The American Chicken

This is the first attempt of the US Government at Coinage, the half Disme which was likely minted in a storage house from Silver donated by President Washington

 

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http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=1124&Lot_No=2174#Photo

 

Gorgeous! :bigeyes: :bigeyes:

 

It's like the wind is blowing in her face.

 

It was described as a cross between Martha Washington and the French Girls with nitted hair who went to the Guillioteen. The Bird was described as a common barnyard water fowl playing the role of an Eagle

Ruben

 

was this supposed to be my birthday gift ?

 

This gets old after a while, don't you think. I real court jester has a variety of material.

Ruben

 

i will tel u what really gets old sitting in the dungeon waiting for someone to rescue u and thats where u r headed.

Rusty my friend show him the one way street

 

These are really interesting coins. Just by the obverse many folks would not think it was a US coin. I don't understand the wording on the obverse.
Any thoughts on the meaning?

 

With everything that is happening in my life, that would be a good vacation. Too bad the court jester doesn't have that authority.

Ruben

 

This is literally the first US coin so if it doesn't look that American you can understand why American was still being defined.

Ruben

 

LIBERTY, Parent of Science and Industry. We were to be a modern and advanced nation and these advances would be the result of our Liberty, freedoms, and self determination, rather than the oppression of a tyrannical monarchy.

And most likely 1500 patterns were coined. They were then turned over to the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, who entered the amount into his own personal account books. The pieces were not turned over to Washington as they would most likely have been if he had provided the bullion. (At the time the Mint was under the governemental control of the State Dept, not the Treasury. So Jefferson was in control of the Mint not Alexander Hamilton. Otherwise Hamilton might have gotten them.)

 

on second thoughts lets leave him be we dont want the other prisoners to go mad

 

I think he gets his material from Phoenix! :goof: So it may not be totally his fault for being so lame.

Ribbit

 

Here's a stupid question, but what were they using for coinage in the interm between independence and developing their own coinage?

I can't imagine they continued to use British coin... Spanish or French maybe?

 

Stupid question ? Not at all ! It's an excellent question with no easy answer.

In short, the new nation used a patchwork quilt of all sorts of coinage, including British. Many states minted their own coins during the Articles of Confederation period. You'll find those in the Red Book.

Foreign coinage of all sorts was legal until 1857.

For a fascinating read, try "In Yankee Doodle's Pocket" by Will Nipper.

 

To go a little further, we forget today that the "coin" actually had a value. Today, if it has Washington's pic on it, it is worth 25¢, Roosevelt is only 10¢. Back then, if it (silver) weighed 1 ounce (Troy), it was worth $1.25 or there abouts. The silver could be in most any form. However, the majority of the transactions were some form of barter. 10 bushels of wheat = 1 cow; 1 bushel of corn = 100 pounds of salmon; etc.

 

Holy crap... imagine the embarassment if you went to pay for your groceries and you were one cow short!

 

That's some history right there. Makes you wonder what happened to the other coins in the mintage, how many survivors there are still out there in collections or just plain lost. I don't even want to speculate how many cows it would take to buy that coin now.

 

Choose the best answer :

a) It depends if the cows have a bar-code label on 'em.
b) Try paying with bar cents.
c) It could cause significant delay in the checkout line - not a good way to impress the chicks.