, during the final years of the settlement, sacks of corn at harvest time, while company employees used credit against future wages. Winter occasionally mentions that some coin was available, but this coin was typically not used in daily exchange; rather it was reserved for foreign trade.

The Richmond Island trading post was not a self-sufficient enterprise, but rather depended on regional and transAtlantic partnerships to obtain supplies and find markets for its products. We can see this process in operation based on the surviving records relating to the Richmond Island imports and exports from 1638. During the spring, two ships delivered supplies that had been purchased in England at the request of John Winter to be sold at the trading post. After the merchandise was brought ashore the two ships were loaded with salted fish to be taken to market in Spain.71

Although corn and meat were scarce in 1638, it seems the plantation felt it was well stocked with other supplies once both ships had safely arrived and unloaded their cargoes.72 Indeed, a third supply ship, the Hercules, was expected in September.73 Post manager Winter felt that he had a more than sufficient stock of wine, oil and earthenware pots, so he shipped the extra supplies to Boston on the company boat, where the wine and oil sold, but no buyer was found for the pots.74

It seems that while the company boat was in Massachusetts Bay an independent merchant from Ireland, docked at Richmond Island from whom Winter purchased £86 1s in merchandise. Now, Winter had recently sent his stock of fish to market on the ships that arrived in the spring and needed to build up an inventory for the Hercules, expected in about six weeks. Thus he was not able to offer fish to the Irish merchant in payment for his purchases. Without fish, Winter was required to pay in specie. However, since he did not have sufficient funds on hand, he paid a small amount, £6 1s, in money in order to round the debt down to exactly £80 and then charged that amount to Trelawny’s account in England by giving the Irish merchant a bill of exchange to be presented to Trelawny for payment. What is most interesting is that in a letter to Trelawny, Winter explained if the merchant had been able to wait fifteen days longer before departing, he could have been paid in money because at that time Captain Hawkins returned from the excursion to Boston with some specie. From Winter’s annual accounts for the plantation we learn the wine and oil sent to Boston sold for a total of £549 6s 11d, with half of the purchase price being paid immediately and the other half extended as credit, to be paid in six months. We also discover that Winter had locally sold about six hogsheads (3 butts) of the wine that was paid for with beaver pelts.75 Winter explained that since the expedition to Massachusetts Bay had returned, he had a total of about £250, of which £160 was in money and the rest, namely £90, in beaver.76

In addition to the £160 in specie received in 1638, there are some transactions from 1639 that demonstrate the use of coinage. In September of 1639, when sending returns to Trelawny in England, John Winter explained that he was shipping "sixty pounds in English gold" on the Fellowship under the command of George Luxton.77

From Winter’s accounts we can see that coins came into the Richmond Island trading post from sales to colonial merchants, primarily in Massachusetts Bay. Some of this coin was used to pay company workers, when the employee’s salary exceeded the credit purchases they had made that year at the trading post. Thus, we discover that while there were almost no coin transactions among the local inhabitants in the Richmond Island area, the company and some fishermen did have a certain amount of coinage, which they acquired from regional and transAtlantic ventures and that they used the specie to purchase products from merchant supply ships and to make returns to England. The use of specie and the reference to a payment to Trelawny from Winter in English gold, mentioned above, give us a context for a remarkable coin hoard uncovered on Richmond Island over a century ago.

On May 11, 1855, a Mr. Hanscom and his son uncovered a ceramic quart-size container while plowing a previously uncultivated plot of land about 100 feet from the Richmond Island shoreline. The vessel contained twenty-one gold and thirty silver coins having a face value of £20 2s 7d along with a gold wedding ring. All the recovered coins were English except for one Scottish 1602 gold "sword and septre" piece. All coins dated between the reigns of Elizabeth I and Charles I with the most recent item being a Charles I gold unite bearing a heart privy mark, used 1628–1629, thus making it possible that this hoard dates to the period of Winter’s trading post.78

Overall, the hoard included a face value of £19 4s in gold and 18s 7d in silver. Categorized by denominations the hoard contained: two threehalfpence, one groat, 18 sixpence, nine shillings, three gold double crowns (Pl. 5, 56), and one Scottish "sword and septre" variety (Pl. 5, 57) (the double crowns and the Scottish gold coin each had a face value of 10s sterling), 15 gold laurels or unites at 20s (Pl. 5, 58–59) and two gold unites at 22s. Most of the silver coinage was from the reign of Elizabeth I, while the majority of the gold coins came from the emissions of James I.79 Undoubtedly this is due to the fact that silver coinage predominated during the reign of Elizabeth with silver accounting for 85% of all coin production, while under James I gold coins comprised about 90% of the mint’s output.80

The Richmond hoard contains higher denomination coins. There are a considerable number of gold coins and the silver denominations are almost exclusively sixpence and shillings with only three examples of smaller denominations. This accumulation clearly does not represent coins used in local exchange but rather represents someone’s savings, most likely hidden in the earth to keep it secure. The coins may have been acquired from some combination of payments by Trelawny’s company for independently obtained fish sold to Winter along with money paid to an employee as his portion of the fishing profits, once his trading post account had been balanced. It is also possible these funds may reflect some profit from the sale of items in the regional trade with Massachusetts Bay.

Furthermore, the hoard is almost exclusively English, with a sIngle Scottish gold piece. It is possible that these coins do not represent a cross section of all the coins available locally at that time, but that they were collected with a bias for higher denomination English coins. However, that such a grouping of English gold and silver could be accumulated on the Richmond Island outpost, suggests a close connection with English trade and finance.

At Richmond Island, we find a settlement with two very distinct methods of payment. Local purchases rarely, if ever, included specie transactions. Company employees used credit against future wages, while local residents developed a barter system in which beaver was the standard of exchange with corn and other commodities employed when beaver was scarce, or, when the seller preferred payment in the other items. On the other hand, regional trade was based on the sale of goods for specie or by barter, exchanging one marketable or needed commodity for another. In the Richmond Island area, the commodity offered in such trades was typically fish. Occasionally bills of exchange were accepted in lieu of specie, but such bills were often deemed by the creditors to be too risky. Usually international imports could only be acquired for specie or valid bills of exchange payable in England. Specie played a minimal, almost nonexistent, role in local exchange, but was an important element in the regional and transAtlantic trade of Richmond Island. Company employees and probably to a lesser extent a few local residents had some specie available, but they reserved it for the purchase of regional and foreign imports that were occasionally available when truck merchants, offering their wares for sale, docked in the area. They did not use specie for daily exchange among themselves or at the trading post. Furthermore, it seems that a significant portion of the available specie was in English coin.

End Notes

67
For a more complete version of the Richmond Island material summarized in this paper, see Louis Jordan, "Coinage and Exchange at the Richmond Island Trading Post during the 1630s and the Richmond Island Coin Hoard," The Colonial Newsletter 133 (April 2007): 3121–3147. This article includes illustrations of all the known surviving Richmond Island hoard coins and has a map of the area settlers. For a discussion of daily life in the Richmond Island community see Edwin A. Churchill, "A Most Ordinary Lot of Men: The Fishermen at Richmond Island, Maine, in the Early Seventeenth Century," The New England Quarterly 57.2 (June, 1984): 184–204, as well as the introduction in James Phinney Baxter, ed., The Trelawney Papers (Portland, 1884).
68
Winter to Trelawny, Richmond Island, July 7, 1634, in Baxter, The Trelawney Papers, 46.
69
Winter to Trelawny, Richmond Island, September 18, 1634, ibid., 51.
70
Winter to Trelawny, Richmond Island, October 9, 1634, ibid., 52–54 (quotations from 53 and 54.
71
Winter to Trelawny, New England, July 30, 1638, ibid., 123–125.
72
On the meat shortage, see Winter to Trelawny, from Richmond Island, July 30, 1638, ibid.,, 141, "Vittells is very hard to be gotten heare: yf any to sell, yt is very deare, & I vse all the meanes I Cann, & yet I Cannot provide Innough by much to mainetaine our people their 4 mealls of flesh a weeke."
73
On the Hercules, which arrived on September 20, 1638, ibid., 147–149.
74
Winter to Trelawny, Richmond Island, July 30, 1638, ibid., 135–136; Winter to Trelawny, Richmond Island, August 27, 1638, ibid., 144–145, where we learn the wine sold at £32 per ton and the oil at 5s per gallon, however, 30 of the 34 pipes (or butts) of oil were short by 15 gallons; Winter to Trelawny, Richmond Island, July 10, 1639, addenda of July 18, ibid., 174, where he explains the earthenware was inferior, especially the water pots and the large pans.
75
Winter to Trelawny, from Richmond Island, August 27, 1638, ibid., 145. The local sales of wine and oil from the 1638 shipment continued into the following year. In Winter’s annual account from July 15, 1639, he lists that he had sold 11 butts of wine and 47 jars of oil from the Samuel's 1638 shipment. See ibid, 191–192, accounts under the entries titles "Account of 11 butts of wine" and "account of the sale & disposinge of 47 Jarres of oyle."
76
Winter to Trelawny, from Richmond Island, August 27, 1638, ibid., 143–146, with the list of items purchased on 149–154. Winter’s account giving the totals for both the local and Massachusetts sales of wine, oil, and earthenware are on 195, right column.
77
Winter to Trelawny, from Richmond Island, September 17, 1639, ibid., 201 and Winter to Trelawny, from Richmond Island, December 12, 1639, ibid., 202.
78
Willis, "Remarks on Coins": 143–147, however, Willis conjectured the hoard had belonged to Bagnall because the coins dated to before his death in 163. In the words of Willis, "Winthrop, in his journal, says he [i.e. Bagnall] accumulated a large property, four hundred pounds, by his traffic." Actually, Winthrop states that Bagnall ".. .had gotten about 400 li [livres or pounds] iust [just] in goodes..." Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 58. In Winthrop, Winthrop' Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 1, 69, Hosmer mistranscribed iust as most. Bagnall traded with the Indians and, according to Winthrop, had acquitted about £400 in value in beaver pelts and other goods but not in English coin as Willis implied. Winter and his company employees, however, did have some English money. For more on this topic see Jordan, "Coinage and Exchange": 3129— 3144, as well as the comments of Edwin Churchill, Charles Smith, and Philip Mossman in Charles Pomerleau’s newspaper article that discusses this hoard, "Buried Treasure?" in the Sun Journal, Lewiston, Maine, Monday, July 27, 1998: 1 and A8.
79
Willis, "Remarks on Coins," describes the coins on 139–143 but without illustrations. Baxter, The Trelawney Papers, illustrates twelve obverses and eight reverses from twenty different coins recovered in the hoard on an unnumbered plate between pages 6 and 7, but does not discuss the hoard in his text. The two items Willis calls halfgroats are actually Elizabeth I threehalfpence coins based on my examination of the items at the Maine Historical Society in Portland, on December 8, 2006. The obverses of both specimens are completely defaced but the reverses include the date. The date was not included on the halfgroat or the penny, which are the only other silver denominations of a similar size to the threehalfpence.
80
Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint, 251–255 (Elizabeth I) and 307–318 (James I).

Economic transformations in New England during the EARLY 1640s

I would now like to move down from the Maine coast of the late 1630s to Boston in 1640. In the ten years following the founding of Boston in 1630, over 21,000 English subjects with Puritan inclinations migrated from their homeland to Massachusetts Bay. The population in Massachusetts grew at a faster rate than the supply of goods. Colonists complained about the high cost of food and the scarcity of manufactured items. Some silver and gold coin was available but it was not easy to come by. In fact, the coin supply had to be supplemented with commodity money. This was accomplished by offering the purchaser credit with payment due later, usually in corn, wheat or some other specified crop that was periodically rated by the colony. For larger purchases, cattle, priced on the open market, were typically used as the means of transferring wealth.

When specie was available it was used to make purchases in Boston, but much of it was eventually spent on merchandise offered by importers docked at the wharf in Boston Harbor. During the General Court of March 3, 1635/6, Massachusetts Bay tried to regulate the import trade by prohibiting anyone except government authorized agents from making purchases directly from the importers. The goal of the legislation was to allow the state to control the import trade by setting both wholesale and retail prices. However, the government’s efforts proved to be unpopular and the prohibition was quickly repealed three months later at the next meeting of the General Court on May 25, 1636. Importers preferred to sell provisions on the open market and the colonists who were fortunate enough to have some specie, or who had family credit in England, preferred to acquire items directly from the importers at wholesale rates.81 Merchants, fishermen and traders came to Boston with wares and departed with much of the available coin, along with bills of credit, and some promissory notes. However, the Massachusetts Bay coin supply did not dry up because, as more colonists arrived in Boston with their life savings, the meager money supply was replenished. This precarious cycle came to a halt in 1640. Although some English coinage continued to be available after 1640, that year was a defining moment in the history of the Massachusetts Bay economy. Major transformations were set in motion that can be viewed as the initial steps leading to the founding of the Hull mint.

In November of 1640, the anti-royalist Long Parliament assembled in London and quickly took control of governmental affairs, giving hope to Puritans in England that long awaited reforms would finally be implemented. This political event immediately ended the great migration. Without additional colonists there was no new supply of English money and Massachusetts Bay sank into an economic depression.82 The ramifications of the migration cessation were felt throughout the English colonies, including the royalist plantation in Virginia, where the economic situation already looked bleak due to the declining price of Chesapeake tobacco.83

In Massachusetts Bay, it appears emigration from England slackened considerably during the spring and summer of 1640, as Puritans elected to forgo the hardships of a transAtlantic voyage and colonization, anticipating reforms would soon be in place once the London Parliament assembled. Indeed, John Winter, at Richmond Island, Maine, recognized this situation and wrote to Robert Trelawny on June 27, 1640, that, "Provision is very plentyfull now in the Bay [Boston, Massachusetts Bay], & very Cheape. Money growes scarce their [there] with them; yf [if] passangers Com not over with money, the prize [price] of Cattell will fall speedily."84 Winter’s analysis proved accurate. Indeed, during that summer John Winthrop noted, "This year there came over great store of provisions, both out of England and Ireland, and but few passengers, (and those brought very little money,)...so now all our money was drained from us, and cattle and all commodities grew very cheap." In October of 1640, Winthrop noted that, "The scarcity of money made a great change in all commerce. Merchants would sell no wares but for ready money [i.e., coin], men could not pay their debt though they had enough [i.e. assets, such as property and capital goods], prices of lands and cattle fell soon to the one half and less, yea to a third, and after one fourth part."85

There is an excellent example of the rapid decline in cattle value in a letter of late August 1640 from Edward Carlton to John Winthrop. Carlton, in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay, was preparing to depart for England on the Sparrow on September first. He needed cash for his trip and wrote to Winthrop eight days before leaving, asking Winthrop for funds so that Winthrop’s account with him would be balanced. Winthrop owed Carlton £73 in money, for which Winthrop had paid £28 in money along with a heifer, a cow, and a calf. Carlton stated that he could only get 20 marks for the heifer (a mark equaled two-thirds of a pound, thus the value was £13 6s 8d), but that he would credit Winthrop £14; for the cow and calf he could get £20. This meant Winthrop still owed him £11. The price of cattle had declined so quickly that in the time it took for the animals to get from Boston to Rowley, about 30 miles to the north, Winthrop’s payment was short!86

John Winter had noticed signs of an impending money shortage in Massachusetts Bay as early as June of 1640, months before the Carlton letter of late August. Evidence of this money shortage during the summer of that year can be detected in the notebook of Thomas Lechford, an attorney who practiced in Boston from June 27, 1638, through July 29, 1641, when he returned to England. Lechford drew up various legal instruments such as certificates, mortgages, indentures, bills of exchange, warrants, and petitions, typically charging from 6d to 2s for his services.87 Over his three-year tenure in Boston, Lechford produced over 650 legal documents in about 560 customer transactions, of which some transactions were for multiple documents. Each transaction was listed separately in his notebook, with payment recorded in brackets at the end of the entry. Interestingly, it appears that almost all of his payments were in money since Lechford explained the details of any payment made in commodities. From June of 1638, when he opened his business through June of 1640, there were no commodity payments. Then, between July and September of 1640, Lechford recorded five payments in commodities, with three others up through June of 1641.88 Thus, based on payments recorded by Lechford during the period leading up to and then into the depression, the money supply appears to have tightened by July 1640. The relationship between the lack of new colonists and the scarcity of money was clear to all Massachusetts Bay inhabitants by the time Lechford departed for London in the late summer of 1641. Indeed, that spring, on June 2, 1641, John Winthrop had explained the situation in some detail.89 Soon after returning to London, Lechford wrote a book about Massachusetts Bay that was published in 1642 and stated that "Money is wanting by reason of the failing of passengers there two last yeares."90 Several projects were implemented at that time to redirect the Massachusetts economy.91 One of these initiatives was a shift from constructing houses to building ships.92 In February 1641, the Reverend Hugh Peter coordinated a project to construct a 300-ton ship in Salem and soon thereafter the people of Boston began work on a 150-ton vessel.93 This was the first step toward developing a new economy in fishing and entering the international import and export trade. That same year John Turner of Roxbury took a small pinnace of 15 tons to the West Indies, and, in the words of John Winthrop, "returned with great advantage in indigo, and pieces of 8, etc."94 The next summer five more ships were built, three in Boston, including the 200-ton merchant ship Trial, one in Dorchester and another in Salem.95 As late as 1639, Massachusetts Bay had imported fish from Richmond Island and other northern fisheries. By the early 1640s, Massachusetts had become an exporter of fish and was positioning itself to become a significant merchant center for the transportation of commodities to and from the West Indies and beyond.96 In 1643, Boston merchants sent the Trial to the distant island of Fayal in the Azores with a cargo of salted cod and barrel staves that were traded for wine. The ship then continued to the island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts) in the Caribbean where some wine was traded for cotton and tobacco. Winthrop explained that the crew also salvaged guns and anchors off the shore of the island, which they brought home along with some "gold and silver" that they obtained through trade. The following year the Trial transported salted cod to Bilbao, Spain, then sailed on to Malaga before returning to Boston with wine, fruit, oil, iron, and wool. The following year, Boston merchants traveled to the Canary Islands where they entered the highly profitable slave trade.97

During the 1630s, Spanish-American coinage was not commonly encountered in Massachusetts Bay. This is not to say such coinage was unknown in the area, just that it was not prevalent. We have seen Spanish silver was a very small portion of the pre–1650 Newfoundland coin recoveries and it also appears from the documentary evidence that Spanish silver was a minor coinage in Massachusetts Bay before the depression of 1640. However, several references to Spanish silver are found in Massachusetts Bay documents from the 1640s and later periods, indicating that the depleted supply of English money was being replenished with foreign coins, particularly Spanish-American cobs. Indeed, in Massachusetts Bay, as late as the General Court Order of May 13, 1640, Spanish-American silver was still rated at par with London at 4s 4d (52d) per eight-reales. There was no attempt to retain cob silver in the colony, rather it was viewed as a trade coin to be used for foreign payments and thus was valued at the English rate. This rating was endorsed in Massachusetts Bay just a few months before the Long Parliament was called in London, the event that ended the great Puritan migration and ushered in the first depression in Massachusetts Bay. However, two years later, as the colony was recovering from the depression, the situation dramatically changed. In June of 1642, and again three months later in September, the value of the eight-reales was advanced in two 4d increments from 4s 4d (52d) to 5s (60d).98 Cob coinage was coming into the colony, as we have seen in the 1641 expedition of John Turner, and the General Court was advancing the value of Spanish-American silver to attract more silver into Massachusetts Bay.99

The records of the Boston notary, William Aspinwall, survive for the period 1644–1651, listing hundreds of contracts, many of which relate to the West Indies trade. Several of these documents include payments in commodities or money, without mentioning the specific type of money to be used, but some specify Spanish dollars, such as the accounts of Thomas Babb for 1644 and 1649.100 This indicates that just a few years after John Winter sent £60 in English gold from Richmond Island to make payments in England, in September of 1639, we find Boston merchants using Spanish-American silver rather than English gold. The trend continued throughout the decade. Among other documents, there is an invoice from 1648 of which £20 10s 11d was to be paid in pieces-of-eight rated at 5s each (82 cobs) with the remaining 11d to be paid in wampum. Also, there is a bill of exchange from 1649 payable in Barbados for 100 pieces-of-eight. Indeed, by 1646 the General Court deemed the quantity of Spanish-American silver in Massachusetts Bay to be sufficient to repeal a law of 1641 that had allowed employers to pay workmen in corn rather than money, regardless of the stipulations in the original agreement, stating that "from henceforth all bargaines made for mony shallbe performed & paid in mony."101 The quantity of Spanish-American cob money in Massachusetts Bay increased substantially throughout the decade of the 1640s.

