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Message:: [QUOTE="Publius2, post: 25480674, member: 105571"]I picked up two early coppers at the FUN Show:  This Nova and a Connecticut Draped Bust Left in AU-58.  The Connecticut was from Syd Martin's collection but I can't show it here as the slab was cracked and the dealer is sending it back to PCGS to be reholdered. But here's the Nova.  It's the Crosby 3-C variety with Blunt Rays and CONSTELATIO is misspelled using only one L.  The reverse is rotated a full 45 degrees. Experts have argued over which side is the obverse and which the reverse.  I tend to call the date side the reverse but you can make your own choice and no one will really gainsay you. These coppers were the result of a 1784 private joint venture of Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris and William Constable, the inspiration derived from the abandonment of the idea of a Federal Mint.  Consensus seems to be these were struck by a private mint in Birmingham, England and that 1783-dated coins were actually struck in 1785.  Design inspiration seems to have derived from the Nova Constellatio Pattern Coinage that displayed the decimal units of a "bit" of 100 units, a "quint" of 500 units, and a "mark" of 1000 units. They circulated as money in the Confederation as attested by the worn nature of many survivors.  A few years later they were devalued in commerce and many became undertypes for Connecticut, New Jersey and Vermont coppers. [ATTACH=full]1630835[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]