Living in New England has its advantages .I've "dug" up several Colonial coins while Metal Detecting . So, I'd like to see what you have , dug or bought . Please keep it to 2 coins per post PLEASE . Okay I'll Start : 1787 CT. Copper and one 1753 British half cent ( both dug).
Probably not what you had in mind, but these are my 'colonial coins'. Before Australia started minting it's own coins, we used coins from all over the world including from the UK, British India, and other European countries. These coins were collectively known as the 'proclamation coins'. http://wcorbin.site.net.au/Proclamation Coins.pdf And here are some of my coin types that were used in Australia a century ago! British India double Fanam and one Rupee
only 2 so how about... 1788 massachusetts 1788 vermont and the rest can be seen here https://www.cointalk.com/media/albums/early-colonial-coppers.1931/
Surprisingly this one turned up in a metal detecting hoard in a house I cleared on the North Sea coast of Yorkshire. The guy had detected for around 50 years and just hoarded his finds in onion sacks under the floorboards waiting for me to find them.
1795 Picayune (1/2 Reale) from the 1982 New Orleans Bank hoard dug up by a backhoe operator during construction for the 1984 World's Fair.
Until a couple of weeks ago my oldest coin struck for the British North American colonies, this is actually a pattern penny - the rose in the reverse has more pellets in the centre than the coin struck for circulation - but this coin managed to slip into circulation. These coins were struck in bronze by patent granted to William Wood who also struck the Hibernia farthings and halfpennies in 1722-4. These coins were remarkably unpopular in the American colonies - Massachusetts-Bay and New Jersey banned their usage and Massachusetts-Bay even issued small change notes in 1d, 2d and 3d. No further issues of coins specifically minted for the colonies resulted until the 1773 Virginia halfpenny. Many of the 1749 regal farthings and halfpennies were sent to America though - one of the few times the crown actually supplied full weight coinage to the colonies. Money was a significant contributor to the American Revolution - money was always in short supply in the American colonies, and when it did come it went right back to Britain in trade. As a result the colonies started issuing their own monies beginning in Massachusetts-Bay in 1652 with the New England silver issues. In 1690 Massachusetts-Bay issued paper money, and paper money issues were a major problem for the British crown.
I have a few, many in desperate need of upgrading. The raw ones are fun to hold, though, and imagine where they have been.
The term “colonial coins” is a bit misleading. Anything that was issued during the Articles on Confederation period, like the Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York copper coins, are not “colonial coins” because the U.S. was no longer a colony. The Vermont coppers were sort of a “nationhood” issue because Vermont was not a state and yet had its independence. You could call these coins “confederates” although that term would be confusing. The Virginia half penny was sort of a watershed coin. The British made it to circulate in the Virginia colony, but it was issued at the time the Revolutionary War was about to start. Collectors mostly know about the hundreds of Mint State pieces that came from the famous hoard, but circulated examples are known too. The late Herb Silberman, who was one of the founders of the Early American Coppers Club, once told me that American colonial coins could be most anything that is listed in a catalog of European coins from the 16 and 1700s. All of those pieces probably made their way here at some point. British coins of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I (late 1500s and early 1600s) have been unearthed at the Jamestown, Virginia site. Those coins were used here and could called “colonials.” I will post some pictures of the coins I mentioned when I can get on my desktop computer.
PCGS includes both in what they consider "colonials" pre and post or more simply anything minted prior to 1793 and the 1st congresional ordered coinage, i include quite a few others like the rosa americana, dutch duits and even a castorland medal can be considered "colonial coinage" Myself I pretty much agree with PCGS and call anything prior to 1793 colonial https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/category/colonials/13
Here are a few coins that are called "colonials." This Massachusetts Half Cent is the highest grade piece I have from the period. It's graded MS-64, Brown and was a former NGC MS-65. It came from the Eric Newman collection. A Nova Constellatio Copper. These were struck in Birmingham, England and shipped to New York City to be circulated as private business venture. Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris were among the investors. Here is a Virginia Half Penny. This one came from a hoard of several hundred Mint State pieces that was in a group that came to light in the 1870s. This one is PCGS graded MS-64, R&B. Here is a real colonial that is hard to find, a Lord Baltimore six pence. These coins were struck at the London Mint and shipped here for use in the Maryland colony. These pieces were issued in the 1660s. And here is a British coin similar to the pieces that have been dug out of the earth at Jamestown, a Queen Elizabeth I six pence. And these wompum beads are not coins, but they were money, at least in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for a while, circa 1640.