End Notes

81
Bernard Bailyn, The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, MA, 1955), 16–17 and especially 32–39; Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation: 46 as well as Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 166 and for the repeal of this act see 174.
82
See, Bailyn, New England Merchants, 45–49 and Marion H. Gottfreid, "The First Depression in Massachusetts," The New England Quarterly 9 (December 1930): 655–678 for discussions of the depression and the various solutions attempted in Massachusetts Bay.
83
In should be understood that the great migration was not just an exodus to Massachusetts Bay. Only about 21, 000 to 22, 000 of the some 65, 000 English colonists who participated in the great migration of 1630–1640 sailed to Massachusetts, the remainder settled in other colonies. In the Chesapeake, the price of tobacco had been falling for over fifteen years. In the period from 1618–1625 tobacco often sold at 36d per pound but by the mid–1630s it was down to 6d per pound. After the settlement of Maryland in 1634, tobacco production increased and the price declined further to 3d per pound in 1637, where it remained until 1640, when the price fell even lower during the period 1640–1643; see Jordan, "Lord Baltimore Coinage," 2770–2771. Coin became so scarce in Virginia that in January 1641/2, the House of Burgesses enacted legislation decreeing that money debts were no longer pleadable or recoverable in court. Thus, even if a debtor had signed a binding agreement requiring that payment to a creditor be made using gold or silver coin, rather than tobacco or another commodity, the creditor would not have any legal recourse if the debtor paid the creditor in commodities rather than specie. The act was renewed in the following year with the qualification that contracts for horses, mares or sheep requiring payment in coin would be actionable. This legislation remained in force until its repeal on October 10, 1649. See Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 1, 262 on the Assembly of March 2, 1642/3, Acts 37 and 47 also vol. 1, 267–268, which refer to the now lost legislation of 1641/2 and vol. 1, 417 on the Assembly of December 1, 1656, Act 3, explaining that money debts were once again actionable and defining the precise time period when money contracts had not been actionable.
84
Winter to Trelawny, from Richmond Island, June 27, 1640, in Baxter, The Trelawney Papers, 218.
85
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 328 and 339; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 6 and 17; also see a similar but briefer statement in Winthrop’s journal under September 22, 1642, Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 414 and Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol 2, 82, explaining that some people left Massachusetts for the West Indies, while others decided to establish a colony on Long Island (ending up on the eastern half of the island) and some returned home to England. On the families from Lynn (now Saugus), Massachusetts, that moved to Long Island, see also the journal entry under June 1640, in the Dunn edition on 326–328, and the Hosmer edition, vol. 2, 4–5.
86
Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Winthrop Papers, 1498–1654 (Boston, 1929— 1992), vol. 4, 279–281. Winthrop also owed Carlton for 150 bushels of corn. Winthrop had paid back 70 bushels and thus still owed for 80 bushels. Carlton proposed that Winthrop pay him 4s per pound for 60 bushels, for a total of £12 in money and then deliver 20 additional bushels of corn to Carlton’s family in Rowley for their personal use. Thus, Carlton requested that Winthrop pay a total of £23 in money within the week, so he would have the cash for his voyage (the £23 total includes £12 for corn and £11 for the shortfall in the value of the cattle payment that Winthrop had sent). He also asked Winthrop to purchase a "steer calf" for £20 that Carlton had previously purchased from James Luxford, Winthrop’s steward, but that had not yet been delivered to him, assuring Winthrop that the animal was worth £22. On October 10, Winthrop added a note to the letter, this note was a reminder for his records, stating that he had paid Carlton for the outstanding debt and for Luxford’s steer, that is, £11 and £20, but he did not pay money for the corn, rather, on the same day he appended the note to his letter to Carlson, Winthrop made arrangements to have 80 bushels of Indian corn delivered to the waterfront for Carlson’s family to pick up, thus balancing the account.
87
Lechford’s typical rates range from 4d, 6d, 8d, 1s, 1s6d and 2s with some higher at 2s6d, 3s4d, 4s, 5s, while his highest charge, for copying the "Court booke" for John Endecott at 16d per sheet, totaling 102 sheets, came to £6 16s [this is the copy of the records of the Suffolk County Court to January 28, 1641, now in the Boston Public Library, edited in John Noble, ed., Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay 1630–1692 (Boston, 1904; reprint New York, 1973) vol. 2, part 2]. On Lechford see, Thomas Lechford, Note-Book Kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, From June 271638 to July 29, 1641, ed. Edward Everett Hale, Jr., (Cambridge, MA, 1885); Thomas G. Barnes, "Thomas Lechford and the Earliest Lawyering in Massachusetts, 1638–1641," in Law in Colonial Massachusetts 1630–1800, ed. Daniel R. Coquillette (Boston, 1984), 3–38; Angela Fernandez, "Record-Keeping and Other Troublemaking: Thomas Lechford and Law Reform in Colonial Massachusetts," Law and History Review, 23 (Summer 2005), consulted online at http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/23.2/fernandez.html (last accessed December 29, 2006), and the introduction by Rutman in Thomas Lechford, Plain Dealing or News from New England, ed. Darrett B. Rutman (Boston, 1867; reprint, New York, 1969).
88
Lechford, Note-Book, as follows: July 7, 1640, 2s 6d paid with a bushel of corn on 261–262; July 28, 1640, 1s paid in corn, on 278; August 24, 1640, 2s 6d paid in shot on November 30, with a 19-pound barrel at 2d per pound (note that this comes to 38d or 8d above the original debt of 30d), on 285–286; August 27, 1640, 1s paid in corn, on 293; September 3, 1640, 1s paid in corn, on 311; December 1640, " Rec. of Mr Cogan towards these last writings coming to 9s, 5s in money the rest to be paid in commodities" on 359–360; Feb. 1640/1, 3s 4d to be paid with a bushel of rye, wheat or malt, on 367–371; and June 1641, 1s received in corn, on 412.
89
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 353; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 31 states, "The parliament of England setting upon a general reformation both of church and state, the Earl of Strafford [i.e. Sir Thomas Wentworth] being beheaded, and the archbishop (our great enemy) and many others of the great officers and judges, bishops and others, imprisoned and called to account, this caused all men to stay in England in expectation of a new world, so as few coming to us, all foreign commodities grew scarce, and our own of no price... ." Also see, Bailyn, New England Merchants and Gottfreid, "The First Depression," cited above in footnote 82.
90
Lechford, Plain Dealing, 133.
91
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle: 353; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 31. Winthrop explains that the halt in migration to Massachusetts Bay and the lack of money meant that people could no longer make payments (that is, returns) to England for imported commodities: ".which occasioned many there to speak evil of us. These straits set our people on work to provide fish, clapboards, planks, etc. and to sow hemp and flax (which prospered very well) and to look to the West Indies for a trade for cotton."
92
In February, 1641, John Winthrop explained the impetus for shipbuilding was due to the fact that, "The general fear of want of foreign commodities, now our money was gone, and that things were like to go well in England [for the Puritan reformers], set us on work to provide shipping of our own, ..." Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 345; Winthrop, Winthrop' Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 23.
93
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 345; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 23–24. During the General Court of October 7, 1641, legislation was passed stating, "Whereas the country is nowe in hand with the building of ships, which is a business of great importance for the common good, ." therefore inspectors were appointed, as was the custom in England, to insure the quality of the work. See, Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 337–338.
94
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 386; Winthrop, Winthrofs Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 55–56. Turner had purchased a one-quarter share in the pinnace St. John in January of 1640. Winthrop further explained that Turner said he had obtained the indigo and money in trade, but it was suspected that Turner had plundered them.
95
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 391; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 60. Thomas Graves built the Trial for a consortium of Boston merchants headed by John Winthrop and Nehemiah Bourne. The Trial was ready to set sail on July 24th and had a grand launching ceremony. In fact, the audience was so large that the ship could not accommodate the crowd, thus the sermon, scheduled to be delivered aboard the ship by the Revered John Cotton, had be relocated to the meetinghouse. Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 402 and n. 7; Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 70.
96
As early as the fall of 1641, fish were being exported Winthrop commented in his journal on September 2, 1641 that, "This year men followed the fishing so well, that there was about 300,000 dry fish sent to the market." Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 365; Winthrop, Winthrop's Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 42. There are also several references to trading locally produced wood planks and "pipe staves" (wood boards sometimes called barrel staves, that were placed side by side, longitudinally, and fastened together with metal hoops to form a barrel) for salt from the West Indies. The salt was used to preserve codfish that could be sent to market in Spain and Portugal. See, Winthrop, Journal, for July 28 and September 6, 1642; Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 400 and 404; Winthrop, Winthrop's Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 68 and 72. Also, as early as May 6, 1640, the Virginia County Court at Elizabeth City gave Massachusetts Bay merchants permission to transport tobacco to London. See, McIlwaine, Minutes of the Council and General Court, 494.
97
Bailyn, New England Merchants, 75–111; see also William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, ME, 1945–1955), vol. 1, 105–112 and 142–146; and William Babcock Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, (Boston, 1890), vol. 1, 143–144. For the voyages of the Trial see, Winthrop, Journal, entry of March 30, 1643 for the Fayal-St. Christopher voyage and the entry of March 23, 1643/4 for the Bilboa-Málaga voyage in Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 425, 495; and Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 2, 92–93 and 157.
98
On the value of the eight-reales at 4s 4d during the early Stuart era up to the English Commonwealth, see Louis Jordan, John Hull, the Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage (Hanover, NH, 2002), 156–162, and on the Massachusetts Bay advancements of 1642, see 167–168.
99
During the September session in 1642, the General Court also raised the value of Dutch coinage because some Dutch silver came into Massachusetts from New Netherland, or, as stated by the General Court, "considering the oft occasions wee have of trading with Hollanders at the Dutch plantations & otherwise." The term "otherwise" refers to Dutch truck ships that continued to stop in Boston until the passage of the Navigation Acts in 1651. In the 1642 legislation the "Holland ducatour," that is, the ducatoon of 60 stuivers or three guilders [with an intrinsic value of 66d sterling or 5s6d] was raised to 6s, and the "rix doller," the rijksdaalder of 50 stuivers or two and one-half guilders [with an intrinsic value of 55d sterling or 4s7d] was made current at the same rate as the eight-reales, namely, 5s. Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 2, 29 and Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, 64–68. The ducatoon, of this period was the ducatone, first minted in the Spanish Netherlands, in Brabant and Tournai, in 1618, and produced throughout the century. The coin contained 501.23 grains of .944 fine silver and displayed a bust of the ruler on the obverse and the royal heraldic shield on the reverse. Later, from 1659 through 1794 a coin of similar size and value was minted in each of the seven northern United Provinces. The Dutch coin, known as a Dukaton, was slightly heavier at 505.86 grains but with slightly less pure silver at .941 fineness. This Dukaton of Zilveren Rijder was called a "silver rider" in the American colonies. The obverse depicted a soldier in full armor wielding a sword on horseback with the provincial heraldic shield below, while the reverse displayed the crowned arms of the United Netherlands held up by two crowned lions. The other coin mentioned in the Massachusetts legislation, the "rix dollar" or rijksdaalder, was actually a variety of different coins, each averaging about 448 grains in weight of .885 fine silver. These coins were independently minted by individual cities or provinces in the United Netherlands and passed at 50 stuivers. Usually the obverse of the coin had a half portrait of the ruler (often with a drawn sword), while the reverse displayed an heraldic shield. Additionally, several German and Scandinavian cities minted similar coins, known as Thalers in their native areas but called "rix dollars of the Empire" by the English. Starting in the 1650s and continuing throughout 1795, another silver coin was produced, a slightly smaller silver ducat of 436 grains at .873 fine silver valued at 48 stuivers. This coin was also used in the American colonies, where it passed at the same rate as the ‘rix dollar’ and was know as the ‘leg dollar.’ The obverse depicted a standing soldier in full armor with a sword in his right hand. In his left hand the soldier held straps that were attached to the crowned provincial shield displayed in front of him. The shield completely obscured the soldier’s left leg, hence the name "leg dollar." The reverse displayed the crowned arms of the United Netherlands. See footnote 54 above for a "leg" dollar dated 1655, that was recovered in Portland, Maine.
100
William Aspinwall, A Volume Relating to the Early History of Boston Containing the Aspinwall Notarial Records from 1644 to 1651, ed. William Henry Whitmore and Walter K. Watkins (Boston, 1903), 252–254.
101
Aspinwall, p. 133 for the 1648 invoice and 226 for the 1649 bill of exchange; for the October 7, 1641 and May 6, 1646 legislation, see Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 340 and vol. 3, 69. It should be noted that corn continued in use as a commodity money when it was stipulated as the form of payment at the time the debt was incurred or when the creditor was willing to accept it. Of course, corn continued to be rated and was the primary commodity used to pay annual taxes. In fact, in 1646, Governor John Winthrop wrote in his journal that some local citizens lent the government £100 in money to give to Edward Winslow for his impending voyage to England as the agent for Massachusetts Bay, because all the funds the state had collected from tax payments were in corn or cattle, see Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 670; Winthrop, Winthrop's Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol 2, 309.

Coin Emissions in Mid-Seventeenth Century British America

The problems of counterfeit and lightweight clipped cobs that circulated during this era are well known.102 For ease of exchange, merchants preferred coins of a reliable fineness that could be traded by tale rather than by weight. The Massachusetts Bay solution was to establish a mint where sterling shillings (Pl. 6, 60), sixpences (Pl. 6, 61), and threepences would be produced at a 22.5% weight reduction from the English standard. This advancement or "crying-up" of Massachusetts Bay coinage attracted even more silver into the Commonwealth and insured the economic viability of the mint.

Once John Hull’s mint opened, local merchants would no longer accept heavily clipped or suspicious looking cobs. Individuals were expected to trade these items at the mint for NE silver. An intriguing entry is found in a Plymouth probate inventory dated October 29, 1652, just two months after the Hull mint first opened for business in Boston. The entry states that £1 6s 9.5d in money was found in the house of the deceased and that the money "was Changed att Boston from bad to better with great losse."103

This might be our earliest reference to silver being taken to the Hull mint and exchanged for NE coinage. It seems that the silver coinage being brought in was heavily clipped Spanish-American silver, which, by weight, had an intrinsic value far below its face value and thus was exchanged at a loss. Massachusetts Bay silver seems to have been accepted quickly, for it soon appears in probate inventories. In the March 5, 1653/4, inventory of the estate of Thomas Trusler of Salem we find listed "in N. E. silver, 10s.; and Spanish money, [4] pc. of 8, 1li."104 Some English money also still circulated, side-by-side with Massachusetts and Spanish silver, as we see from the Plymouth probate inventory of Sarah Jenny, dated 1656, which lists one piece-of-eight, two halfcrowns and seven pence in silver.105

The primary rationale for authorizing Massachusetts silver coinage, and, in 1659, the short-lived Lord Baltimore silver was to stimulate the local economy. Obviously, the minters expected to make a profit at the ventures, but both the General Court of Massachusetts Bay and Maryland’s Proprietor, Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, understood that providing a reliable supply of government authorized coinage would facilitate transactions, so merchants and tradesmen could flourish. However, it must be remembered that even in Massachusetts Bay, during the height of the minting operation, not everyone had silver coins and many transactions still involved commodity exchanges. This included transactions between merchant and merchant as well as transactions between merchant and tradesman or farmer. Silver coinage, insofar as it was available, was a desirable alternative to barter and was viewed as a benefit to trade, but it was never available in large enough quantities to replace other methods of exchange. Indeed, in contemporary ledgers the majority of the recorded transactions, even in Boston, included money substitutes.106 Specie was always in short supply in the colonies, and, in fact, in England there were complaints throughout the century that there was not enough money in circulation.107

The emission of Baltimore silver was part of Lord Baltimore’s plan to develop his colony. At the same time that he was minting coins, Lord Baltimore was also starting to transform St. Mary’s City from a manor estate into the first real city and capital of Maryland.108 Baltimore’s plans failed for a variety of reasons, but it is clear that the colonists closely associated a supply of reliable money with the growth of towns and trade. The 1661 Maryland mint act begins:

For as much as money being the Rule and measure of the vallue of Commodityes noe [no] trade or Comerce can be well managed without itt, And the want of itt in this Province is a mayne [main] hinderance to the Advancement of this Collony in Trades Manafactors Townes and all other thinges which conduce to the flourishing and happy State... .109

Also, the Maryland 1671 act for the advancement of foreign coinage stated that without the conveniences of money "Manufacturers handycrafts or Tradesmen" could not subsist.110

Without coinage, purchases were often transacted by offering credit with payment to be made in commodities at a later date, typically at harvest time. However, this system was not a cost effective arrangement for the merchant-creditor. For example, in Boston on June 15, 1660, John Hull accepted eight and seven-eighths bushels of wheat, presumably Winter wheat, and on September 5, ten bushels of summer wheat, then on September 17, two beaver skins, all in payment of debts owed to Hull by John Winthrop. Hull explained that good wheat was worth 4s 6d per bushel, but this wheat had weevils in it so he could only get 4s 3d per bushel and he only was able to get that price by giving the purchaser three months time to make the payment. Otherwise the selling price for ready payment would have only been 4s per bushel. Hull then went on to say that rather than sell the beaver, which was inferior, he simply kept it and credited Winthrop’s account three or four shillings more than he should have.111 Thus, even after Winthrop’s payments were received, it took additional time and effort for Hull to dispose of the commodities and actually balance the account. And this was a straightforward book credit exchange! Typically, many small, or petty, exchanges involved promissory notes passed on from the original receiver to a second party and then on to a third or even a fourth party, with the final determination of who owed how much of a specific commodity to whom, requiring an appearance at the quarterly court.112 A commodity based credit system was better adapted to a sIngle product plantation economy, like Virginia, Maryland, or Bermuda, where the vast majority of the population lived on farms and exchanged promissory notes between individuals or drew on book credit at the local store during the year with an annual balancing of all accounts after the harvest, with tobacco as the only commodity accepted for payment. Colonials clearly understood the limitations of commodity exchanges and believed specie coinage was necessary to overcome these limitations thus facilitating trade and industry and thereby stimulating the growth of towns.

Since a goal of the Massachusetts and Baltimore coinages was to facilitate local trade, the coinages focused on shillings, sixpences, and threepences in Massachusetts (Pl. 6, 62–71),113 with the fourpence or groat replacing the threepence in Maryland (Pl. 7, 72–74).114 Neither colony considered minting higher denominations such as the crown (5s) or halfcrown (2s 6d), even though the larger coins yielded higher per unit minting profits than smaller denominations. The shilling was an adequate high denomination issue for internal daily transactions involving local shopkeepers and craftsmen.

For the acquisition of imports, merchants were expected to rely on any foreign silver and gold they could accumulate, primarily Spanish-American cobs, or on sterling credit made available to them internationally as bills of exchange. Indeed, Massachusetts Bay passed laws prohibiting the export of Massachusetts coinage, but the borders could not be adequately patrolled to enforce these regulations. Boston merchants with purses filled with Massachusetts silver, but without sufficient Spanish-American cobs or appropriate foreign credit to directly purchase foreign goods, were expected to participate in cargo shipping, relying on international exchange by barter. These merchants acquired quantities of local products at wholesale rates, usually in partnership with a few other local businessmen, and then transported the products to foreign ports where they bartered the cargo for regional items that could be brought back home and sold at a profit. For instance, Boston merchants would export native salted cod or wood planks to another colony, say Barbados, where these items were traded for quantities of sugar, salt or other West Indies commodities that could be brought back to Boston and sold locally for Massachusetts Bay coin. Neither Massachusetts nor Baltimore silver, nor any plan for a mint in seventeenth century colonial British America attempted to address the problem of international exchange. Thee two colonies focused their resources on trying to, at least partially, address the issue of local exchange.

During this period, legislation was passed to attract coinage into Virginia, in order to stimulate manufacture and trade at a time when tobacco prices were falling. On November 20, 1645, the House of Burgesses enacted legislation to draw Spanish-American silver to Virginia by advancing the value of an eight-reales to 6s, thus surpassing the 1642 Massachusetts legislation that had advanced the eight-reales from 4s 4d to 5s. Furthermore, the Virginia act authorized a mint to be established that would produce copper 2d, 3d, 6d and 9d coins and additionally called for merchants and others to "desist or leave off trading for tob’o [tobacco] vpon the penaltie and forfeiture of the thing so bought or sold."115 The proposed mint never opened and silver cobs did not pour into the colony, since Virginia had nothing to sell except tobacco, which continued to remain the standard of local exchange. Without a diverse economy offering a variety of desirable products, Virginia was unable to entice merchants and consumers to bring silver into their colony.

