I think I am starting to get somewhere with my colonial collection. Today I added this example. For some reason I was attracted to the planchet. I also think the obverse is pretty crisp. I honestly couldnt get hyped on Massachusetts. However i wanted 1 in my collection and i didn't want junk. Next up Vermont perhaps. But anyhow here she is. 1788 Massachusetts Cent Ryder 2-B
Very nice, are you going for a landscape Vermont or bust type? Very partial to the landscapes myself!
Right now I am looking at a RR-17. If I was forced to buy today it would be that. I could add a landscape later. The collection is starting to take form sorta....but I'm making up my own rules as I go along. Objective right now is just 1 each of the main primary types? So like 1 Connecticut 1 jersey 1 vermont....ect... but I have 3 jersey...2 Connecticut ect..because i keep falling in love with examples. I also have added some woods and machins..... so not really sure what the end game is. Just going with the flow right now.
It's your collection, so making your own rules is the way to go! I Started with type collecting, then wanted to specialize. I love New Jersey coppers, but varieties are pretty pricy with them. I am doing Connecticuts right now, just got an R6 variety for $56.
I haven't been able to acquire anything for that kind of money. I think I have 90 in one of my Connecticut pcs. That might be my least expensive pc. Seems I'm sinking 400-500 in some of them. 300 i feel like I stole it. That Massachusetts the guy wanted 500 I offered 400 and he took it. My next choice was 525 and the guy wasnt budging. I think i did get a Virginia for 69 now that i think about it but its a G. I like it though.
The Massachusetts copper coins were the best made pieces from the pre-federal era. They were struck on high quality planchets, and the dies were well executed. The trouble was when the Massachusetts Government added up the face value of the coins they had produced in 1787 and ‘88, and compared that with what it cost to produce them, the production costs exceed the face value. That ended the coinage. Unlike the other state coinages, the mint was run by the government, not private concerns.
It would have ended anyway as once they ratified the Constitution and joined the country under that government, they lost their right to create their own coinage.
True But Congress didn't order the 1st coinage until 1793, so they could have been produced for 5 more years with minor alterations. In the meantime a few other states tried their hands at it as well with pretty much the same results all around.. some of these included the washington cents, NJ, Conn, the Nova Constellatio and dozens of other coins in circulation at that time.. you can see my poor examples here https://www.cointalk.com/media/albums/early-colonial-coppers.1931/
No, the Constitution restricted the right to create money to the Federal government. Under the Articles of Confederation the States could strike their own coinage, and the states of CT, NJ, and MA produced their coinages under that Government. (The 1788 NJ pieces were technically illegal, but they already had the dies made so they used them. CT didn't ratify the Constitution until 1788 so their 1788 coins were legal.) Once a State ratified the Constitution and joined that government their right to create coins ceased. Now VT could have continued striking coins longer if they wished because they were and independent country and didn't join the US until 1791.
