Another box of two - The Massachusetts Half Cent and Cent

This two coins have an interesting history. During the period prior to the Constitution when the national government operated under the Articles of Confederation, several of the states issued their own coinage. They included Connecticut, Massacuhsetts, New Jersey and unofficially, New York. Vermont also issued coins, but it was not one of the 13 original states. Among all of those government entities, only Massachusetts ran its own mint. The others farmed out the franchise to make coins to private companies.

The Massachusetts Legislature got the idea to run its own mint after a couple of private concerns offered to open mints in the state. Both of those individuals claimed that they could turn a profit with their ideas, which planted the seeds with the politicians. Why can't we do that?

They appointed Joshua Witherle as mint master and gave him 4,000 pounds of copper to get started. The politicians thought that they could make £20,000 worth of coppers at a cost of £10,200 represented £8,250 for the copper and £1,950 for the workhouses, presses, rolling mill and other machinery. That would leave a surplus of £9,800 for the state.

When the mint finally opened, the terminology had changed from pounds to dollars and cents. The goal was now to issued $70,000 in copper coins. For the first time the terms "CENT" and "HALF CENT" appeared on a coin. Both coins had an Indian on the obverse, which is part of the state seal and an eagle on the reverse.

Witherle opened the mint in 1787, probably toward the end of the year. On January 16, 1788, Witherle reported his mintages to the government. The results were well below expections. The next day, Witherle gave the following list of excuses:

• It had been difficult to acquire the molds that were used to cast the melted copper into ingots for rolling.

• He had problems with obtaining the rollers because the iron furnaces were "out of blast." The rollers flattened the ingots that were used to make the sheets of copper for the finished coins.

• It was difficult to obtain high quality steel that was required to make the coin dies.

Witherle resummed operations in 1788. Part way through the year, he applied for an additional £600 to cover his operating expenses. This prompted the government to look into the cost of his operatons. The cost - benefit analysis showed that his mint had produced £939 worth of coins. Unfortunately it had cost £2,136, 5s, 7d to produce them. That left a deficite of £1,197, 5s, 7d. In other words, it had cost more than double the face value of the coins to produce them. That prompted the government to shut down their mint experiment immediately.

In his defense, Witherle's mint produced high quality coins. They were the best made of all of the Confederation issues. Here are a couple of high quality examples.

Massachusetts Half Cent



Masschusetts Cent:



A nunber of copies have been made of these coins over the years. If you are not familiar with these coins, you need to buy from an expert, trustworthy dealer or buy certified examples.

There is a lot more to this story, and if there is interest in it, I can expand upon this.

 

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Very interesting read! Thank you for the new information.

 

I do love your threads.

 

Interesting and fun!

 

I love your threads. Hope you keep these going. What's really cool is that I know that you pull all the history, straight from your head. Great threads.

 

A great thread, would love to know more!

 

Beautiful old coppers and very good teading to go along with them!!