In 1655, Virginia revised its strategy and once again tried to foster a money economy. The House of Burgesses, "ffor the greater incouragement of manufacture and other trade" enacted legislation that "all peeces of eight of what mettle soever shall pass current and lawfull at five shillings."116 This legislation adopted the Massachusetts Bay advancement rate of 5s for the eight-reales, but apparently lowered the fineness or intrinsic value requirement to a level that was below the Massachusetts minimum, probably to attract debased Potosi cobs that were unwanted or only acceptable at a discount elsewhere.117 Whether this was the original intention of the legislation is not known. Clearly, it is not how the law was interpreted in practice. It appears that the phrase "all peeces of eight of what mettle soever" was taken to refer to all coins and tokens, therefore the colony attracted a number of worthless copper jetons rather than Spanish-American silver! It is possible that the Burgesses had originally hoped to enforce a local valuation on token coinage, as had been done during the first years of colonization in Jamestown with jetons and in the Somer Islands with Hogge Money. However, unlike the earlier period, the government no longer had a supply house where the tokens could be used to purchase merchandise, nor did the colony have the funds to covert the jetons into their designated value in silver. Laborers and craftsmen were stuck with jetons that could not be used to purchase the imported goods they desired to acquire. During the next session of the Burgesses, on March 10, 1655/6, the act was repealed, for they stated, "Wee find by experience, and the artificers [i.e. craftsmen] know it, that nothing can more discourage them, for after they have long laboured for a subsistence... they would have soe many counters in stead of sterling money for the sweat of their browes."118 It was further stated that eight-reales would continue to be valued at 5s and that wampum would retain its present value.119 During the legislative session of March 13, 1657/8, the eight-reales was again legislated at 5s and it was decreed that no more than 40s, that is, eight of these coins, could be exported from the colony at a time.120 However, without products to sell, legislation alone could not attract silver into the economy. As Bruce demonstrated from probate inventories, even wealthier Virginians had very little coin until the last quarter of the century, with tobacco remaining the predominant medium of exchange.121

End Notes

102
Jordan, John Hull, 150, 168–169 and 217–220. The cobs of this era were odd shaped slabs or chucks of silver that were very poorly and incompletely struck.
103
Mayflower Descendent 11 (1913): 91, probate inventory of the possessions of James Lindale. The value of the money in the inventory totaled 321.5d. At the Massachusetts Bay rate of 5s per eight-reales, this amount would be very close to 43 reales (322.5d). It should be mentioned that at this time Plymouth Colony was a separate government from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, with its own General Court and law code. Nevertheless, Plymouth was intimately connected with its much larger neighbor. Settlers moved freely between the two colonies, sometimes homesteading in one colony and then moving to the other and then back again as opportunities arose. Laws forbidding the export of Massachusetts coinage out of the Commonwealth were not intended to keep the coinage out of their sister colony of Plymouth. Eventually, in 1691, Plymouth was annexed to Massachusetts.
104
Dow, Probate Records of Essex County, 1: 184; George Francis Dow ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, (Salem, 1911), 1: 356–357. The inventory states that there were 9 pieces-of-eight, however at that time a full weight piece-of-eight was 5s, so nine pieces-of-eight would be £2 5s not £1, which is the total value listed in the inventory. There is no indication that the pieces were drastically cut or severely clipped. I checked the original document in the James Duncan Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Massachusetts, listed under Essex County Quarterly Court Files, vol. 2, leaf 139, to see if an error was made in the printed edition. Indeed, the printed edition is accurate; the original document that was copied and docketed in the files of the Essex County Court lists 9 as the number of pieces-of-eight. Most likely the individual who originally copied out the inventory for the court record mistranscribed the number; if the number was 4 and the two intersecting angle strokes were somewhat curved, it could have been easily misread as a 9. Four eight-reales would equal the £1 value listed in the inventory. Originally, the sIngle sheet document was folded vertically to create a four-page pamphlet. Sometime later, after the item was filed with the court, the long sheet was opened and folded horizontally so that it would fit more easily into a folder. Consequently, on the obverse of the sheet the left column is blank, except for the docketing information and is numbered as page 4, with the text starting on the top of the right hand column numbered as page1. On the reverse of the sheet the inventory continues in the left column, numbered as page 2 and then concludes in the right column, which is labeled as page 3. The money entries are listed in a section called "Armes," which includes weapons, powder, bullets, moulds, 24 pounds in leaden weights, two Bibles and a Psalm book, two chests and the coins. The coin entries are found in the middle of page 3, at a crease in the paper, in an area that conservators have strengthened (and obscured) with Japanese paper. A more accurately formatted transcription of this portion of the inventory than is found in the printed edition follows:
Item In N : E • silver------–0 - 10 - 0 |
And Spanish money 9 ps of 1 - 00 - 0 } - 01 - 10 - 0
8 value at---------------|
105
A transcription of the text is available at http://pilgrimhall.org/pilstory.htm, including the Jenny inventory at http://pilgrimhall.org/WillSarahJenney.htm (last accessed October 26, 2006).
106
To some degree coin transactions are underrepresented in ledgers. Direct, over-the-counter transactions in which an individual purchased goods and paid with coin were not recorded in a ledger, since there was no credit extended or debt incurred that would require a record to insure future payment. Of course, coin paid to creditors to balance previous debts would be recorded.
107
For example, in London, as late as 1683, Thomas Firmin proposed minting a ten pence coin to remedy "the want of a ready exchange of money," see, Joan Thirsk and J. P Cooper, eds., Seventeenth-Century Economic Documents (Oxford, 1972), 693–694.
108
See the excellent article by Miller, "Lord Baltimore’s Colony," particularly, 239–257.
109
William Hand Browne, ed., Archives of Maryland, vol. 1, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland January 1637/8—September 1664 (Baltimore, 1883): 414–415; William Noël Sainsbury, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1661–1668, Preserved in Her Majesty’s Public Record Office (London, 1880; reprint, New York, 1964): 24, item 72 (law 5).
110
William Hand Browne, ed., Archives of Maryland, vol. 2, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland April 1666-June 1676 (Baltimore:, 1885), 286.
111
Hermann Frederick Clarke, John Hull: A Builder of the Bay Colony (Portland, ME, 1940), 131. Winthrop gave Hull eight bushels and 3.5 Pecks of wheat (a Peck is a quarter of a bushel) that Hull sold to Arthur Mason at 4s 3d (51d) per bushel, for a total of 452.625d which equals £1 17s 8.625d and was rounded to £1 17s 9d. On September 5, Hull received ten additional bushels of wheat from Goodman Codman to be credited to Winthrop’s account, which Hull sold at 4s 3d per bushel for a total of 510d or £2 2s 6d. Then on September 17, Hull received two beaver skins weighing 3lb. 3oz., which he credited Winthrop at 7s per pound for a total of £1 2s 4d. During this period Winthrop’s payments totaled £5 2s 7d, while his debts to Hull for a silver thimble, bodkin, buttons, a tunn (a smaller drinking cup) and a beaker (a large, wide mouth, drinking vessel or goblet) came to £6 12s 3d.
112
For two excellent recent discussions of credit in colonial America, see David T. Flynn’s articles, "Credit in the Colonial American Economy," in EH.Net Encyclopedia, ed. Robert Whaples. Contributed on January 26, 2004 at http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/flynn. colonialcredit (last accessed November 14, 2006); and "The Duration of Book Credit in Colonial New England," Historical Methods 38.4 (Fall 2005): 168–177, where he calculated the median duration for book credit in Massachusetts and Connecticut during the eighteenth century at between 13 to 16 months, while the duration of credit for promissory notes during that same period extended to 17.5 months.
113
In 1662 Massachusetts Bay started producing a twopence denomination (Pl. 6, 68), a coin that had been traditionally known as a halfgroat.
114
The groat or fourpence coin was introduced by Edward I in 1279 and remained a standard coin of the realm for centuries. Edward VI first introduced the threepence, but the public was so acclimated to the groat that production of threepence coins was suspended. Elizabeth I revived the threepence in her third coinage of 1561–1577 and included it in her fourth (1578–1582) and milled (1561–1564) coinage issues as well as her third Irish coinage (1601–1602). But none were produced under James I. Both groats and threepence were issued under Charles I, although threepence were only produced at provincial mints (between 1638 and 1649), not at the Tower mint. During the Commonwealth, neither the groat nor the threepence was minted, although a halfgroat (2d) was part of the standard Commonwealth issue. Further, it should be noted that Lord Baltimore commissioned dies to be cut for a copper penny, called a denarium. A limited run was produced and sent to St. Mary’s City, but the coin apparently never went into general production. The denarium has a reverse die orientation of 0° (that is, a medal turn) and thus could be considered a medalet. However, the denarium was an official coin issue of Lord Baltimore with the value of 1d and it was used as a small change coin in Maryland, see Jordan, "Lord Baltimore Coinage": 2682 and 2685–2686, with further details discussed in footnote 140 below.
115
Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 1, 308–309, Grand Assembly of November 20, 1645, Act 20.
116
Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 1, 410–411, Grand Assembly of March 31, 1655, Act 4.
117
In using the phrase "what mettle soever" the Burgesses may have meant "at whatever fineness," (in this sense ‘mettle’ could be a variant spelling of metal or it could mean ‘one’s mettle’ in the sense of character, disposition or temperament, namely, pieces-of-eight ‘of whatever metal’ or ‘of whatever character,’ both interpretations would refer to fineness) implying that coins from the Potosí debasement scandal, revealed in 1648, would be acceptable. After the Potosí scandal was uncovered, the Hapsburg shield variety cobs were retired at the Peru vian mints, namely at Potosí, Santa Fe de Bogota, and Lima, because too many individuals refused to accept these coins, suspecting they were receiving debased products. However, shield cobs continued to be produced in Mexico since they did not have a problem with debased coinage. In the Viceroyalty of Peru a new coin design was issued in 1652. The obverse adopted a design similar to the earlier cob reverse, but employed a distinctive Cross of JeruSalem that included perpendicular end bars and included the heraldic symbols of León and Castile in the four quadrants of the cross. The new reverse was based on the design used for the pre-cob coins depicting the Straits of Gibraltar with the Pillars of Hercules. The two vertical pillars intersected three horizontal lines of text, giving the overall appearance of what is frequently called the "tic-tac-toe" design. It seems that the Virginia legislature was willing to accept the debased older Potosí cobs displaying the Hapsburg shield. See Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, 56, for details on the Potosí debasement scandal.
118
Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 1, 397, Acts of Assembly of March 10, 1655/6, Act 4. Also, see Cotter, Archeological Excavations at Jamestown: 13 and 141 as mentioned above in footnote 14, for Nuremberg jetons recovered at Jamestown in a mid-seventeenth century archaeological context.
119
Imported glass and stone beads were used when trading with the Indians for corn and other products. On the use of these beads in Jamestown from 1607–1660, see Lapham, "More Than ‘A Few Blew Beads.’"
120
Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 1, 493, Grand Assembly of March 13, 1657/8, Act 130 and continued in 1662, Henning, Statutes at Large, vol. 2, 125, the Grand Assembly of March 23, 1661/2, Act 116.

Small Change in the English Mainland Colonies of North America 1640–1660

As previously mentioned, small change of was not part of the English regal coin emissions of this period. During the reign of Elizabeth I and again, after the era of the patent farthings, from the outbreak of Civil War and throughout the English Commonwealth era, it was left to local merchants to improvise with privately produced trade tokens. The situation in the colonies also required the settlers to adopt alternatives to small change silver. Even in Massachusetts Bay, the General Court did not assign the mint the task of producing small change for the colony. We have seen that coins were only part of the economic mix: they helped facilitate exchange in economies that heavily depended on barter and the use of money substitutes such as beaver, corn and tobacco. The imported jetons, doubles tournois, patent farthings, and other copper, lead, and cut silver coins previously mentioned, were never available in large enough quantities to become a significant and widely used small change medium throughout the English colonies.

Even while the great migration was underway and some English coin was still entering the economy, there was a need to find solutions to the small change shortage. By the mid–1630s most colonies were engaged to some extent in the beaver trade, exchanging manufactured goods like cloth and tools with the Indians in return for furs. Wampum, also known as peag and wampumpeag (with numerous variants), was an essential element in this trade because Indians wanted wampum as well as manufactured goods.

Wampum consisted of polished beads produced from shells by Indian tribes situated along the coast of southern New England and Long Island (Pl. 7, 76). The raw material was plentiful and the production cost was low, therefore, wampum was an inexpensive commodity. Also, local colonial merchants typically had little problem selling quantities of wampum to fur traders, who regularly needed to replenish their supply of these beads since they continually offered the beads to the northern and inland Indians in return for furs. As long as the fur trade was profitable, wampum was a readily available, local, low-cost, and fungible commodity with a market value. For these reasons, when no small change coins were available, merchants were willing to accept some wampum in payment for goods from fellow colonists, as a result wampum beads soon became the most prevalent small change substitute.

During the first years of the decade of the 1630s, Plymouth Plantation laid claim to the local wampum trade in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims collected beads both as tribute from and in trade with the wampum-rich Narragansett and Pequot tribes. They then transported the wampum to their Maine trading posts where they offered the beads to the wampum-poor Abenaki and Pentagoet tribes in trade for beaver skins.122 Since Plymouth controlled the wampum trade, the colony of Massachusetts Bay, established in Boston in 1630, was unable to acquire sufficient wampum to satisfy the needs of its traders and merchants during its initial years.123 Indeed, it seems at first Massachusetts Bay settlers were trading silver and gold coins to the Indians in return for food and other supplies, because the Court of Assistants issued an order prohibiting this practice during its monthly session on March 1, 1630/1.124 Since the colony had an insufficient wampum supply, on March 4, 1634/5, the Massachusetts Bay General Court legislated that musket balls would pass as small change at a farthing each.125 However, during the early 1630s, Massachusetts Bay was quickly expanding, soon far surpassing Plymouth in population and wealth. As Massachusetts grew, the political situation with the Indians rapidly changed. Due to a number of events, in November of 1634 both the Narragansett and Pequot tribes felt it to be in their best interest to shift their alliance from Plymouth to the larger colony of Massachusetts Bay and sent them tribute.126 As a consequence of this realignment, quantities of wampum were annually sent to Massachusetts. Because wampum was a valuable commodity in the fur trade both merchants and the pubic preferred it in place of musket balls or farthing tokens. Thus, just as the farthing musket ball legislation was being enacted some wampum began entering Massachusetts Bay. Lead balls apparently had a short tenure as a small change substitute since they are not mentioned in any contemporary sources other than comments in and about the legislative record. It seems wampum entered the colony and quickly became the small change option of choice. It was so pervasive by 1637 that the General Court considered it necessary to regulate wampum value. On November 15, 1637, the General Court first decreed that wampum should pass at six beads per penny for any sum under a shilling. The court record simply stated, "It was ordered, that wampampege should passe at 6 a penny for any summe vnder 12d."127 The legislation did not assert wampum was to become a small change substitute, rather, the laconic wording of the order implies wampum was already in circulation and that the General Court was simply legislating a standard value and limiting the quantity to be tendered per transaction to prevent disagreements when the beads were employed in daily commerce.

In fact, contemporary sources demonstrate that wampum was being used as small change in Massachusetts Bay before the 1637 legislation was passed. From the Essex County probate records we learn that at her death in 1636, Sarah Dillingham of Ipswich had £1 2s2d in coins in her purse along with 4d in wampum. She also had an additional £3 17s 11d in coins stashed in two small boxes and another box with 10s 4d in wampum.128 In this probate record money clearly refers to coinage, because all commodity monies, such as corn and cattle along with all her other possessions, were individually listed in the inventory and assigned monetary values. This is an unusually detailed description but unfortunately the individuals making the inventory were not numismatists and so did not identify the specific coins or distinguish between blue and white wampum beads. It is likely a portion of this money, if not the majority, was probably English, because the amounts are not easily divisible into Spanish cob coinage. Further, it appears halfpence and patent farthings were not present, since none of the amounts ended with fractions of a penny. Indeed, it is possible the smallest coin was the 2d halfgroat. It is especially interesting to discover in her purse, Mrs. Dillingham was carrying £1 2s 2d in coins and just 4d worth of wampum that she clearly used as small change.

The 1637 General Court Order regarding wampum value was not the final statement. Beads were assigned a higher value in October 1640 but then revised back down to their earlier level in June 1641, which put them back on par with the value in the Connecticut and New Haven colonies.129 During the depression of 1640, English silver was depleted and, for the short term, commodity monies and wampum became more prominent. In the legislation of June 1641, wampum was to pass current in payment of debts for sums up to £10 (a significant increase from the 1637 limit of 12d); then in October of 1643 the limit was lowered to £2 as Spanish-American silver began entering the colony.130 As more Spanish-American silver became available, the inconveniences of wampum became less tolerable. Later in the decade, during the General Court session of October 1648, wampum usage was further curtailed by legislation requiring all beads to be merchantable and strung, thus taking poor quality, blemished and chipped beads out of circulation.131 Seven months later, during the General Court session that opened on May 2, 1649, the legislature ordered that wampum could no longer be used to pay taxes but continued to permit wampum to be used in private exchange.132 It seems that wampum was being devalued at this time, for in the probate estate inventory of John Woody of Roxbury (Suffolk County), dated June 4, 1650, wampum was rated at seven beads per penny rather than the legislated six beads.133 A few months later, in October 1650, the General Court took the devaluation even further. They continued to allow wampum to be used to pay debts up to £2, but the value of the beads was reduced by 25% from six white or three blue per penny to eight white or four blue beads per penny.134

After the Hull mint opened in 1652, the public became even less amenable to accepting wampum from merchants as small change than previously, especially if they had paid with silver. In May of 1657, the House of Deputies of the General Court ruled answering a petition from the Charlestown ferrymen that passengers could not refuse to accept change of a penny or two in wampum, since the lowest denomination coin minted was the threepence.135 It seems that customers who paid with a Massachusetts threepence wanted coin in return, not wampum. Indeed, it appears that with the exception of ferry rides, wampum was rarely used as small change by the late 1650s. Indeed, in the farming communities of Essex County wampum no longer appears as a small change substitute in probate inventories after 1657.136 In May of 1661, wampum was demonetized when the legislation of 1643, allowing the continued use of wampum for amounts up to 40s, was repealed.137 In the following year, the General Court of May 1662 authorized the minting of the Massachusetts twopence. Thus, one could now make a penny purchase by using a threepence and receiving a twopence coin as change.

Wampum passed out of general use as a small change medium in Boston during the 1660s but remained viable in outlying areas, such as the furtrading outpost at Springfield. Wampum also continued to be used in New York and New Jersey as well as in Connecticut, with the last recorded use of wampum as a small change money substitute dating from 1704, when Sarah Kemble Knight mentioned its use in New Haven.138

End Notes

121
Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, vol. 2, 495–521, discussing the probate inventories from the 1670s. Vol. 2, 507 states, "It is remarkable how small is the amount of coin appearing among the items of inventories even as late as 1670. Even where an estate was equal in value to several thousand dollars, it is exceptional if we find a few shillings." He goes on to demonstrate that the quantity of coins mentioned in probate inventories increases somewhat during the last decade of the century. The coins mentioned in inventories from the end of the century include Spanish-American cobs, lion dollars, some English silver and what was described in an inventory as an "Arabian" gold coin. See Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, vol. 2, 514–515.
122
In 1627, Isaac de Rasieres, the chief trading agent and Secretary to the Director-General of New Netherland, made an official state visit to Plymouth in response to the establishment of a trading post at Aptucxet, facing the Dutch controlled Narragansett Bay. This was the first permanent trading post erected by Plymouth. The goal of De Rasieres was to convince the Pilgrims to agree to tap the Maine shores for furs rather than compete against the Dutch. Many of the Pilgrims had lived in Leiden for about a decade before departing for America. Several of them spoke some Dutch and had friends (including their pastor, John Robinson) and relatives who stayed behind in the Netherlands. The Dutch knew the Pilgrims and treated them with courtesy and friendship but clearly viewed them as competitors. De Rasieres explained how the Dutch used wampum at Fort Orange (Albany) when bartering for furs and suggested that the Pilgrims could use wampum in Maine to gain an advantage over other traders in that region. To this end, De Rasieres sold Plymouth beads worth about £50. It took two years for the Pilgrims to dispense this wampum, because, at first, the northern Indians did not value wampum as highly as the Mohawk and Connecticut valley tribes. However, once wampum was introduced into the Maine fur trade, it quickly became popular. Bradford stated that "it was two years before they could put off this small quantity, til the inland people knew of it; and afterwards they could scarce ever get enough for them [that is, the Plymouth traders could scarcely ever get enough wampum to satisfy the Maine Indians]." See William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620–1647, ed. Samuel Eliot Morison (New York, 1952), 202–204, with the quote on 203 and the correspondence between De Rasieres and Bradford on 378–380; see also, Sydney V. James Jr., ed., Three Visitors to Early Plymouth: Letters About the Pilgrim Settlement in New England during its First Seven Years by John Pory, Emmanuel Altham and Isaack De Rasieres (Plymouth, MA, 1963), 63–82; Leon E. Cranmer, Cushnoc: The History and Archaeology of Plymouth Colony Traders on the Kennebec (Augusta, 1990), 25, and Mary W Herman, "Wampum as Money in Northeastern North America," Ethnohistory 3.1 (Winter 1956): 25–26. The Cushnoc trading post on the Kennebec River (established 1628) and the Pentagoet post (1629) at the mouth of the Pentagoet River, were the main sources of fur for Plymouth. In 1632 Plymouth Plantation shipped 1,348 pounds of beaver to England, while in 1633 the total rose to 3,366 pounds and then increased to 3,738 pounds in 1634. See Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 288–289 and 261, where he states concerning the 1633 shipment, ".. .much of it coat beaver which yielded 20s per pound and some of it above, and of otter skins 346 sold at a good price." Plymouth’s success in trading wampum for furs was noted by John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay, who added to his journal entry for August, 12, 1634, that "Our neighbors of Plim: had great trade allso this year at kenebecke, so as mr. winslowe Carried with him into England this yeare about 20: hhdes. [hogsheads] of Beauer the greatest parte whereof was traded for wampompege." Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 124–125 and Winthrop, Winthrop's Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol. 1, 131.
123
In Massachusetts Bay, coin was supplemented by a variety of commodity monies, of which, corn became far more significant that beaver. As early as October 18, 1631, the Court of Assistants ordered that, "corne shall passe for payement of all debts at the vsuall rate it is solde for, except money or beaver be expressely named;" see Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 92. Because beaver was not abundant in Massachusetts Bay, pelts were never as common a money substitute in Boston as they were in Maine, the Connecticut Valley and New Netherland; but corn remained a viable money substitute in Massachusetts Bay. During the General Court session of March 4, 1634/5, a tax was repealed that had been instituted on June 5, 1632, assessing a 12d per pound tax for beaver and it was ordered that merchantable beaver would pass in trade at 10s per pound. This is the last regulation passed by the General Court regarding beaver as a money substitute in Boston. During the later 1630s, beaver continued to be a substantial business for the Pynchon family in Springfield and for Simon Willard in the Merrimac Valley, but it was clear beaver would not drive the Massachusetts Bay economy. Boston merchants that accumulated a supply of wampum typically sold it to traders in Springfield or the Merrimac Valley. In the 1640s and later, beaver continued to be used as a medium of exchange at the frontier trading posts, but it was not used in this manner in the rest of Massachusetts Bay. For the General Court Order of 1634/5, see Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 140, items 207 and 210. On the beaver trade in Massachusetts, see Ruth McIntyre, "John Pynchon and the New England Fur Trade, 1652–1676," in John Pynchon, The Pynchon Papers, vol. 2, Selections from the Account Books of John Pynchon, 1651–1697, ed. Carl Bridenbaugh (Boston, 1985), 3–70; for a less authoritative outline, see Francis Xavier Moloney, The Fur Trade in New England, 1620–1676 (Cambridge, MA, 1931; reprint, Hamden, CT, 1967), 46–66. The Pynchon trading post in Springfield was established by William Pynchon in 1636 and continued under his son John, after William returned to England in 1652. (Springfield, then called Agawam, is located at the head of the Connecticut River, thus affording access to the Connecticut Valley). See John Pynchon, The Pynchon Papers, vol. 1, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654–1700, ed. Carl Bridenbaugh, (Boston, 1982); John Pynchon, The Pynchon Papers, vol. 2, Selections from the Account Books of John Pynchon, 1651–1697, ed. Carl Bridenbaugh (Boston, 1985); and Joseph Henry Smith, Colonial Justice in Western Massachusetts, 1639–1702: The Pynchon Court Record, an Original Judges’ Diary of the Administration of Justice in the Springfield Courts in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Cambridge, MA, 1961).
124
Indians considered coins to be desirable as jewelry, hence the coin necklaces discussed above at footnotes 21 and 58. They did not use coins as currency. For the order, see Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 83, "It is ordered, that if any person within the lymitts of this pattent, doe trade, trucke, or sell any money either siluer or golde, to any Indian, or any man that knowes of any that shall soe doe, & conceale the same, shall forfeit twenty for one."
125
"It is likewise ordered, that musket bullets, of a full boare, shall pass currently for a farthing a peece, provided that noe man be compelled to take above xiid att a tyme of them." See Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 137. See also Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, 106–107.
126
The smallpox epidemic that erupted in November of 1633 and ravaged the Indian tribes throughout New England, shifted the balance of power among the various tribes. In 1634, the Pequots attacked a group of Narragansett Indians that were traveling through Pequot territory on their way to the Dutch House of Hope trading post. In retaliation, Jacob Elekens, the Dutch trader at the House of Hope, seized Tatobem, the Pequot sachem. After the sachem’s ransom of 140 fathoms of wampum had been paid, Elekens murdered Tatobem. In retaliation for Eleken’s duplicity the Pequot’s burned the post. The Dutch then replaced Elekens with Pieter Barentsen, who made peace with the Indians, but was not able to regain their trust. The situation in the Connecticut Valley further deteriorated due to various intratribal Pequot rivalries following the murder of their sachem. Additionally, the Narragansett Indians were troubled by the alliance Plymouth Colony had made with their enemy, sachem Massasoit of the Pokanoket tribe. At this point, both of the powerful and wampum-rich warring nations, the Narragansetts and Pequots, independently schemed to become the dominant tribe in the area by making an alliance with Massachusetts Bay. Both tribes sent delegations to Boston within days of each other, at the end of October 1634, at which time Massachusetts Bay brokered a temporary peace between the two nations and began to receive wampum tribute from them. See Winthrop’s entry of Nov. 6, 1634, Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, ed. Dunn, Savage and Yeandle, 133–135 and Winthrop, Winthrop’s Journal, ed. Hosmer, vol.1, 138–140. However, the truce did not last and each tribe continued to attempt to dominate the other. By 1636, the situation had deteriorated into the Pequot Wars in which Massachusetts Bay and the other Puritan colonies allied with the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes against the Pequots. For an excellent analysis of this war and a description of the preliminary events leading up to the conflict with a significant discussion on the role of wampum, see Cave, The Pequot War, with his description of the events of October and November, 1634 on 69–71. For a map of the various Indian territories in the Connecticut Valley at the time and firsthand accounts of the war, see Orr, History of the Pequot War.
127
Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 208.
128
In all there was £5 in coins and 10s8d in wampum as follows: "in a box: in money, 2li. 5s. 4d.; in another box, 1li. 12s. 6d.; in her purse, 1li 2s. 2d.; in wampompege, 4d.; in a boxe, 10s. 4d." Dow, Probate Records of Essex County, 1: 3–5 with the quote on 5. The inventory is undated but was probably taken not long after Dillingham’s last will and testament, dated July 13, 1636. In the will Dillingham stated that she was "weake & sick" and presumably died soon thereafter.
129
In October of 1640, white beads were legislated at a farthing value and black or blue beads at a halfpenny (that is, four white or two blue or black beads per penny) with a limit of 12d per transaction unless the receiver was willing to accept additional quantities. See Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 302. Also, ibid., vol. 1, 329, for the legislation of June 2, 1641, stating "It is ordered, that wampampege shall passe currant at 6 a penny for any summe under 10h [li for pounds], for debts hereafter to bee made." It is interesting to note that the 1641 legislation simply mentioned beads were six per penny, as had been stated in 1637. There was no specific distinction made between white and black or blue beads. It has been suggested that the 1637 and 1641 statements did not refer to all color beads but only to white beads at six per penny, implying black or blue beads would be three per penny, which was the rate at that time in the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven. See Donald Taxay, Money of the American Indians and Other Primitive Currencies of the Americas (New York, 1970), 134. I suspect this is the case, but it seems there may have been a reason to only mention the lower valued beads. It is interesting to note that a New Haven statute explains some colonists preferred the white beads and were reluctant to accept the higher rated black beads. An order issued by the New Haven General Court in December 1645 stated that white beads would by six per penny and black beads three per penny but went on to explain: "And some men being at present loath to receive the blacke, it is ordered that any payment vnder 20s, halfe white & halfe blacke shall be accounted currant pay..." [followed by a provision requiring the wampum to be merchantable stating that the only exception to the above order would be ".. .if any question arise about the goodness of the wampum, whether white or blacke, Mr. Goodyeare, if the parties repaire vnto him, is intreated to judge therin."]. See Charles J. Hoadly, ed., Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, from 1638 to 1649 (Hartford, 1857), 211. For the dating to December, see Edward E. Atwater, History of the Colony of New Haven to its Absorption into Connecticut; with Supplementary History and Personnel of the Towns of Branford, Guilford, Milford, Stratford, Norwalk, Southold, etc. (Meriden, CT, 1902), 212.. This reluctance to accept black beads may be a reason Massachusetts Bay legislation of 1637 and 1641 focused only on white bead value.
130
Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 329 and vol. 2, 48. Unfortunately the lower limit in the 1643 legislation was not recorded (there is a blank space left open for the amount that was never filled in), but based on the 1661 legislation, quoted below in footnote 137, it appears the limit was 40s, that is, £2.
131
Ibid., vol. 2, 261 and vol. 3, 146. Circulating wampum was required to be unblemished and whole and as a temporary experiment it was to be strung in one of the following eight values: white beads were to be in lengths of a penny, 3d, 12d or 5s; while black beads were to be strung in lengths of 2d, 6d, 2s 6d or 10s. The order read "It is ordered, for triall until the next Court, that all passable or payable peage henceforth shalbe intire, without breaches, both the white & the black, without deforminge spotts, sutably strunge in eyght knowne parcels; the peny, 3d, 12d, 5s, in white; the 2d, 6d, 2s 6d, & ten shillings, in blacke." (quoted from Shurtleff, vol. 3, 146, the House of Deputies version). The problem of poor quality wampum was first addressed in New Netherland during the administration of Director General Willem Kieft in the Ordinance of April 18, 1641, and then briefly mentioned in the New Haven legislation of December 1645 quoted above in footnote 129, where wampum quality was to be adjudicated by Stephan Goodyear, a local merchant, member of the General Court and holder of several offices. Also, we discover from New Haven legislation of 1648 that the Massachusetts Bay law of October 1648, was, in part, based on an agreement made by the Commissioners of the United Colonies at their meeting in Plymouth in September 1648. On October 9, 1648, at a meeting of the New Haven General Court it was recorded, "The Governor acquainted the court that the Commissioners have ordered to command it to ye severall generall courts that wampum should not be forced vpon any man for payment which is not in some measure suitably stringed, & if any stone wampum be presented, it be broken" [that is, the stone wampum was to be destroyed and discarded]. See Hoadly, ed., Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, 405 and my discussion in "Money Substitutes in New Netherland and Early New York: Wampum," at http:// www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/NNWampum.html (last accessed December 25, 2006). This is an unlinked section of Louis Jordan, The Coins of Colonial and Early America, a website of texts and images based on the coins in the Department of Special Collections, University of Notre Dame Libraries with additional images from the Colonial Newsletter Foundation photofiles, 1996 and with updates at http://www.coins.nd.edu/ ColCoin/index.html.
132
Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 2, 279 and 3: 153 and 167. The House of Magistrates agreed on May 4th, "Voted, that peage shall still remayne passable from man to man, according to the lawe in force" (Shurtleff, 3: 153) and then during that same General Court session on May 16th legislated, "Itt is ordered, that it shall not be in the liberty of any toune [town] or person to pay peage to the country rate, not shall the Treasurer accept thereof from time to time" (Shurtleff, vol. 3, 167).
133
Massachusetts Archives Collection, Volume 15B, Estates 1636–1671, [limited to Suffolk County] page 9 b states "Item in peage at 7 a penny, in ye box— 01 : 05 : " The total comes to £1 5s; the pence placeholders are blank in the document, so I used dashes to make it clear there are three columns. The inventory also has a second wampum entry "Item in peage at Boston — 02 : 08 : —," which totals to £2 8s. The inventory starts on page 9a but both wampum entries are on page 9b. This is an unpublished document in the Massachusetts State Archives, Boston, Massachusetts.
134
Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 4, pt. 1, 36. The 1650 legislation valued a white bead at half-a-farthing and a blue bead at a farthing. The legislation stated, "Itt is ordered, that wampam peage, ffiffteene dajes after this present sessions of Courte, shall passe currant in pajment to the vallew of forty shillings, the white at eight a penny, and the blacke at fower, so as they be entire, without breaches or deforming spots, except in pajment of countrje rates to the Treasurer, which no towne nor person may doe, nor he accept thereof, from time to time."
135
Ibid., vol. 3: 432 and vol. 4, pt. 1, 296, with the latter version stating that regarding the petition of Francis Hudson and John Burrage, the farmers (i.e., toll recipients) of the Charlestown ferry, "in case of change of money, this country coyne being not in smaller peeces then sixpence and three pence, it shall not be lawfull for any passenger to refuse to receave one penny or two pence in good peage, to make theire change more easy & ready."
136
The Essex County probate inventory of the estate of Thomas Scott of Ipswich, taken on September 20, 1657, included 2s 6d in wampum and appears to be the last inventory among the Essex County probate records where wampum is listed as a small change money substitute. Subsequent references are for larger amounts of wampum that appear to have been treated as a commodity for the fur trade rather than as a small change substitute. The probate inventory of Joseph Jewett, a merchant in Rowley, dated February 24, 1660/1, lists £1 5s in wampum, but includes the wampum among his possessions rather than with his money. Dow, Probate Records of Essex County, 1: 258 and 328.

Small Change in the Middle Atlantic and Chesapeake Regions after 1660

The history of coinage during the period from 1660 until Queen Anne’s Proclamation of 1704, along with the numerous attempts during that time to advance Spanish silver, is a lengthy episode that is well beyond the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say that by the close of the century some Spanish-American silver was circulating in all the English colonies, even in the tobacco colonies of Bermuda, Virginia, and Maryland with an influx of lion dollars during the last quarter of the century in the Middle Atlantic region.139

As the coastal beaver supply was depleted and the fur trade moved further inland, the economic incentive to use wampum as a small change substitute declined dramatically. During the last quarter of the seventeenth century, wampum use was marginalized along the Atlantic seaboard. By 1700 it was rarely used. Just as Massachusetts Bay had demonetized wampum in 1661 and replaced it with the twopence in 1662, populated areas all along the coast were now looking for small change coins to use with whatever silver might be available. Additionally, in newer settlements as well as in less populated rural areas where silver was rarely encountered and commodity exchange was the norm, there was a desire to acquire inexpensive coppers to facilitate exchange, thereby attracting craftsmen and merchants to boost the local economy. Thus, both larger, more populated areas, as well as newer and rural coastal settlements wanted small change.

We find a variety of coppers entering the Middle Atlantic and Chesapeake regions during this era. A few copper Lord Baltimore pennies, called denaria (Pl. 7, 75), have been recovered in the vicinity of St. Mary’s City, Maryland.140 Although production of this denomination was very limited, the coppers did assist, to some degree, in addressing the small change shortage at St. Mary’s City during a period of growth in the 1660s. Also, the unpublished recoveries of patent farthings at St. Mary’s City, mentioned earlier, may be from this period as well as the Charles I "rose" farthing recovered from the Clark and Lake trading post on Arrowsic Island, Maine, and the Charles I patent farthing found by Hardy Phippen during the mid-nineteenth century in Salem, Massachusetts.141 Furthermore, it is likely the two hoards of patent farthings discussed above, which were deposited in the ground no earlier than the mid–1660s at Yorktown first arrived in Virginia during this era.142 At a previous Coinage of the Americas Conference, John Kleeberg discussed the New Yorke in America Token of ca. 1670 (Pl. 7, 77) in relation to the need for small change.143 He also discussed the use of some Commonwealth era English merchant tokens in America at that time.144 Merchant tokens (Pl. 7, 78) have been found in locations as diverse as the Hamptons on Long Island,145 Gloucester City,146 Moorestown and Evesham Township in West Jersey,147 Providence, Maryland,148 as well as Jamestown, Virginia.149 These tokens were probably brought over to America after Charles I i demonetized them in 1672, replacing them with the first regal coppers.150 Another demonetized coinage that made its way to America in 1681 is the topic of the present volume: the St. Patrick coppers. A year later, in 1682, a London newspaper reported that forty Quakers and their families departed Bristol on the Unicorn heading for Pennsylvania with 300 pounds worth of halfpence and farthings.151 It seems that patent farthings, merchant tokens, and other demonetized coppers were shipped to America during this period. They were used to replace wampum as small change in more populated areas, while in newly settled and rural coastal areas they were used to stimulate local trade and assist in developing a money based economy.

During this era, the colonial economies were growing, more settlers were arriving and new cities were being established. In the Middle Atlantic region, New York had been acquired from the Dutch, the first Quaker settlers arrived at Philadelphia, West Jersey was established and the first significant town was being built in Maryland at Annapolis, which soon became the capital of the province. Throughout this period and over the next century, there were continual chAllenges to increasing the money supply. The ingenuity of the colonists in adapting to these chAllenges and the diversity of their evolving responses is what makes colonial numismatics such a fascinating, complex, and rewarding field of study.

End Notes

137
Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, 4, pt. 2: 4, stating, "On observation of much inconvenience of the lawe for payment of forty shillings in wampumpeage in satisfaction of debts & payments, [this refers to the legislation of October 1643] except to the Treasurer, page 78 [this is a citation to the May 2, 1649 regulation forbidding tax payments in wampum], it is ordered by this Court & the authoritje thereof, that the sajd lawe be henceforth repealed." Also see, Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, vol. 1, 37–46.
138
Sarah Kemble Knight, The Journal of Madame Knight, ed. George Parker Winship (Boston, 1920; reprint, Whitefish, MT, [2000?]), 40–41. In her entry dated October 7, 1704, Madame Knight explained how transactions were made at a New Haven store. She found the entire procedure archaic and rather quaint and felt the need to describe and explain it in some detail. She explained that items were acquired using pay (that is, commodities at prices set by the General Court), money (i.e., coin), pay as money (namely, commodities at one-third below the legislated rate) or trust (that is, credit). She went on to describe each category and under money explained, "mony is pieces of Eight, Ryalls, or Boston or Bay shillings (as they call them) or Good hard money, as sometimes silver coin is termed by them; also Wampum, vizt. Indian beads wch serves for change."
139
On lion dollars, see Mossman, Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, 65–66; and for the influx of lion dollars in the Middle Atlantic during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, see Jordan, "Lord Baltimore Coinage," 2721–2722, and especially n. 233. On the advancement of silver in Bermuda during this period, see the brief summary in Jordan, "Somer Islands ‘Hogge Money’ of 1616," 2489–2490.
140
The coin is called a denarium (neuter), not a denarius (masculine), hence the nominative plural is denaria not denarii. Since there is little information available regarding specimens of the Baltimore denarium, I am providing a passage from my forthcoming work on Baltimore coinage (but without the accompanying footnotes that cite my sources) summarizing the current census: "[1] There is only one known example of the Baltimore denarium that has been handed down over time, all the others are ground recoveries. This coin, often graded as extremely fine or uncirculated, displays sharp die impressions. Its provenance can be traced back to early nineteenth century London. James Bindley acquired the specimen at a London auction for £12 1s; all that was known of its previous lineage is that the item had been consigned to the auction by a Mr. Hodsol. Rogers Ruding stated that he examined the coin while it was in the Bindley collection, describing the denarium in 1817 in the first edition of his Annals of the Coinage of Britain, vol. 2, 309, and plating a drawing of the copper in "Supplement Part II," plate VII, item 12, in vol. 4 of the Annals, published in 1819. The coin passed through several English collections until the dealer Frederick Lincoln obtained it at an auction for the American collector Joseph J. Mickley of Philadelphia in 1859. Charles I. Bushnell acquired the specimen for $370 in W Elliot Woodward’s auction of the Mickley collection on October 28, 1867. Since then the coin has been in various American collections, most recently auctioned by Stack’s on May 11, 2004, in the second part of the auction of the John J. Ford Jr., Collection. [2] A second denarium surfaced in the early twentieth century. This is a corroded ground recovery acquired by Robert C. H. Brock that was donated to the Philadelphia Mint Collection, listed in the 1912 edition of the printed catalog of their holdings. In 1923, that coin, along with the rest of the mint collection was transferred to the Smithsonian, where it now resides in the national numismatic collection as item 1988.0063.0024. [3] A third holed specimen was identified by Malcolm Storer in a group of coins donated by Dr. S. A. Green to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in February of 1917. Since that time other specimens have been recovered from the ground. [4] A corroded denarium, clearly a ground recovery specimen, was donated to the Smithsonian by the numismatic dealer Thomas Warfield in 1965 as having been "found in Maryland in recent years;" it is catalogued as item 263992.0001. [5] Another example, found in 1977 by a college student using a metal detector, was offered in the Bowers and Ruddy auction of February 9, 1978. Subsequently, that denarium passed to John Roper and was described and plated in the Stack’s 1980 auction of the Roper collection. [6–8] Additionally, three more denaria have been uncovered at St. Mary’s City, Maryland, where one was discovered in a garden several decades ago and then donated to the St. Mary’s Historical Society; two others have been uncovered more recently in the archeological excavations of seventeenth century Historic St. Mary’s City. All of these specimens were produced from the same set of dies. [9] On July 12, 2007, Stacks reported in their eNews announcements that another denarium was unearthed in the spring of 2007 by "A pair of metal detectorists working in the historic riverside community of Middlesex County, Virginia—near where the Rappahannock River meets the Chesapeake Bay." This area is across the Potomac and about fifty miles down the coast from St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The coin was auctioned on August 5, 2007, at Stack’s Milwaukee sale, The J.A. Sherman Collection, lot 213, pages 78–79 in the auction catalogue, where it realized $41, 400. This listing is not exhaustive for Mike Hodder in the Stack’s Ford Catalogue, part II, lot 274, mentions another example, unknown to me that is only listed as [10] in "a private collection." There are also rumors that a few additional specimens have been uncovered but the discovery remains unannounced and the finds are being kept off the market for the present. I suspect further specimens may be uncovered in archaeological digs and by metal detectorists along the Potomac side of Maryland and possibly in nearby areas of Virginia. I inspected the item that was cataloged as an original denarium in the Maryland Historical Society (gift of Frederick A, Dolfoeld, 1945.81) and found it is not an original but rather a worn Idler token with the advertisement inscription removed. The denaria ground recoveries from Maryland and especially the specimens found during the controlled archeological dig of seventeenth century sites in St. Mary’s City, verify the denarium is an original colonial coin dating from the time of Lord Baltimore rather than a later fabrication and that this coin did circulate in America."
141
See footnote 27 above on the St. Mary’s City recoveries and footnote 33 on the Clark and Lake specimen and the farthing from Salem, Massachusetts.
142
See above at footnote 26 on the Virginia patent farthing hoards. Possibly the farthings recovered at the Chesapean Site, Virginia Beach, datable to 1645–1665, and the "rose" farthing from the River Creek site in York County, Virginia, in a context of ca. 1650–1680 (both cited in footnote 25 above), also originally entered the colony during the 1660s.
143
John M. Kleeberg, "The New Yorke in America Token," in Money of Pre-Federal America, ed. John M. Kleeberg (New York, 1992), 15–38. Kleeberg suggests that the farthing-sized New Yorke in America token was produced in England as a trade token for Francis Lovelace while he was governor of New York (1668–1673). Most probably the surviving examples were patterns, for they were produced in two metals, brass and pewter, in very limited quantities. Although Kleeberg does not specifically state that the token was intended for use in America, he does discuss the lack of small change in New York at that time. But one could infer that the New Yorke token was produced in England at the expense of Governor Lovelace to be a small change coin for the colony of New York but that it was never minted as a regular issue. Kleeberg suggests that the token was probably planned and produced soon before 1672, but was never put into general production, because all trade tokens were demonetized in that year in favor of a standard regal copper coinage. Furthermore, Kleeberg stated that if the token was intended for use in America another reason to stop the project was that on August 9, 1673, the Dutch recaptured New York, ending Lovelace’s tenure as governor and thus bringing an unforeseen but immediate halt to all of his projects. New York was subsequently returned to the English in the Treaty of Westminster, signed on February 9, 1674.
144
Kleeberg, "The New Yorke in America Token," 35–38.
145
A hoard of eight trade tokens from Maidstone in Kent was uncovered in the Hamptons, Long Island. The find included the following items: Boyne, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 1, 374–375, Kent, varieties 380–381 (twice), 385, 392, 393, 397, and 398). See Kleeberg, "The New Yorke in America Token," 35–38.
146
Two London trade tokens minted in the 1660s were found in Gloucester City, New Jersey (near Philadelphia), during the excavation of the house of John Reading, the Clerk of the Court and a Proprietor of West Jersey. One recovery is a farthing token of Dorothy Hulet, New Street, Covent Garden (Boyne, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century, 1: 685, London, variety 2059) and the other is a halfpenny of Percival Towle, a baker in School Lane, Ratcliffe, which is now part of the Borough of Stepney (Boyne, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 1, 738, London, variety 2753). See also Ronald Thomas and Martha Schiek. "A Late Seventeenth-Century House in Gloucester City, New Jersey," Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 43 (1988): 9; and Richard Veit, Digging New Jersey’s Past; Historical Archaeology in the Garden State (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002), 37. The John Reading excavation in Gloucester City also uncovered a half-real thought to be from either Lima or Potosi, two unidentified copper disks, and a well-worn copper coin, which is only identified as probably belonging to the reign of George I since the portrait faces right. See Thomas and Schiek: 9 and Ronald Thomas, "An 18th-Century New Jersey Connection: Percivall Towle and Thomas Scattergood," Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 49 (1994): 111.
147
A metal detectorist, Wayne H. Shelby, recovered two specimens of the penny token of Will Stanley of Galway, Ireland, dated 1659 (Boyne, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century, 2: 1390, Ireland, variety 482). One specimen was found in Moorestown at a location the author identifies as site 34, while the other was located in Evesham Township, New Jersey at what the author refers to as site 15. Although not found in an archaeological context, it is likely these tokens arrived during the same era as the trade tokens recovered at Gloucester City. All three locations are in Burlington County, West Jersey: Gloucester City is just outside Philadelphia, Moorestown is 17 miles northeast of Gloucester City, and Evesham Township is about 7 miles south of Moorestown. See Wayne H. Shelby, "Recovery, Documentations and Evaluation of Two Identical 17th Century Irish Tokens in Burlington County, New Jersey," The C4 Newsletter 15.1 (Spring, 2007): 1014, with illustrations of both specimens of the recovered Stanley tokens.
148
According to Wing and Mumford a City of Bristol farthing, dated 1660 (Boyne, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 1, 241, Gloucestershire, variety 16), was recovered at Greenbury Point, the main harbor for Providence, Maryland. The precise archaeological context of the recovery is not reported but it appears to be in a context of the 1670s since Wing mentions the farthing as an example of a foreign import, presumably related to the period of the voyage of the tobacco ship Constant Friendship, which docked at Greenbury Point in early January 1672 and remained there until the spring. Wing’s very informative booklet includes an edition of an account of that voyage. Mumford includes a better photograph of the token with more details on the location of the recovery, but does not give a dating context for the find. See Willard R. Mumford, Barter, Bits, Bills, and Tobacco: The Story of Money in Early Maryland, Studies in Local History, [no. 5], Maryland State Archives Publication, no. 2142 (Annapolis, 2002), 2, figure 2 and John F. Wing, "Bound by God...for Merryland": The Voyage of the Constant Friendship 1671–1672 (Annapolis, 1999), 3, figure Mumford mentions several eighteenth century recoveries from the excavation of the Jonas Green house in Annapolis including a two-öre Swedish copper of 1746, a quarter of a four-reales and a one real. See Mumford, Barter, Bits, Bills, and Tobacco, 1. Furthermore, he illustrates several other coins (Portuguese, Swedish, German and Spanish and English coins of the 1750s–1770s) in figure 11 on page 10, but gives no information as to whether the coins were actual archaeological recoveries from Maryland sites or if they are simply representative foreign coins of the period from modern collections.
149
A Portsmouth token of Henry Jenner, dated 1656 (Boyne, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 1, 267, Hampshire, variety 147), was discovered in the Jamestown settlement excavations twenty feet east of structure 21. Also, at James Fort archaeologists recovered a London halfpenny token of John Langston from the Globe Tavern in Chancery Lane dated 1667 (Boyne, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century, vol.1, 555, London, variety 512). For the Jenner token, see Cotter, Archeological Excavations at Jamestown, 60 and on 191 the lower portion of plate 89, bottom row, second from the left; an illustration of the Globe Tavern token is in Kelso, Jamestown, 207.
150
The tokens were officially demonetized by a royal decree of August 16, 1672, which stated they were not to be used after the first of September. Additional legislation was passed on February 20, 1673/4, and a proclamation was issued on December 5, 1674, reiterating the ban. All these documents are included in Peck, English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins, 605–607, Appendix 8h–8j.
151
The Loyal Impartial Mercury or News both Forreign and Domestick, no. 24, Tuesday October 3 to Friday October 6, 1682: 1, col. 2, "From Bristol," reprinted in The Colonial Newsletter 49 (July 1977): 589. The text of the article reads, "From Bristol. They write that another Ship is fitting out for Pensylvania on board which 40 Quakers together with their families will imbarq; and amongst other things tis said they carry over with them 300 pounds-worth of Half-pence, and Farthings which in that Colony go currant for twice their value and ’tis added that some discontented Presbyterians will Likewise accompany them." Records confirm the Unicorn arrived in Philadelphia, in December 1682. Also see, Edward Barnsley, "Importance of Halfpence & Farthings on the Unicorn," The Colonial Newsletter 50 (November 1977): 609.

Acknowledgments

Appreciation and thanks are due to Oliver Hoover and Roger Siboni for organizing this COAC conference, to Robert Hoge for hosting the event and to the Stack family for generously underwriting the conference costs. I also owe special thanks to Philip Mossman for reading and providing detailed comments on two versions of this text and to Oliver Hoover for performing the time consuming tasks of proofreading and editing the text as well as selecting illustrations for this paper from specimens in the ANS collection based on a list I provided. Further, Gary Trudgen commented on an early draft of this paper and Jim Rosen discussed various aspects of the text with me at the 2006 C4 meeting in Boston. Also, Alan Stahl provided several helpful comments on the Venetian copper soldo series. Additionally, I am indebted to the following archaeologists and librarians for answering my inquiries and/or assisting me during my visits to examine their holdings: Jeffrey Brain of the Popham Colony excavation; Silas D. Hurry and Henry Miller of the Historic Saint Mary’s City archaeological staff; Bly Straube, Chief Curator for the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities; Peggy Baker, Director, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts, for providing me with extracts from several issues of the Mayflower Descendant; Karin Goldstein, Chief Archaeologist at Plimoth Plantation; Carrie Elliot, Archivist at the Kingston, Massachusetts, Public Library; John Mayer, Museum Curator for the Maine Historical Society, Portland, Maine; the staff of the Massachusetts State Archives in Boston and the staff of the James Duncan Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

References

Ashley, Linda. "The John Alden House, Duxbury, Massachusetts: A Narrative History." Alden House Historic Site by the Alden Kindred of America, Inc. Website at http://www.alden.org/our_house/househistory.htm (last accessed December 23, 2006).
Aspinwall, William. A Volume Relating to the Early History of Boston Containing the Aspinwall Notarial Records from 1644 to 1651. Edited by William Henry Whitmore and Walter K. Watkins. Boston: Municipal Printing Office, 1903.
Atwater, Edward E. History of the Colony of New Haven to its Absorption into Connecticut; with Supplementary History and Personnel of the Towns of Branford, Guilford, Milford, Stratford, Norwalk, Southold, etc. Compiled by Robert Atwater Smith, assisted by Bessie E. Beach and Lucy M. Hewitt. Meriden, Connecticut: Journal Publishing Co., 1902.
Bailyn Bernard. The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1955.
Baker, Emerson W. The Clarke & Lake Company: The Historical Archaeology of a Seventeenth-Century Maine Settlement. Occasional Publications in Maine Archaeology, vol. 4. Augusta: Maine Historic Preservation Commission, 1985.
Barka, Norman Forthum, Historic Sites Archaeology at Portland Point, New Brunswick, Canada: 1631–c. 1850 A.D. Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1965.
Barnes, Thomas G., "Thomas Lechford and the Earliest Lawyering in Massachusetts, 1638–1641." In Law in Colonial Massachusetts 16301800. Edited by Daniel R. Coquillette: 3–38. A conference held 6 and 7 November 1981 by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, distributed by the University Press of Virginia, 1984.
Barnsley, Edward. "Importance of Halfpence & Farthings on the Unicorn." The Colonial Newsletter 50 (November 1977): 609.
Bateson, J. D. Coinage in Scotland. London: Spink & Son Ltd., 1997.
Baxter, James Phinney, ed. The Trelawney Papers. Collection of the Maine Historical Society, 2nd ser., Documentary History of the State of Maine, vol. 3. Portland: Hoyt, Fogg, and Donham for the Maine Historical Society, 1884.
Beaudry, Mary C., and Douglas C. George. "Old Data, New Findings: 1940s Archeology at Plymouth Reexamined." American Archeology 6, no. 1 (1987): 20–30.
Beaudry, Mary C., Karin J. Goldstein and Craig Chartier. "Archaeology of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts." Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 155–185.
Berry, Paul S. "The DK Token – Revisited." The Colonial Newsletter: A Research Journal in Early American Numismatics 46, no. 3, serial no. 132 (December 2006): 3065–68.
——. "The Numismatic Record of Ferryland." Avalon Chronicles 7 (2002): 1–71.
Besly, Edward. English Civil War Coin Hoards. British Museum Occasional Papers, no. 51. London: British Museum, Department of Coins and Medals, 1987.
Boyne, William. Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland, by Corporations, Merchants, Tradesmen, Etc. Edited by George C. Williamson. Rev. ed. 2 vols. London: Stock, 18891891. Reprint, New York: Bert Franklin, 1970.
Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation 1620–1647. Edited by Samuel Eliot Morison. New York: Knopf, 1952.
Bradley, Robert L. and Helen B. Camp. The Forts of Pemaquid, Maine: An Archaeological and Historical Study. Occasional Publications in Maine Archaeology, no. 10, Augusta: Maine Historic Preservation Commission, 1994.
Brain, Jeffrey, P. "Popham: The First English Colony in New England." Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 87–116.
Brain, Jeffrey P and the staff of the Popham Project, Popham Colony: The First English Colony in New England, Fort St. George 1607–1608. Website at http://www.pophamcolony.org (last accessed November 24, 2006).
Browne, William Hand, ed. Archives of Maryland. Vol. 1, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland January 1637/8—September 1664. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1883.
——. Archives of Maryland. Vol. 2, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland April 1666–June 1676. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1885.
——. Archives of Maryland. Vol. 4, Judicial and Testamentary Business of the Provincial Court 1649/50–1657. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1891.
Bruce, Philip Alexander. Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People Based Upon Original and Contemporaneous Records. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1895. Reprint, New York: Peter Smith, 1935.
[Butler, Nathaniel]. The Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands. Edited by J. Henry Lefroy. Hakluyt Society Publications, 1st ser., vol. 65. London: 1882. Reprint, New York: Burt Franklin, 1964. [In his introduction to this edition Lefroy suggested the manuscript might have been written by John Smith, but subsequently, handwriting analysis has demonstrated the author was Butler.]
Cave, Alfred A. The Pequot War. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996.
Challis, Christopher E., ed. A New History of the Royal Mint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Chartier, Craig L. Plymouth Archaeology Rediscovery Project (PART). Website at http://Plymoutharch.tripod.com/index.html (last accessed December 14, 2006).
Churchill, Edwin A. "A Most Ordinary Lot of Men: The Fishermen at Richmond Island, Maine, in the Early Seventeenth Century." The New England Quarterly 57, no. 2 (June, 1984): 184–204.
Churchyard, Thomas. Sorrovvfull verses made on [the] death of our most Soueraigne Lady Queen Elizabeth, my Gracious Mistresse. Broadside [London: s. n., 1603?].
Clarke, Hermann Frederick. John Hull: A Builder of the Bay Colony. Portland, Maine: Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1940.
Colgan, Edward. For Want of Good Money: the Story of Ireland’s Coinage. Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland: Wordwell, 2003.
Colony of Avalon Foundation. Colony of Avalon. A partnered project of the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site and the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Website at http://www.heritage.nf.ca/ avalon/default.html (last accessed November 24, 2006).
Corpus Nummorum Italicorum: Primo tentativo di un catalago generale delle monete medievali e moderne coniate in Italia o da Italiani in altre Paesi, vol. 6, Veneto (Zecche Minori) Dalmazia-Albania. Roma: Tipografia della R. Accademia de’Lincei. Reprint, Bologna: Forni, 1982.
Cotter, John L. Archeological Excavations at Jamestown Colonial National Historical Park and Jamestown National Historic Site, Virginia. U. S. Dept. of the Interior, Archaeological Research Series, no. 4. Washington: National Park Service, 1958 [1959].
Cranmer, Leon E. Cushnoc: The History and Archaeology of Plymouth Colony Traders on the Kennebec. Occasional Publications in Maine Archaeology, no. 7. Augusta: Maine Historic Preservation Commission, 1990.
Deetz, James and Patricia Scott Deetz. The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony. New York: W H. Freeman, 2000.
Dow, George Francis, ed. Probate Records of Essex County Massachusetts. Vol. 1, 1635–1664. Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Institute, 1916.
——. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts. Vol. 1, 1636–1656. Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Institute, 1911.
Fairburn, William Armstrong. Merchant Sail. 6 vols. Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, 1945–1955.
Ferguson, Alice L. L. and T. D. Stewart. "An Ossuary near Piscataway Creek with a Report on the Skeletal Remains." American Antiquity 6 (1940): 4–18.
Fernandez, Angela. "Record-Keeping and Other Troublemaking: Thomas Lechford and Law Reform in Colonial Massachusetts." Law and History Review 23 (summer 2005), consulted online at http://www. historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/23.2/fernandez.html (last accessed December 29, 2006).
Faulkner, Alaric and Gretchen Fearon Faulkner. The French at Pentagoet 16351674: An Archaeological Portrait of the Acadian Frontier. Occasional Publications in Maine Archaeology, no. 5. Augusta: Maine Historic Preservation Commission and the New Brunswick Museum, 1987.
Flynn, David, T. "Credit in the Colonial American Economy." In EH.Net Encyclopedia. Edited by Robert Whaples. Contributed on January 26, 2004, http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/flynn.colonial credit (last accessed November 14, 2006).
——. "The Duration of Book Credit in Colonial New England." Historical Methods 38, no. 4 (Fall 2005): 168–77.
Ford, Worthington Chauncey, Stewart Mitchell, Allyn Bailey Forbes and Malcolm Freiberg, eds. Winthrop Papers, 1498–1654. 6 vols. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1929–1992.
Gilbert, William. "Finding Cupers Cove: Archaeology at Cupids, Newfoundland 1995–2002." Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 117–154.
Gottfreid, Marion H. "The First Depression in Massachusetts." The New England Quarterly 9 (December, 1930): 655–78.
Haile, Edward Wright, ed. Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony, The First Decade: 1607–1617. Champlain, Virginia: Round House, 1998.
Hawkins, Edward. Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the Death of George III. London: British Museum, 1885. Reprint, London: Spink & Son Ltd., 1969.
Hening, William Waller, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619. 13 vols. with vols. 1 and 2 in a 2nd ed. New York: Bartow, 1823. Reprint, Charlottesville: Published for the Jamestown Foundation of the Commonwealth ofVirginia by the University Press of Virginia, 1969.
Herman, Mary W. "Wampum as Money in Northeastern North America." Ethnohistory 3.1 (Winter 1956): 21–33.
Historic Jamestowne: Unearthing America’s Birthplace. A website jointly administered by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and the National Park Service at http://www. historicJamestowne.org/index.php (last accessed November 23, 2006).
Hoadly, Charles J., ed. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, from 1638 to 1649. Hartford: Case, Tiffany and Co., 1857.
Holmes, Nicholas. Scottish Coins: A History of Small Change in Scotland. Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland (NMS) Publishing, 1998.
Hudgins, Carter C. "Old World Industries and New World Hope: The Industrial Role of Scrap Copper at Jamestown." The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 2 (January 2002): an online e-journal at http://www.apva.org/resource/jjrc/vol2/chtoc.html_(last accessed October 21, 2006).
Ives, Vernon A., ed. The Rich Papers, Letters from Bermuda 1615–1646: Eyewitness Accounts Sent by the Early Colonists to Sir Nathaniel Rich. Transcribed by Mrs. Ambrose Gosling, Sister Jean Kennedy and John Adams. Toronto: Published for the Bermuda National Trust by the University of Toronto Press, 1984.
James, Sydney V., Jr., ed. Three Visitors to Early Plymouth: Letters About the Pilgrim Settlement in New England during its First Seven Years by John Pory, Emmanuel Altham and Isaack De Rasieres. Plymouth, Massachusetts: Plimoth Plantation, 1963.
Jamestown Rediscovery. A website administered by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities at http://www.apva.org/jr.html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
Jordan, Louis. The Coins of Colonial and Early America. A website of texts and images based on the coins in the Department of Special Collections, University of Notre Dame Libraries, with additional images from the Colonial Newsletter Foundation photofiles. 1996, with updates at http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/index.html (last accessed December 25, 2006).
——. "Somer Islands ‘Hogge Money’ of 1616: The Historical Context." The Colonial Newsletter 123 (August 2003): 2465–2493.
——.John Hull, the Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for C4 Publications, 2002.
——. "Lord Baltimore Coinage and Daily Exchange in Early Maryland." The Colonial Newsletter 126 (August/December 2004): 2651–2768.
——. "The DK Token and Small Change in the Seventeenth Century Settlement at Ferryland, Newfoundland." The Colonial Newsletter 131 (August 2006): 3005–3059.
——. "Coinage and Exchange at the Richmond Island Trading Post during the 1630s and the Richmond Island Coin Hoard." The Colonial Newsletter 133 (April 2007): 3121–3147.
Kays, Thomas. "Yorktown Farthing Caches." The Virginia Numismatist 39, no. 2 (2003): 14–16.
Kelso, William M. Jamestown: The Buried Truth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2006.
Jamestown Rediscovery II: Search for 1607 James Fort. Jamestown: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1996.
Kelso, William M., J. Eric Deetz, Seth W Mallios and Beverly A. Straube. Jamestown Rediscovery VII. Richmond: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 2001.
Kelso, William M., Nicholas M. Luccketti and Beverly A. Straube. Jamestown Rediscovery III. Richmond: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1997.
——. Jamestown Rediscovery V. Richmond: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1999.
Kelso, William M. and Beverly Straube. 1996 Interim Report on the APVA Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia. Jamestown: Association for the Preservation ofVirginia Antiquities, 1997. Available as a pdf download at http://www.apva.org/pubs/index.html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
——. "Jamestown Phoenix." Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 57–85.
——. Jamestown Rediscovery 1994–2004. Jamestown: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 2004.
Kleeberg, John M., "The New Yorke in America Token." In Money of PreFederal America. Edited by John M. Kleeberg: 15–57. Coinage of the Americas Conference, held at the American Numismatic Society May 4, 1991, Proceedings no. 7. New York: American Numismatic Society, 1992.
Knight, Sarah Kemble. The Journal of Madame Knight. Edited by George Parker Winship. Boston: Bruce Rogers for Small, Maynard & Co., 1920. Reprint, Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishers, [2000?].
Lapham, Heather A. "More Than ‘A Few Blew Beads’: The Glass and Stone Beads from Jamestown Rediscovery’s 1994–1997 Excavations." The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 1 (January 2001). An online e-journal at http://www.apva.org/resource/jjrc/vol1/hltoc. html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
Lechford, Thomas. Note-Book Kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, From June 271638 to July 29, 1641. Edited by Edward Everett Hale, Jr., from the original manuscript, with the use of notes and material prepared by J. Hammond Trumbull, Samuel Jennison, William P Upham et al. Archaeologia Americana, Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Vol. 7. Cambridge, Massachusetts: John Wilson and Son University Press, 1885.
——. Plain Dealing or News from New England. Edited by Darrett B. Rutman. Boston: J.K. Wiggin & W.P. Lunt, 1867. Reprint, New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1969.
The Loyal Impartial Mercury or News both Forreign and Domestick. No. 24, Tuesday October 3 to Friday October 6, 1682, p. 1, col. 2 ‘From Bristol." Reprint, The Colonial Newsletter 49 (July 1977): 589.
Luccketti, Nicholas M., William M. Kelso and Beverly A. Straube. Field Report 1994. Jamestown: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1994. Available as a pdf download at: http://www.apva. org/pubs/index.html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
Luccketti, Nicholas and Beverly Straube. 1997 Interim Report on the APVA Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia. Jamestown: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1998. Available as a pdf download at http://www.apva.org/pubs/index.html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
——. 1998 Interim Report on the APVA Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia. Jamestown: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1999. Available as a pdf download at http://www.apva. org/pubs/index.html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
Luckenbach, Al. Providence 1649: The History and Archaeology of Anne Arundel County Maryland’s First European Settlement. Studies in Local History, [no. 2]. Maryland State Archives Publication, no. 1190. Annapolis: Maryland State Archives and Maryland Historical Trust, 1995.
Mallios, Seth and Shane Emmett. "Demand, Supply, and Elasticity in the Copper Trade at Early Jamestown." The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 2 (January, 2002). An online e-journal at http:// www.apva.org/resource/jjrc/vol2/mallios_high.pdf (last accessed October 21, 2006).
Massachusetts Archive Collection. [Informally referred to as the "Felt Collection" after the Reverend Joseph B. Felt, who organized these documents in the 1830s. The series contains 328 volumes of original documents from 1629–1799, related to the government of Massachusetts Bay and to administration in Suffolk County (Boston). Documents related to other counties in Massachusetts Bay are not included in this collection. Massachusetts State Archives, Boston Massachusetts.]
The Mayflower Descendant: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy, History, and Biography. 1 (1899)–34 (1937) and 1985–present.
Mcllwaine, H. R., ed. Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia. 2nd ed., Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1979.
McIntyre, Ruth. "John Pynchon and the New England Fur Trade, 16521676." In John Pynchon. The Pynchon Papers. Edited by Carl Bridenbaugh; collected by Juliette Tomlinson and Ruth McIntyre, vol. 2, Selections from the Account Books of John Pynchon, 1651–1697, 3–70. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 61. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1985.
Miller, Henry M. "Lord Baltimore’s Colony of Maryland and its Capital of St. Mary’s City 1634–1695." Avalon Chronicles 8 (2003): 225–260.
Miller, Henry M., D. L. Hamilton, Nicholas Honerkamp, Steven R. Pendery, Peter E. Pope, and James A. Tuck, eds. The Archaeology of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century British Colonization in the Caribbean, United States, and Canada. Society for Historical Archaeology, Guides to Historical Archaeological Literature, no. 4. Tucson, Arizona: Society for Historical Archaeology, 1996.
Mitchiner, Michael. Jetons, Medalets & Tokens: Vol. 1, The Medieval Period and Nuremberg. London: Seaby, 1988.
——. Jetons, Medalets & Tokens: Vol. 2, The Low Countries and France. London: Hawkins, 1991.
——. Jetons, Medalets & Tokens: Vol. 3, British Isles Circa 1558 to 1830. London: Hawkins, 1998.
Moloney, Francis Xavier. The Fur Trade in New England, 1620–1676. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1931. Reprint, Hamden, CT: Archon, 1967.
Mossman, Philip L. Money of the American Colonies and Confederation: A Numismatic, Economic and Historical Correlation. Numismatic Studies, no. 20. New York: American Numismatic Society, 1992.
Mumford, Willard R. Barter, Bits, Bills, and Tobacco: The Story of Money in Early Maryland. Studies in Local History, [no. 5]. Maryland State Archives Publication, no. 2142. Annapolis: Maryland State Archives and Maryland Historical Trust, 2002.
Nettels, Curtis Putnam. The Money Supply of the American Colonies before 1720. University of Wisconsin Studies in the Social Sciences and History, no. 20. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1934. Reprint, Clifton, New Jersey: A.M. Kelly, 1973.
Niellon, Françoise and Marcel Moussette. L’Habitation de Champlain: Les Recherches Arkhis. Québec: Ministère de la Culture et des Communications, Gouvernement du Québec, 1985.
Nixon, Anthony. Elizaes Memoriall. King Iames his arriuall. And Romes Downefall. London: Printed by Thomas Creede for Iohn Baylie, and are to be sold at his shop neare the litle North doore of Paules, 1603.
Noble, John, ed. Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay 1630–1692. 2 vols. Boston: County of Suffolk, 1901–1904. Reprint New York: AMS, 1973.
Noël Hume, Ivor. "The Very Caterpillers of This Kingdome: or, Penny Problems in the Private Sector, 1600–1660." In The Scope of Historical Archaeology: Essays in Honor of John L. Cotter. Edited by David G. Orr and Daniel G. Crosier: 233–250. Occasional Publication of the Department of Anthropology, Temple University, Philadelphia: Laboratory of Anthropology, Temple University, 1984.
——. The Virginia Adventure, Roanoke to James Towne: An Archaeological and Historical Odyssey. New York: Knopf, 1994.
Noël Hume, Ivor and Audrey Noël Hume. The Archaeology of Martin’s Hundred. 2 vols. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2001.
Orr, Charles, ed. History of the Pequot War: The Contemporary Accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent and Gardener. Reprinted from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Cleveland: Helman-Taylor, 1897. Reprint, New York: AMS, 1980.
Outlaw, Alain Charles. Governor’s Land: Archaeology of Early Seventeenth-Century Virginia Settlements. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1990.
Papadopoli Aldobrandini, Nicolò. Le Monete Venezia: Descritte ed Illustrate con i Desegni di C. Kunz. 4 vols., Venice: Tipografia Libreria Emiliana, 1893–1919. Reprint, Bolonga: Forni, 1997.
Peck, Charles Wilson. English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum 1558–1958. 2d ed., London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1970.
Petowe, Henry. Englands Caesar. His Maiesties most Royall Coronation. Together with the manner of the solemne shewes prepared for the honour of his entry into the Cittie of London. Eliza. her Coronation in Heauen. And Londons sorrow for her visitation. London: Printed by Iohn Windet, for Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his Shop at the signe of the Fox in Paules Church-yarde, 1603.
Petowe, Henry. Elizabetha quasi viuens Eliza’s Funerall. A fewe Aprill drops, showred on the Hearse of dead Eliza. Or The Funerall teares af [sic] a true hearted Subiect. London: Printed by E. Allde for M. Lawe, dwelling, in Paules Church-yard, neere vnto Saint Austens gate, 1603.
Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Pilgrim Hall Museum: America’s Museum of Pilgrim Possession. Webpage at http://www. pilgrimhall.org/plgrmhll.htm.
Pomerleau, Charles. "Buried Treasure?" Sun Journal, Lewiston, Maine, Monday, July 27, 1998: 1 and A8.
Pynchon, John. The Pynchon Papers. Edited by Carl Bridenbaugh; collected by Juliette Tomlinson and Ruth McIntyre. Vol. 1, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654–1700. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 60. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1982.
——. The Pynchon Papers. Edited by Carl Bridenbaugh; collected by Juliette Tomlinson and Ruth McIntyre. Vol. 2, Selections from the Account Books of John Pynchon, 1651–1697. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 61. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1985.
Riordan, Timothy B. The Plundering Time: Maryland and the English Civil War 1645–1646. Baltimore: Baltimore Historical Society, 2004.
Sainsbury, William Noël, ed. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574–1660, Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty’s Public Record Office. London: Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1860.
——. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies 1661–1668, Preserved in Her Majesty’s Public Record Office. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1880. Reprint, New York: Kraus, 1964.
Shelby, Wayne H. "Recovery, Documentations and Evaluation of Two Identical 17th Century Irish Tokens in Burlington County, New Jersey." The C4 Newsletter 15.1 (Spring, 2007): 10–14.
Shurtleff, Nathaniel B. ed. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. 5 vols. in 6. Boston: William White, 1853–1854.
Smith, John. The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580–1631). Edited by Philip L. Barbour, 3 vols. Williamsburg, Virginia: Institute of Early American History and Culture, distributed by The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 1986.
Smith, Joseph Henry. Colonial Justice in Western Massachusetts, 1639— 1702: The Pynchon Court Record, an Original Judges’ Diary of the Administration of Justice in the Springfield Courts in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1961.
Spink & Son. Ancient, English, Italian and other Foreign Coins and Commemorative Medals, Auction Catalogue. Sale 5010. Thursday, 30 June 2005. London: Spink & Son Ltd., 2005.
——. Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Man & Lundy): Pre-Decimal Issues. Standard Catalogue of British Coins, 2nd ed. London: Spink & Son Ltd., 2002.
——. Spink Coin Newsletter. A monthly electronic publication archivedat http://www.spink.com/news/newsletters/default.asp (last accessed December 21, 2006).
Sportack, Mark A., "Myths and Mysteries of the Somers’ Ilands Hoge Money." In Money of the Caribbean. Edited by Richard G. Doty and John M. Kleeberg: 21–115. Coinage of the Americas Conference, held at the American Numismatic Society December 4, 1999, Proceedings no. 15, New York: American Numismatic Society, 2006.
Stickney, Matthew A., "Notes on American Currency—No. 1," Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, 1 (1859): 154–156.
Straube, Beverly A., and Nicholas M. Luccketti, 1995 Interim Report. Jamestown: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1996. Available as a pdf download at http://www.apva.org/pubs/ index.html (last accessed October 21, 2006).
Taxay, Donald. Money of the American Indians and Other Primitive Currencies of the Americas. New York: Nummus Press, 1970.
Thirsk, Joan and J. P Cooper, eds. Seventeenth-Century Economic Documents. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.
Thomas, Ronald. "An 18th-Century New Jersey Connection: Percivall Towle and Thomas Scattergood." Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey 49 (1994): 111.
Thomas, Ronald, and Martha Schiek. "A Late Seventeenth-Century House in Gloucester City, New Jersey." Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 43 (1988): 3–11.
Veit, Richard. Digging New Jersey’s Past; Historical Archaeology in the Garden State. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Weeden, William Babcock. Economic and Social History of New England. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1890.
Wilkinson, Henry C. The Adventurers of Bermuda: A History of the Island from its Discovery until the Dissolution of the Somers Islands Company in 1684. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1958.
Willis, William. "Remarks on Coins Found at Portland in 1849, and Richmond’s Island in 1855; with a General Notice of Coins and Coinage." Collections of the Maine Historical Society 6 (1859): 127— 151.
Wing, John F. "Boundby God... for Merryland": The Voyage of the Constant Friendship 1671–1672. Studies in Local History, [no. 4]. Maryland State Archives Publication, no. 2036. Annapolis: Maryland State Archives and Maryland Historical Trust, 1999.
Winthrop, John. The Journal of John Winthrop: 1630–1649. Edited by Richard S. Dunn, James Savage and Laetitia Yeandle. Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library in association with the Massachusetts Historical Society and London: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press, 1996.
——. Winthrop’s Journal: History of New England 1630–1649. Edited by James Kendall Hosmer, 2 vols. Original Narratives of Early American History, ed. J. Franklin Jameson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908. Reprint, New York: Barnes and Noble, 1959.
Withers, Paul and Bente R. Withers. British Coin-Weights: A Corpus of the Coin-Weights Made for Use in England, Scotland and Ireland. Llanfyllin, Powys, Wales: Galata, 1993.

List of Illustrations

Except where specifically indicated the illustrations do not represent specimens recovered from archaeological sites. The illustrations reflect the coin types discussed in the text but do not necessarily represent the specific dates or varieties of the actual recoveries. Photo credits for actual recovered specimens are as follows: Kingston, Massachusetts Public Library: illustration 15; Colony of Avalon Excavation, Ferryland, Newfoundland, illustration 25; Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth, Massachusetts, illustrations 26–28, 46, 55; and the Museum of the Maine Historical Society, Portland, Maine, illustrations 56–59.

  • CU Somer Islands Hogge Money shilling, 1615–1616. Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.
  • CU Somer Islands Hogge Money sixpence, 16151616. ANS 1948.49.1.
  • CU Nuremberg jeton of Hans Schultes, 1586–1683. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU Nuremberg jeton (Biblical series), of Hans Krawinckelin II, 1586— ANS 1981.86.1.
  • CU Nuremberg jeton (GOTT ALLEIN DIE EERESEI—Honor God alone) of Hans Krawinckelin II, 1586–1683. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU Nuremberg jeton (GOTES SAGEN MACHT REICHT— God’s word brings wealth) of Hans Krawinckelin II, 1586–1683. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • PB Phoenix token of Queen Elizabeth I. St. James Auctions Ltd. 6, June 8, 2007, lot 109.
  • CU Harington patent farthing under King James I, 1613–1616. ANS 1940.113.462.
  • CU Maltravers patent "rose" farthing under King Charles I, 1648–1680. ANS 1978.9.126.
  • CU Richmond patent farthing under King Charles I, 1625–1644. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU Maltravers patent farthing under King Charles I, 1625–1644. Baldwin’s Auctions Ltd. 50, April 24, 2007, lot 434.
  • CU Lennox patent farthing under King James I, 16161625. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English penny of King Charles I, Tower mint. St. James Auctions Ltd. 3, October 3, 2005, lot 271.
  • BI Scottish turner of King Charles I i. Edinburgh Mint, 1629. Spink 6029, March 29, 2006, lot 242.
  • CU Richmond "round" patent farthing under Charles I, 1625–1644. Recovered in Kingston (Plymouth), MA. Obverse only.
  • CU French double tournois of King Louis XIII. Paris Mint,1626. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • BI Scottish turner of King James I (VI). Edinburgh Mint, 1597. Spink 6029, March 29, 2006, lot 206.
  • CU Irish penny of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1601. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU Irish halfpenny of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1601. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU Spanish overstruck 8-maravedis of King Charles V. Barcelona mint, 1652. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU Swedish 1-öre of Queen Christina. Säter mint, 1645. Triton IX, January 10, 2006, lot 1978.
  • CU Spanish 4-maravedis of King Philip III. Barcelona mint, 1600— Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU Venetian 1-soldo for Dalmatia and Albania. Numismatik Lanz München 115 May 27, 2003, lot 183.
  • CU Indian dam of Mughal Emperor Muhayyi-ud-din Aurangzeb Alamgir. Surat mint, 16581672. Zeno oriental coin database (http://www.zeno.ru/search.php?searchid=17827).
  • PB DK token. Recovered in Ferryland, Newfoundland. Obverse only.
  • PB disk. Recovered in Plymouth, MA. Obverse only.
  • PB disk. Recovered in Plymouth, MA. Obverse only.
  • PB disk. Recovered in Plymouth, MA. Obverse only.
  • AR English shilling of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1560–1561. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English 6-pence of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1583. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English groat of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1559–1560. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English 3-pence of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1575. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English half-groat of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1582–1600. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • English 3-halfpence of Queen Elizabeth I. Tower mint, 1578–1582. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English shilling of King James I. Tower mint, 1619–1625. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • BI Scottish eightpence groat of King James I (VI). Edinburgh Mint, 1583–1590. Spink 6029, March 29, 2006, lot 202.
  • AR English penny of King James I. Tower mint, 16041619. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English halfpenny (Tudor rose/Scottish thistle type) of King James I. Tower mint, 16041619. ANS 1992.41.79.
  • AR Irish shilling of King James I. Tower mint, 16041607. ANS 1943.102.187
  • AR Irish 6-pence of King James I. Tower mint, 16041607. Dix Noonan Webb Ltd., 30 June 2004, lot 750.
  • AR English shilling of King Charles I. Tower mint, 1625–1642. ANS 1977.285.35.
  • AR English 6-pence of King Charles I. Tower mint, 1625–1642. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AV English angel of King Henry VIII. Tower mint, 1544–1547. ANS 1954.237.77.
  • AR Scottish 20-pence of King Charles I. Edinburgh Mint, 1637–1642. Spink 6029, March 29, 2006, lot 224.
  • AR English penny of King Charles I. Tower mint, 1625–1642. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR English penny of the Archbishops of York under King Henry VII, 1485–1489. Recovered in Plymouth, MA.
  • AR German sechsling of Lübeck, 1629. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR Dutch 2-stuivers of Zeeland, 1618. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR Swedish 1-öre of King John III. Stockholm mint, 1576. Leipziger Münzhandlung und Auktion Heidrun Höhn 49, May 26, 2006, lot 632.
  • AR Livonian shilling, 1572. ANS 1989.11.191.
  • AR Portuguese 100-reis of King John IV. Porto mint, 1640. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR Spanish half-real of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Burgos mint, 1469–1504. ANS 0000.999.7308.
  • AR Spanish-American 1-real cob of King Philip II. Mexico mint, 1556–1598. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • AR Spanish-American 8-reales cob of King Philip II. Potosi mint, 1556–1598. ANS 1967.113.228.
  • AR unidentified coin. Recovered in Plymouth, MA.
  • AV English double crown of King James I. Tower mint, 1603–1604. Recovered from the Richmond Island hoard.
  • AV Scottish "sword and septre" piece of King James I (VI). Edinburgh mint, 1602. Recovered from the Richmond Island hoard.
  • AV English laurel of King James I. Tower mint, 1619–1625. Recovered from the Richmond Island hoard.
  • AV English unite of King Charles I. Tower mint, 1625–1642. Recovered from the Richmond Island hoard.
  • AR New England shilling. Boston Mint, 1652. ANS 1911.85.2.
  • AR New England 6-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.
  • AR Massachusetts willow tree shilling. Boston Mint, 1652. Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.
  • AR Massachusetts willow tree 6-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.
  • AR Massachusetts willow tree 3-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.
  • AR Massachusetts oak tree shilling. Boston Mint, 1652. ANS 1932.999.299.
  • AR Massachusetts oak tree 6-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. ANS 1942.54.6.
  • AR Massachusetts oak tree 3-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. ANS 1943.111.2.
  • AR Massachusetts oak tree 2-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. ANS 1911.85.3.
  • AR Massachusetts pine tree shilling. Boston Mint, 1652. ANS 1944.94.2.
  • AR Massachusetts pine tree 6-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.
  • AR Massachusetts pine tree 3-pence. Boston Mint, 1652. ANS 1954.95.3.
  • AR shilling of Lord Baltimore. Tower mint, 16581659. ANS 1950.185.1.
  • AR 6-pence of Lord Baltimore. Tower mint, 1658–1659. Courtesy of David Menchell.
  • AR groat of Lord Baltimore. Tower mint, 1658–1659. ANS 1944.41.3.
  • CU denarium of Lord Baltimore. Tower mint, 1658–1659. Courtesy of Stack’s Rare Coins.
  • String of wampum beads. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
  • CU New Yorke in America token. ANS 1952.159.1.
  • CU English trade token of Robert Brooke. Maidstone, Kent, 1668. Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.
image

Plate 1

image

Plate 2

image

Plate 3

image

Plate 4

image

Plate 5

image

Plate 6

image

Plate 7


Mark Newby and his St. Patrick Halfpence

Roger S. Siboni and Vicken Yegparian

Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, New York

November 11, 2006

© 2009 The American Numismatic Society

Depending upon one’s point of view, Mark Newby is either the beginning or end of the story of the St. Patrick coinage in the North American colonies.1 Either way, Newby remains as the last documented participant in the journey of the enigmatic St. Patrick coinage to the New World. And like the coinage itself, his story, as we know it, is a blend of fact, fiction, and plain old homespun lore.

Most American Colonial numismatists tend to abbreviate their thinking about Newby as the London tallow chandler who moved to Dublin, Ireland, and ultimately to West Jersey to escape religious persecution and start a life of Quaker simplicity in the New World. Along the way, he, perhaps with others, managed to acquire over 14, 000 St. Patrick halfpence that the small group of Quakers would use in their new settlement. Unfortunately, shortly after their authorization, Newby died and the coins were redeemed by his widow never to be heard of again.

Our research indicates that he indeed traveled from Ireland to West Jersey in part to escape religious persecution and that he did likely bring with him St. Patrick coinage for use in local commerce in the new Quaker settlement, but the remainder of the story appears to be largely apocryphal.

Mark Newby the Dublin Quaker

The story of Mark Newby begins on February 25, 1638 in the Hamlet of Earsdon, in Northumberland, England where Ralph and Dorothy Newby gave birth to their first son Mark.2 The family ultimately moved to the County of Durham where Ralph and Dorothy had another son and daughter. In Gladfelter’s seminal article on Newby, he observes that George Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement, had begun proselytizing and "calling men to the eternal inward realities and to lives of unswerving devotion to the light" around 1654 in both Northumberland and Durham. Later that year, Friends meetings were established in both Counties.3 Gladfelter speculates that it was around this time that Newby, about 16, was first exposed to and possibly converted to Quakerism.

The trail of Mark Newby picks up again around a decade later in Ireland. On May 26, 1663 he married the landed widow Elizabeth Welsh (two years his senior) in the County Kilkenny near the village of Gowering.4 Elizabeth soon gave birth to two children in quick succession: Mary born in Kilkenny in February 1664 and Joseph in Dublin in January 1665. Records suggest that the couple moved to Dublin in 1665 and remained there for over a decade. It was in Dublin that Newby set up a shop as a merchant, a trade far more compatible with the actions and achievements he undertook for the balance of his life.

The deaths of Mary and Joseph along with those of three other children and their mother Elizabeth must have been tragic for Newby and may have influenced his ultimate decision to move to West Jersey. He buried Elizabeth on June 22, 1672 in Dublin.5 Another event that occurred just eight months before Elizabeth’s death certainly added to his personal tragedy and no doubt started him on the path of emigration to West Jersey. Albert Cook Meyers follows William Stockdale (a contemporary of Newby) when he reports:

In 1671, Mark Newby of Thomas Street, Dublin, "because for Conscience sake he could not be an observer of Holidays (so-called) he opened his shop on the 25th of the 10th month called Christmas day." For this "he had his house assaulted by a rude multitude," who with great violence threw dirt and stones into "his Shop, endangering his life and his families; spoyled (sic.) Shop-goods, broke Glass-windows and Pewter vessels, abused their neighbors for reproving them; the said Mark damnified."6

Despite this experience and the passing of his children and wife, Newby remained in Dublin. On March 24, 1674, he married Hannah Holmes. On February 14, 1675 they had their first child Rachel. While it is not known whether Newby and his new family continued to face religious persecution, it is clear that thousands of other Quakers throughout England and Ireland did. It is perhaps for this reason that shortly after his marriage to Hannah he moved his family to County Wicklow where a Society of Friends was emerging. Newby went on to have three more children, Stephen, Edward, and Elizabeth, before he immigrated to the New World.7 Between March 1675 and August 1681, Newby met William Bates in the Ballicane Meeting of Friends. Bates, another devout Quaker, had suffered fines and imprisonment for pursuing his religious beliefs.8 His harsh experiences led him to join a group of leading local Quakers who were pursuing the establishment of a new settlement in West Jersey. It was probably through Bates that Newby was persuaded to join or, more likely, negotiated his way into the expedition.

End Notes

1
Earlier authors have variously spelled the surname as "Newbie" and "Newby." The original copy of the removal certificate (letter of introduction) for Mark Newby and one of his co-adventurers William Bates to the Friends in the New World uses the spelling "Newby" and thus is assumed to be correct. This removal certificate is illustrated in David Gladfelter, "Mark Newby: Quaker Pioneer," TAMS Journal 14.5 (1974): 171. Hannah Newby also signs her name with this spelling on the evaluation of Mark’s estate. See Appendix.
2
Gladfelter, "Mark Newby": 168.
3
Gladfelter, "Mark Newby": 168–169; William C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1955): 115 and 143.
4
Gladfelter, "Mark Newby": 169.
5
Gladfelter, "Mark Newby": 169.
6
Albert Cook Meyers, The Immigration of Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania, 1682–1785 (Swarthmore, PA, 1902): 386387.

Mark Newby the Tallow Chandler

As Gladfelter first pieced together, there is a continuous stream of documentation that places Newby in or near Dublin in the trade of a merchant from 1663 to 1681. The notion of Newby being a London tallow chandler or candle-maker appears to start with John Clement’s book, The First Emigrant Settlers in Newton Township, which devotes a full chapter to Mark Newby.9 Gladfelter speculated that this error had its origins in Clement somehow confusing the word "Barbican" for "Ballicane" in Newby removal certificate issued by the Ballicane (Ireland) Friends, a document that would serve as a letter of introduction to the Friends in West Jersey. Clement evidently assumed the Friends’ Meeting that was located on Barbican Street in London, although it is not clear how the leap to tallow chandler was made.10

Whether this was the source of confusion or not, and with all due respect to the vocation of candle-making, it appears that the resources as well as the business and political acumen employed by Newby in planning and financing the voyage to West Jersey were beyond what one might have expected a candle-maker or even successful merchant to have had.11

End Notes

7
John E. Clement, Sketches of the First Emigrant settlers of Newton Township, Old Gloucester County, West New Jersey (Camden, NJ, 1877): 45.
8
Clement, Sketches: 45.
9
Clement, Sketches: 37.
10
Gladfelter, "Mark Newby": 170.
11
For a differing opinion on the potential wealth of a seventeenth-century tallow-chandler, see the paper by William Nipper in the present volume.

The Enterprising Voyage to West Jersey

It appears that Newby's decision to emigrate with his family from County Wicklow to West Jersey was motivated in part by the desire to pursue religious freedom and to avoid the persecution he had faced in Dublin and that the Society of Friends continued to face locally. Considering the shared experiences of Bates and Newby it is not surprising that they decided to partner together in the voyage. Still, in addition to religious freedom, settlers like Newby also hoped to reap a profit from their enterprise.12 In The History of Salem County New Jersey, R. G. Johnson, the first historian from Fenwick’s Colony observed that,

[t]hey were every one of them speculators in these western lands and... their sole object was to accumulate fortunes, although they were all men of high character and distinction...it must be apparent to every observer that self interest was at the bottom of all their schemes and maneuvers.13

Reed and Miller further suggest that spiritual and material prosperity went hand in hand, for if the individual Quakers did not prosper, nor could their Society of Friends.14 Certainly, Newby was no exception to this rule. In fact as we assess the actions of Newby leading up to his departure and his activities upon his arrival, it appears that the Newbys may have been one of the principal beneficiaries of the new settlement.

Given that Newby was a merchant in Dublin, he undoubtedly experienced the shortages of small change that periodically occurred in Ireland during his residence there.15 He would have been keenly aware of the difficulty of conducting day-to-day commerce without a supply of hard money. He also would have understood the value of good money versus bad, what traded freely and what traded at a discount, and finally what might be required to help effect exchange in a new settlement. Thus it is not surprising that among the voyagers on Ye Owner’s Adventure, Newby was the one to anticipate the need for coinage in the New World.16 He was also best positioned to be aware of a hoard of copper St. Patrick tokens in hiding from the era of Charles I and to be sensitive to the opportunity to acquire these same coppers at a discount after their demonetization on the Isle of Man assuming that either of these were sources for Newby halfpence. Whatever the circumstances were that brought the St. Patrick coppers into Newby hands, they must have been acquired at a favorable enough price that he could afford to purchase them and still be able to pay for his land in West Jersey and the cost of passage for himself and his family. It is probable that well before departing—most likely before purchasing the coppers—he had also secured acceptance of this new "coin of the realm" from his fellow voyagers. While some have speculated that he acted in concert with others in bringing these St. Patrick coins to the New World, the following discussion shows that this is highly unlikely as he and his estate alone ultimately stood as guarantors for the new West Jersey coinage.

End Notes

12
H. Clay Reed and George C. Miller, eds., The Burlington County Court Book of West New Jersey (Washington, 1944): x.
13
R. G. Johnson, The History of Salem County New Jersey (Salem, 1937): 32.
14
Reed and Miller, Burlington County Court Book: x.
15
Coincraft’s Standard Catalogue of the Coins of Scotland, Ireland, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man (London, 1999): 265.

The Formation of West Jersey

From 1674 to 1683, Newby and his fellow Quakers in Dublin were slowly realizing that their only hope for religious fReedom and economic prosperity lay in the colonies of North America. At the same time, Lords Berkeley and Carteret along with several other influential Quakers, including John Fenwick, William Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas, were sorting through a complex set of deeds, patents, and rights of proprietorship in order to create a land stock company to represent the approximately 4,600 square miles of property in West Jersey.

The West Jersey Land Stock Company was capitalized with 100 shares of stock. Those shares were then divided into tenths. One tenth went to Fenwick for his role in its formation and the remaining 90 shares or nine tenths were offered for sale at £350 per share. Over time, Quakers purchased virtually all of the shares. Of the entire group of purchasers, 100 were English, 17 were Irish, and 3 were Scots. Six of the Irish Proprietors settled in Newton Creek, the Third or "Irish" Tenth (Fig. 1).17 According to Thomas Sharp’s Account of Pioneer Settlers, it is from this group that Newby acquired a 1/20 interest in one of these shares or approximately 2.3 square miles (1, 472 acres) (Fig. 2).18

image

Figure 1. Map of the land allotments of West Jersey. The Third ("Irish") Tenth is indicated as No. 3. After Clement , Sketches.

image

>Figure 2. Map of the the Third ("Irish") Tenth. The Newby ("Newbie") allotment is indicated at the top. After Clement , Sketches.

Although Newby seems to have been one of the more enterprising and ambitious of the new voyagers to West Jersey, it appears that he was also among the last to join the venture and perhaps was only included or induced by his association with William Bates. Pomfret writes that the Irish proprietors were well known to one another and had made plans to undertake a separate settlement. As early as September 1677, an agreement was made by Anthony Sharp, William Clark, Mathias Foster, Roger Roberts, Richard Hunter, Thomas Atherton, and Thomas Starkey, whereby one of their number would journey to West Jersey and develop their property. This group soon joined with Robert Turner, Joseph Sleigh, Robert Zane, Thomas Thackary, and William Bates, who together owned another share. It was this combined group that, in turn, delegated Thackery, Bates, Thomas Sharp (Anthony’s nephew), George Goldsmith and Mark Newby to establish a colony.19 Zane preceded the expedition in order to scout out the land and was in constant correspondence with Robert Turner who was given the major credit for organizing and financing the undertaking.20

The delegated group of Quakers, including Newby, set sail for West Jersey on September 19, 1681 on Ye Owner’s Adventure and arrived at Salem in November 1681. They spent the Winter there and moved to Newton Creek in the Spring.

End Notes

16
For the ship, see Clement, Sketches: 60.
17
John E. Pomfret, The New Jersey Proprietors and Their Lands (Princeton, 1964): 2324.
18
Frank H. Stewart, Mark Newby—The First Banker in New Jersey and His Patrick Halfpence (Woodbury, NJ, 1947): 4; It should be emphasized that this is an approximation of Newby purchased acreage. The 1/20 interest was actually an interest in one share of the 10 shares, known as the Third Tenth, which was part of the larger 100 shares of the West Jersey Land Stock Company. Ownership of a share interest entitled the possessor to proportionate periodic distributions of land as it was gradually surveyed and allocated by commissioners appointed by the local Assemblies. While it is extremely difficult to assess how much land Newby had actually received before his death, Reed and Miller, Burlington County Court Book: 28, list Hannah Newby as owning 300 acres outright and having an undivided interest in another 250 acres. Thus, we know that he had received at least 550 acres of the approximate 1,472 acres to which he was entitled. However, other original settlers are also listed with less but differing acreage ownerships in the same court records, suggesting that there was a good deal of land selling and exchange in the early days of the settlement.
19
Pomfret, New Jersey Proprietors: 123; The proposition that Newby was a late arrival to the venture is further reinforced by the lack of his and Goldsmith’s inclusion in Thomas Budd’s list of original West Jersey stock subscribers in Good Order Established in Pennsilvania & New Jersey, in America. Being a true account of the Country (1685). See Pomfret, New Jersey Proprietors: 285.
20
Clement, Sketches: 123.

Mark Newby in West Jersey

We know from contemporary written accounts and the various minutes, reports, and acts of the General Free Assembly of West Jersey that once in Newton Township, Newby quickly established himself as leader among the settlers in matters of faith, government, and economics.

Thomas Sharp writes that immediately after arrival in Newton Township, "there was a meeting set up and kept at the house of Mark Newbie (sir), and in a short time it grew and increased." This represented the first Friends Meeting in Gloucester County, and after Salem and Burlington, the third in West Jersey.21

At the same time, we see Newby deeply involving himself in the government, basic finance, and commerce of West Jersey. Newby was elected to the Second Session of the General Free Assembly of West Jersey, which met on May 2–6, 1682. It is probable that he had worked hard and carefully behind the scenes from as early as the days of voyage formation back in County Wicklow in order to see the following legislation pass during that same session:

And for the more Convenient paymt of small Sumes, Bee it Enacted, by Authority aforesaid, that Marke Newbie’s Halfe pence called Patrick’s halfe pence shall, from and after the said Eighteenth Instant, passe for halfe pence Current pay of this Province, provided hee the said Marke give sufficient security to the speaker of this house for the use of the Generall Assembly from tyme to tyme being. That he the said Marke his Executors & Administrators, shall & will Change the said halfe pence for pay Equivalent upon demand; And provided alsoe that noe pson or psons bee hereby obligated to take more than Five shillings in one paymt (Fig. 3).

At this meeting of the Assembly, Newby was also made Commissioner for Dividing and Regulating Lands for the Third Tenth interest in the Land Stock Company, which included Newton Township. The Commissioners were endowed with broad powers including marking the bounds of each Tenth, overseeing the purchase and sale of property, surveying such property, insuring the proper allocation of better located portions of the property, and guarding against land manipulation or concentration.22 This commission again reflected Newby respect, influence and inclusion in the center of commerce for the new settlement.

image

Figure. 3. Act of the General Free Assembly of West Jersey legalizing the use of Newby St. Patrick

End Notes

21
Clement, Sketches: 39.

How Many Halfpence Traveled to West Jersey?

It is generally believed that the number of Newby halfpence put into circulation by this Act was at least 14,400. This is the amount that Stewart reckoned was redeemed by Newby estate approximately two years latter. However, as we will see, this redemption never really occurred. Moreover, there is no evidence that the 300 acres of land Newby used to satisfy certain debt obligations owed by his estate were even related to the St. Patrick coinage.

The West Jersey Assembly Act authorizing the coinage only required Newby to provide the Assembly with collateral "from tyme to tyme." We could find no evidence that any collateral was ever issued. Moreover, The West Jersey Deeds Vol. B: 126 (Fig. 3) is the primary source for the £30 debt owed by Mark Newby’s estate upon his death and its payment by Hannah Newby on behalf Edward Newby as a primary beneficiary with 300 acres of land out of a 350 acre parcel originally owned by Mark. The remaining 50 acres were to be distributed by Hannah to Edward on his twenty-first birthday. The debt is described as being due by virtue of an account owed by Newby to the Province. There is no mention of coinage redemption nor is there any indication as to why the debt was due to the Province in the first instance.

image

Figure 3. Account of Mark Newby’s estate at the time of his death and Hannah Newby payment of his £30 debt with 300 acres of land.

Had the coinage been redeemed by Newby's estate, it would have been included and inventoried in his estate along with all property other than real property. Newby's estate inventory reflects no such coinage. So where do the apocryphal £30 (= 14, 400 halfpence) come from? There is no way to be absolutely certain, but it appears that based on Clement’s first discussion of the financial affairs and settlements of Mark Newby’s widow in 1877, Frank Stewart made an unwarranted inductive leap in his monograph on Newby. Clement reports that "when a settlement was made between the administratrix and the Commission, a deficiency of thirty pounds was discovered in the banking operations [of Newby]."23 He goes on to say that this was made good by his personal estate and that the previously collateralized land was released as part of the settlement to go into trust for his second son Edward Newby (sic). As noted above, the source documents for the debt settlement paint a slightly different picture.

The use of land to pay a preexisting debt to the Province is very different than the redemption of coinage. Given Newby active roll in the financial and administrative affairs of the West Jersey Assembly, his position as Commissioner of Dividing and Regulating Lands for the Third Tenth and his own apparent coinage and real estate dealings, it is not difficult to imagine that some reconciliation of accounts would have been required upon his sudden death.24 This seems far more plausible than the notion of a unilateral redemption of a desperately needed coinage that had just entered circulation.25 We must also remember, that the Act of May 2–6, 1682 demanded that Newby or his heirs would redeem the coinage on demand, not that they must redeem them upon his death. In the authors’s view, the £30 (14,400 halfpence) redemption is destined to follow the same fate as that of the tallow chandler.

End Notes

22
Pomfret, New Jersey Proprietors: 130131.

Which are Newby's "Patrick Halfe pence"?

Despite the clear reference to "Patrick halfe pence" in the Act of May 2–6, 1682, the true denomination of Newby coins has remained a mystery because the St. Patrick coinage is known in two sizes. Isaac Mickle, writing in 1845, states that, "Newby lived on the farm now owned by that successful collector of coins, Joseph B. Cooper, Esq. in Newton, where many of the Patrick halfpence have been ploughed up."26 To our knowledge, these "ploughed up" coins have never been shared with the numismatic community. In his landmark book, The Coins of New Jersey, Edward Maris wrote that when Cooper’s property was graded for the Philadelphia and Atlantic City Railroad, no halfpence were discovered. Nevertheless, Walter Breen’s forward to the Quarterman reprint of The Coins of New Jersey cites Maris as claiming that Newby halfpence could still be found circulating in the local area into the early nineteenth century.27 We do not know Breen’s source for this later Maris reference, but we do know that Maris was aware that these enigmatic coppers were produced in two sizes, for he describes both small and large sizes (Figs. 45).28 According to the records of Philip L. Mossman, who has been tracking North American finds of St. Patrick coinage for several years, a total of nine of the small size ("farthing") coppers and one off-metal silver "shilling" have been found in Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina (Fig. 6).29 Mossman has no record of any of the large size coppers ("halfpence") ever being found in North America.

image

Figure 4. Small ("farthing") St. Patrick copper. Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.

image

Figure 5. Large ("halfpenny") St. Patrick

image

Figure 6. Off-metal silver St. Patrick shilling. Courtesy of Neil Rothschild.

On May 3, 1681, the Commissioners of West Jersey gave the Burlington Court jurisdiction over the regulation of the rates at which English coin should pass. It was decided that the "King’s copper farthing" should pass as a halfpenny and the halfpenny as one penny (Reed and Miller 1989: 245).30 These cried up rates were rescinded by the Act of May 1682 which monetized Mark Newby’s halfpence. However, we do not know weather it was the rates or the coinage itself that were rejected in favor of Newby coins. Perhaps the small module St. Patrick "farthings," which are roughly the size of a regal farthing, were also considered halfpence in the Province in accordance with the legislation of 1681. The "farthings" may have been what Newby had authorized as halfpence.

We may never know for certain whether Newby halfpence were the small or large size St. Patrick coins. As a token coinage whose intrinsic value was probably outstripped by its face value, it is also possible that both small and large module pieces circulated indescriminately as halfpence. Perhaps anything "round and brown" would have passed muster as halfpence in a cash-starved economy like that of West Jersey in the late 1600s.

End Notes

23
Clement, Sketches: 41.
24
Newby's death appears to have been sudden as he left no will. Hannah served as administratrix of the estate until his affairs could be settled and his property appropriately distributed to his heirs.
25
The great scarcity of currency is indicated by the fact that, already in 1686, the first taxes of Old Gloucester County were payable in cereals and skins.
26
Isaac Mickle, Reminiscences of Old Gloucester; or Incidents in the History of the Counties Gloucester, Atlantic, and Camden, NJ (Woodbury, NJ, 1968): 144, n. 1.
27
Edward Maris, The Coins of New Jersey (Lawrence, MA,1974 [1881]): vi.
28
Maris, The Coins of New Jersey : nos. 2A and1B.
29
See the paper by Philip L. in the present volume.
30
Reed and Miller, Burlington County Court Book: 245.

Appendix: The Inventory of Mark Newby’s Estate (1684)

image
image
image
image
image
image

References

Braithwaite, William C. The Beginnings of Quakerism. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955.
Clement, John E. Sketches of the First Emigrant settlers of Newton Township, Old Gloucester County, West New Jersey. Camden, NJ: Sinnickson Chew, 1877.
Coincraft’s Standard Catalogue of the Coins of Scotland, Ireland, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. London: Coincraft, 1999.
Gladfelter, David. "Mark Newby: Quaker Pioneer." TAMS Journal 14.5 (1974): 167–176.
Maris, Edward. The Coins of New Jersey. Lawrence, MA: Quarterman Publications, 1974 [1881].
Meyers, Albert Cook. The Immigration of Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania, 1682–1785. Swarthmore, PA: J. S. Sickler, 1902.
Mickle, Isaac. Reminiscences of Old Gloucester; or Incidents in the History of the Counties Gloucester, Atlantic, and Camden, NJ. Edith Helle, ed. Woodbury, NJ: Gloucester Historical Society, 1968.
Pomfret, John E. The Province of West New Jersey 1609–1702. A History of the Origin of an American Colony. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956.
——. The New Jersey Proprietors and Their Lands. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1964.
Reed, H. Clay and George C. Miller eds. The Burlington County Court Book of West New Jersey. Washington: Genealogical Publishing, 1944.
Stewart, Frank H. Mark Newby—The First Banker in New Jersey and His Patrick Halfpence. Woodbury, NJ: Gloucester County Historical Society, 1947.

BACK

Appendix: St. Patrick Coinage in the Collection of the American Numismatic Society

Robert Wilson Hoge

Coinage of the Americas Conference at The American Numismatic Society, New York

November 11, 2006

© 2009 The American Numismatic Society

The American Numismatic Society’s collection of the St. Patrick token coinage owes its interest and richness to a number of important acquisitions and to individual efforts and contributions by some distinguished numismatists of a bygone age, among them Harry Prescott Clark Beach, Frederick Alexander Canfield, Henry Chapman and, more recently, Henry Grunthal. The St. Patrick series have enjoyed renewed interest and much progress in research during the past several years thanks to the efforts of the participants in this Coinage of the American Conference and others, among them the late John Griffee, Jim LaSarre, Roger Moore, Stan Stephens, and of course Robert Vlack. It is hoped that by hereby making the ANS specimens more readily available for researchers, further work may be facilitated.

The first St. Patrick coin to enter the ANS collection was acquired in 1911 as a purchase. A number of the other examples in the collection today were also purchased by the Society. The first donated St. Patrick piece, a gift from Isaac J. Greenwood, followed shortly upon the initial acquisition. The occasion of this Coinage of the Americas Conference Proceedings, marking 95 years of the St. Patrick token coinage’s presence in the cabinet, provides a fine justification to photograph the entire ANS collection of St. Patrick pieces consisting of 10 "halfpennies," 19 "farthings," and 3 forgeries and, also an excellent opportunity to acknowledge those whose perspicacity and generosity have preserved these coins for posterity.

The largest sIngle parcel of St. Patricks obtained by the Society came through an advantageous 1945 purchase from Henry Grunthal in the days when he was a very helpful New York City coin dealer before he joined the ANS staff as Curator for Medieval and Modern Coins and Medals. Consisting of five of the larger-sized St. Patrick pieces—the so-called halfpence, on the one side of which the saint is shown exhorting a congregation—and six of the smaller coins, traditionally called farthings, this assemblage was part of the former collection of Harry Prescott Clark Beach. The important acquisition totaled 1,380 items overall including a large number of Colonial and obsolete New Jersey notes and miscellaneous coins. Beach, a New York lawyer and "rather obsessive genealogist," had been a noted numismatic collector from the 1920s to 1940s.

The splendid numismatic collection of mining engineer and minerologist Frederick Canfield (18491926) had been bequeathed to the New Jersey Historical Society (NJHS). Records show that in 1931 the NJHS turned Canfield’s entire numismatic collection, numbering some ten thousand pieces, over to the ANS on loan for cataloguing, management and disposition. In return for identifying and processing the material from the bequest, assembling for the NJHS a comprehensive suite of the finest examples of all pieces pertaining to the state’s history, and disposing of the balance of the collection for the benefit of the NJHS, the latter presented to our cabinet a selection of Canfield’s items to be retained for our own collection. This gift included a small group of duplicates of the St. Patrick coppers that had been retained in the NJHS collection. Although not Canfield’s best examples, these pieces are still quite presentable specimens. Incidentally, Frederick Canfield, a New Jersey native and life-long resident, was an 1870 graduate of Rutgers College who received his degree in mining engineering from Columbia University in 1873. He was a collector’s collector, who carefully assembled and catalogued the all-time finest suite of New Jersey mineralogical specimens, which he bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution along with a funding endowment to maintain it. Canfield once said that a collector "takes a scientific or an aesthetic pleasure in accumulating new, strange and interesting objects, which may be studied with profit or arranged to please the eye" (Palache 1927, 68). In the 1880s, by means of his knowledge and understanding of fossilized plants, he had been able to establish the geological age (Tertiary) of the famed Cerro de Potosí, in Bolivia—the world’s greatest silver ore deposit.

Among other donors to the Society’s St. Patrick holdings were William Proctor and Rachel T. Barrington. One most peculiar St. Patrick piece, a forgery, came from the celebrated cabinet of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb. This was joined in recent years by a couple of additional forgeries donated by Mr. and Mrs. R. Byron White—"Becker" copies made by Peter Rosa. Most of the early purchases of St. Patrick pieces were acquired from renowned Philadelphia dealer Henry Chapman, while other purchases came from a 1911 and a 1912 Thomas Elder sale.

The average state of preservation of the ANS coins may be considered above the norm for the St. Patrick series, typically found, as they are, in well-circulated condition. They constitute a fine resource that, unlike private holdings, is readily available to all. It is a collection that deserves to be known, studied, and thoroughly appreciated. In what will hereby become one of the larger published presentations of these coins, the illustrations of the individual specimens may speak for themselves.

The following catalog is divided into two sections, one including the larger- and the other the smaller-module coins. The larger series has been classified by their Vlack die variety numbers, as discussed by Vlack, et al., in the Colonial Newsletter (Vlack 1968; Moore 2005). The smaller series has been grouped following a numerical assignment based upon the initial classification proposed by Crosby with other references given (Crosby 1875). For each item’s attribution, I provide its ANS accession number, variety references, physical characteristics, salient classificatory details, provenance, and, where warranted, a discussion.

Publication of the Proceedings of the American Numismatic Society’s 2006 Coinage of the Americas Conference (COAC) on the seventeenth century "St. Patrick" token coinage, affords a welcome opportunity to bring the entire collection of these pieces in the Society’s cabinet to the attention of researchers and collectors. This grouping of the popular but enigmatic items is by no means complete, nor is it among the best or largest ever assembled. However, it is, I am reliably informed by Early American specialist Anthony Terranova, an excellent and representative assortment. We are pleased and fortunate to hold these pieces, among which may very well be some examples of the coinage introduced into circulation in the British North American Colony of New Jersey by the immigrant Mark Newby (or Newbie), in 1681.

"Halfpennies"

A uniform preliminary description applicable to the larger-module pieces may be offered as follows:

Official or semi-official base-metal token coinage, probably of halfpenny denomination. Presumably minted to the order of one of the Lords Lieutenant of Ireland (possibly late in the reign of Charles I, but more likely in that of Charles II): James Butler, Duke of Ormond; Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, as Deputy; John Robartes, Baron Robartes; John Berkeley, Baron Berkeley; or Arthur Capell, Earl of Essex.

Denomination: Halfpenny?

Mint: Dublin or London, probably the operation of Peter Blondeau, ca. 1667? (Danforth 2007, 15).

Designer/engraver: Unknown. Breen and others believed this work had been done by Nicholas Briot (d. 1646) or under his tutelage. A similarity of the king’s portraiture to that on a Briot pattern having been noted (Breen 1988, 34).

Composition: copper; brass.

Die alignment: 12:00 (vertical; "medal turn")

Edge: vertically milled ("Reeded").

Obverse: FLOREAT REX ("May the king flourish!"); King kneeling l., radiate-crowned and wearing ermine cape, gazing upward toward crown at 12:00 and playing a large Celtic harp ornamented by a semi-nude winged female "angel" figure facing outward from the pillar or column; above the harp is the British royal ("imperial" style) crown with jeweled double arches, surmounted by a globus cruciger, toward which the king casts his gaze; the king kneels on a tessellated pavement indicated by a grid-work pattern; the vicinity of the double-arched crown, at which the king stares, is fitted with a yellow brass "splasher" (or plug), generally distorted and spread in the striking process.

Reverse: ECCE GREX ("Behold the flock!"); St. Patrick shown as a bishop facing, standing on ground, wearing cope and mitre and holding a shamrock (trefoil) raised in blessing in his r. hand and a transverse bishop’s crozier in l.; around him, a congregation of people (the grex) is shown standing— disported seven to l. and three to r.—and facing inward, toward the saint; the foremost figure on l. is a woman raising with both hands a fold of her dress; on r., the garnished arms of Dublin (three castles ardent, each of two towers) conceals the lower part of the figures.

Varieties: Crosby (1875) initially noted four obverse and six reverse dies; Vlack (1968) identified five obverse and six reverse varieties, clarified and refined by Moore et al. (2005). Breen (1968) believed he had discovered additional varieties, but these remain unverified and may presumably be subsumed under the presentation of better specimens presented by Moore et al. Spink (2002) categorizes the coinage into six classifications, three each under the numbers 6567 and 6568.

1. ANS 1912.30.3

Vlack 1-A, Breen 200, Crosby 3-B

Wt. 8.30g, diam. 27 mm

Obv.: ·FLOR[EAT]. ..*. .R EX·

Rev.: ·ECCE· [GREX]

Prov.: Purchased from Henry Chapman, along with four other St. Patrick pieces, two of the "halfpennies" and two "farthings" (see nos. 3–4, 12, and 27), at a total cost of $6.40.

Comment: Four gouges at the brass splasher on obv.; edge lightly milled.

2. ANS 1945.42.638

Vlack 1-B, Breen 200, Crosby 3-B

Wt. 8.81g, diam. 27mm

Obv.: ·FLOREAT. ..*. .R EX·

Rev. : :ECCE· GREX

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach collection.

Comment: Die break over REA of FLOREAT on obv.

3. ANS 1912.30.4

Vlack 1-B, Breen 200, Crosby 3-C

Wt. 7.68g, diam. 27 mm Obv.: ·FLOREAT. ..*. .REX·

Rev. : :ECCE· GREX·

Prov.: Purchased from Henry Chapman (see no. 1, above).

Comment: Die break over REA of FLOREAT on obv.

4. ANS 1912.30.5

Vlack 3-C, Breen 198, Crosby 1-?

Wt. 7.32g, 27 mm

Obv. : ··•FLORE AT ·REX·

Rev.: [·ECCE·] G REX

Prov.: Purchased from Henry Chapman (see no. 1, above).

Comment: Floor not visible on obv.; edge lightly milled.

5. ANS 1945.42.635

Vlack 4-C, Breen 203, Crosby 2-B

Wt. 8.83g, diam. 27 mm

Obv.: ···FLOREAT·.*··REX·· (F weak)

Rev.: [·ECCE·] GREX

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach collection.

6. ANS 1945.42.636

Vlack 4-C, Breen 203

Wt. 8.69g, diam. 27 mm

Obv.: ···FLOREAT·.*··REX·· (F weak)

Rev.: ·ECCE· GREX

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach collection.

Comments: Die break on rev. through ECCE; splasher on obv. indistinguishable.

7. ANS 1931.58.404

Vlack 4-E, Breen 204

Wt. 8.37g, diam. 27 mm

Obv.: ···FLOREAT·*··RE X·· (FLOREAT weak)

Rev.: ECCE [GREX:]

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society, ex Frederick Alexander Canfield collection.

Comment: Splasher extends from lower l. of crown to top of harp.

8. ANS 1945.42.637

Vlack 4-E; Breen 204

Wt. 9.09g, diam. 27mm

Obv. : ···FLOREAT·*··RE X··

Rev.: ECCE GREX:

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach collection.

Comment: Splasher extends from lower ledge of crown through top of harp.

9. ANS 1945.42.634

Vlack 5-D; Breen 199; Crosby 1-A

Wt. 11.12g, diam. 27 mm

Obv.: ·•·FLORE A·T REX· Rev.: ·ECCE: GREX

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach; an attractive, evenly-worn brown coin.

10. ANS 1931.58.403

Vlack 5-D; Breen 199; Crosby 1-A

Wt. 8.55g, diam. 27mm

Obv. : ·•·FLORE A·T REX·

Rev. : ·ECCE GREX

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society; ex Frederick Alexander Canfield collection; slightly worn, rough and porous, the brass splasher is scarcely visible; hand-lettered, in white ink in upper l. field rev.: "1" above "A".

"Farthings"

A uniform preliminary description applicable to the smaller-module pieces may be offered as follows:

Official or semi-official base-metal token coinage. Presumably minted to the order of one of the Lords Lieutenant of Ireland possibly late in the reign of Charles I but more likely in that of Charles I i: James Butler, Duke of Ormand; Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, Deputy; John Robartes, Baron Robartes; John Berkeley, Baron Berkeley; or Arthur Capell, Earl of Essex.

Denomination: Halfpenny of reduced weight? Farthing?

Mint: Dublin or London, probably Peter Blondeau, ca. 1667? (Danforth 2007, 15).

Designer/engraver: Nicholas Briot?, Blondeau? and/or others? Composition: copper; brass.

Die alignment: 12:00 (vertical; "medal turn")

Edge: Vertically milled ("Reeded").

Obv.: FLOREAT REX ("May the king flourish!"; King kneeling l., radiate-crowned and wearing ermine cape, gazing upward and playing a large Celtic harp ornamented by a semi-nude winged female "angel" figure facing outward from the pillar or column; above harp, a British royal crown with jeweled double arches; the king kneels either on an empty field or a series of waves and "sea-beasts." The vicinity of the double-arched crown, at which the king stares, is fitted with a brass "splasher," generally distorted in the striking process.

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS ("May the common people be at peace!"); St. Patrick shown as a bishop, standing l., facing, wearing cope and mitre, gesturing with his r. hand to banish serpents, etc., and holding transverse metropolitan (patriarchal) cross in his l. hand ; on l., creatures departing to l.; on r., the west front of a cathedral church with tall central spire, viewed from northwest. The "creatures" being banished appear to be a large flying insect; one or more snakes, or a snake and a rodent or other small mammal (?); a winged quadruped (seemingly a griffin, dragon or, less likely, Pegasus) and a toad (?).

Varieties: Over 200 die varieties are presently believed to exist. Crosby (1875) noted 22 obverse dies and 23 reverse dies, sorting the obverses into six categories and the reverses into ten on the basis of differences in the punctuation markings (or lack thereof) in the legends. Breen (1988) noted "over 120 die vars." of the "farthings" and grouped them under ten numbers in his Encyclopedia. He also assigned two numbers to silver specimens, one to the gold, and one to a lead trial piece. He noted "over 70 vars." of his number 208 alone. Spink (2002) divides the "farthing" coinage issues into six numerical catalog listings (6569–6572 and 6572 A and B) with three sub-categories—for the three known proof issues struck in silver and/or gold. Some examples, not represented in the ANS collection, show St. Patrick nimbate. Some feature a bird (heraldically, a martlet) beneath the kneeling king on the obverse, sometimes accompanied by circlets (or perhaps better interpreted as a sIngle annulet and/or two annulets forming a figure 8) which can appear without the martlet as well.

Since the condition of the pieces in the ANS collection is generally less than pristine and in the absence of the availability of a larger body of comparative materials, or the time to develop one, it has been thought best not to try to delineate all of the classificatory details of the dies. The ANS coins have been in the past attributed by Breen’s listings. They also bear assigned variety numbers of obverse and reverse designations based on another classification system, following Crosby, here entered with quotation marks. Crosby noted obverse variants 1) with : before REX, 2) with : after REX, 3) with : before and after REX, 4) with : before and after REX, and · after FLOREAT, 5) with : before and after REX, and an additional · after the second :, and 6) with * before REX and **** after. He then mentions that there are varieties on which, below the kneeling figure of the king, there is 7) "a bird," 8) a bird "sometimes accompanied by three small circles." Crosby’s classification of the reverses is as A) without punctuation, B) with · after PLEBS, C) with ’ before PLEBS and . after, D) with · before and after PLEBS, E) with : before PLEBS, F) with : after PLEBS, G) with : before and after PLEBS, H) with :· after PLEBS, I) with : before and :· after PLEBS, and J) with * after QVIESCAT and after PLEBS. It is to be hoped that some day soon a proper die study of the St. Patrick "farthings" may be executed.

11. ANS 1931.58.397

Breen 208; "2-A"

Wt. 6.74g, diam. 26mm

Obv: FLOREAT REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society; ex Frederick Alexander Canfield collection.

Comment: Large die break on obv. from top of head of the "angel" on the harp through AT to rim.

12. ANS 1912.30.1

Breen 208; "2-A"

Wt. 5.24g, diam. 26mm

Obv: FLOREAT REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: Purchased from Henry Chapman (see no. 1, above).

Comments: Hand-lettered in white ink on obv.; just above the head of the harp "angel": 2 B".

13. ANS 1927.38.76

Breen 208; "3-A"

Wt. 6.62g, diam. 25mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS.

Prov.: Gift of Rachel T. Barrington.

Comments: This piece is described in the ANS data base, but not the original accessions register, as a silver pattern, without other explanatory data. Currently on exhibit in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, it does show a grayish hue somewhat evident in its color images.

14. ANS 1929.85.52

Breen 208: "3-A"

Wt. 6.35g, diam. 25.3mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:; King kneeling l. with large harp, crown above

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS; St. Patrick stg., church to r.

Prov.: Gift of William Proctor.

Comments: Splasher well-centered on crown.

15. ANS 1945.42.629

Breen 208; "3-A"

Wt: 6.22g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach.

Comments: Splasher not apparent; obv. die failing toward peripheries.

16. ANS 1945.42.630

Breen 208; "3-A"

Wt: 6.12g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREA T :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach.

17. ANS 1945.42.628

Breen 208; "3-A"

Wt. 5.99g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach.

18. ANS 1945.42.631

Breen 208; "3-A"

Wt. 5.68g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach.

19. ANS 1911.105.675

Breen 208; "3-A"

Wt. 5.38g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev. : REQVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: Gift of Isaac J. Greenwood

Comments: Large splasher, with gouging along lower margin.

20. ANS 1931.58.401

Breen 208; ?-A

Wt. 6.38g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX[:?]

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society; ex Frederick Alexander Canfield collection.

Comment: Worn.

21. ANS 1945.42.632

Breen 208; "3-F"

Wt. 5.86g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT .REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS:

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach.

Comments: Splasher not evident.

22. ANS 1945.42.633

Breen 208; "3-F"

Wt. 5.63g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS:

Prov.: ANS duplicate coin fund partial purchase from Henry Grunthal; ex Harry Prescott Clark Beach.

Comments: Punctuation before REX possibly : with upper point unclear; very large splasher covering top of harp and bust of king as well as crown.

23. ANS 1912.37.5

Breen 208; "3-F"

Wt. 4.74g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS:

Prov.: Purchased from the Thomas L. Elder sale of 9 February 1912 (lot 646, for $12.00) along with an Oak Tree shilling, eleven 1787-dated New Jersey state coppers, a Vermont 1785 copper, two starry triangle "Kentucky cents," a Wood’s Hibernia halfpenny, a Virginia halfpenny, and a Byzantine gold tremissis. The total cost of these acquisitions was noted as $37.45.

Comment: In the sale catalog and in the original ANS accession register, this coin was described as silver. Seemingly, the coin present today is not the one originally acquired. Possibly this is the piece received as part of the Barrington bequest (ANS 1927.38.76), which did not specify a silver coin, although that is how it appears in our current data base records (as of 1995). The ANS coin with the accession number 1927.38.76, presently on exhibit in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and inaccessible, may be a silver piece, although it was listed as such in the ANS data base records as of 1995.

24. ANS 1931.58.398

Breen 211; "4-D"

Wt. 6.19g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT ·:REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT ·PLEBS·

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society; ex Frederick Alexander Canfield Collection.

Comments: Indistinct "sea beasts" (dolphins or whales?) appear below the kneeling king on the obverse of this piece and other examples of Breen 211 as well as those of 212 and 213, following broken letter E on both dies.

25. ANS 1931.58.399

Breen 211; "5-A"

Wt. 5.56g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:·

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society; ex Frederick Alexander Canfield collection.

26. ANS 1911.77.3

Breen 212; "5-H"

Wt. 3.90g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:·

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS:·

Prov.: Purchased from the Thomas L. Elder sale of 5–6 June 1911, lot 1829 (for 70 cents), along with a 1787 Massachusetts cent and half cent, 1791 "Kentucky" cent, a 1694 Carolina Elephant token, an 1800 U.S. cent and a 1723 Rosa Americana two-pence and penny.

Comments: Splasher indistinct. The coin was originally described by Elder as "struck on a very thin planchet. Very Rare." In the ANS Library’s copy of the sale catalog, there is a handwritten pencil notation "Copper?".

27. ANS 1912.30.2

Breen 213; "7-C"

Wt. 5.12g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT * * * REX*··

Rev.: QVIESCAT* PLEBS:

Prov.: Purchased from Henry Chapman (see no. 1, above).

Comments: Die break from large insect to snake on rev.

28. ANS 1931.58.400

Breen 213; "8-J"

Wt. 5.76g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: *FLOREAT* *REX**··

Rev.: QVIESCAT *PLEBS

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society, ex Frederick Alexander Canfield collection.

Comments: Low S in QVIESCAT; die crack between T of QVIESCAT and P of PLEBS.

29. ANS 1931.58.402

Breen 208; "?-K"

Wt. 5.04g, diam. 26mm

Obv.: FLOREAT REX[:?]

Rev.: QVIESCAT · PLEBS:

Prov.: Gift of the New Jersey Historical Society; ex Frederick Alexander Canfield collection.

Comments: Martlet below kneeling king on obv.; die chip over RE of FLOREAT and die crack through RE, just below; die chip over B of PLEBS, into dentils.

Forgeries

30. AE "halfpenny" forgery (types as genuine coin). ANS 1989.99.126

Cf. Breen 200

Wt. 10.70g, diam. 28mm

Obv.: ·FLOREAT V ··REX·

Rev. : ECCE GREX

Prov.: Mr. and Mrs. R. Byron White; the coin is a replica by Peter Rosa ("Becker"), made by means of swedging dies in the 1960s or 1970s.

Comment: Edge plain, incused COPY.

31. AR "shilling" forgery (types as genuine "farthing"). ANS 1989.99.127

Cf. Breen 210

Wt: 7.76g, diam. 25mm

Obv.: FLOREAT :REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT PLEBS

Prov.: Mr. and Mrs. R. Byron White. The piece is one of the many replicas made by Peter Rosa ("Becker"), by means of swedging dies in the 1960s or ’70s.

Comment: Plain edge, incused COPY.

32. AV "guinea" forgery (types as genuine "farthing"). ANS 1988.166.1

Cf. Breen 209

Wt: 8.11g, diam. 23mm

Obv.: FLOREAT : REX:

Rev.: QVIESCAT: PLEBS·

Prov.: Mrs. R. Henry Norweb

Comments: Plain edge. This piece was withdrawn from the Bowers and Merena, Norweb Collection Auction II (24 & 25 March 1988, lot 2386) as a forgery (see Kleeberg, http://www.fake-gold-bars.co.uk/how/how.pdf) It is the interesting and notorious gold forgery reputedly executed by Paul Franklin. Mrs. Norweb had become furious with John J. Ford, Jr., when he declined to sell to her the unique gold St. Patrick piece he had obtained from the F. C. C. Boyd collection. Franklin evidently sought to make a major sale by producing an alternative example of the St. Patrick gold piece for her delectation and funneling it through other intermediaries (Kleeberg, 53). "Probably by using a copper farthing to make transfer dies, he prepared a fake gold St. Patrick’s coin, and through an agent in England, Brian H. Grover, salted it into an obscure auction at Lewes in Sussex. Spink’s, the leading English coin dealers and one of Mrs. Norweb’s preferred agents, were told about the unusual piece and went to bid on it for her. Grover shilled them up to £500 ($1,400)" (Kleeberg, 56). Ford subsequently condemned this piece, to keep Franklin "in line" per Kleeberg.

References

Breen Walter. 1968. "Comment on St. Patrick Halfpence & Farthings." The Colonial Newsletter 22: 214–217.
Breen, Walter. 1988. Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Coins. New York: Doubleday.
Crosby, Sylvester S. 1875. The Early Coins of America. Lawrence, MA: Quarterman Publications, 1983 (reprint ed.)
Danforth, Brian J. 2007. "St. Patrick’s Brass Crown: Official Symbol." C–4 Newsletter 15.2: 15–25.
Hodder, Michael J. 1987. "The St. Patrick Copper Token Coinage: A Re-evaluation of the Evidence." The Colonial Newsletter 77: 1016— 1018.
Hoover, Oliver D. 2004–2005. "A Note on the Typology of the St. Patrick Coinage in its Restoration Context." The American Journal of Numismatics 16–17: 185–204.
Kleeberg, John M. http://www.fake-gold-bars.co.uk/how/how.pdf. (Last accessed December 17, 2008).
McCawley, Chris, and Bob Grellman. 1995. The John M. Griffee Sale of U.S. Colonial Coins, held in conjunction with the first annual convention of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club, 21 October, 1995: lots 1–12.
McCawley, Chris, and Bob Grellman. The Ninth Annual C–4 Convention Sale, featuring John Griffee collection of St. Patrick farthings, cataloguing by Tom Rinaldo, 8 November 2003: lots 73–236.
McCawley, Chris Victor, and Bob Grellman. 2004. Tenth Annual C–4 Convention Sale, featuring the Glen Ivey collection of St. Patrick’s and New Jersey coppers, cataloguing by Tom Rinaldo, 13 November 2004: lots 65–133.
Maris, Edward. 1881. A Historic Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey: With a Plate Containing Specimens of the Mark Newby Coppers, and the Issues of1786–7–8: with the Obverses, Reverses and Combinations of the Latter; and a Detailed Description of the Distinctive Differences and Rarity. Philadelphia: WK. Bellows.
Moore, Roger A., Stanley E. Stephens II and Robert A. Vlack. 2005. "Update of the Vlack Attribution of St. Patrick Halfpence with Visual Guide." The Colonial Newsletter 129: 2921–2928.
Palache, Charles. 1927. "Memorial of Frederick Alexander Canfield." American Minerologist 12: 67–70.
Siboni, Roger, ed. 2005. "Internet Gleanings: The Enigmatic St. Patrick Coinage." C–4 Newsletter 13.4: 6–14.
Spink. 2002. Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Man & Lundy), Pre-decimal Issues, second updated and revised ed. London: Spink & Son, Ltd.
Vlack, Robert. 1968. "Die varieties of St. Patrick Halfpence." The Colonial Newsletter 21: 199–202.
image

Plate 1

image

Plate 2

image

Plate 3

image

Plate 4

image

Plate 5