As the first president, George Washington was responsible for defining the powers and limits of the office for the first time. The framers of the Constitution had written the Executive Branch provisions with Washington in mind. Still it was his responsible to try out the office for the first time. His success in that area has prompted historians to rate him as the one of the best presidents, usually #2 behind Lincoln. One of the responsibilities of the new government was to establish a monetary system. That system could not include paper money. The Continental Currency which the Continental Congress had issued became worthless during the Revolutionary War. Nobody trusted paper for good reason because the states had also issued paper which had lost all of most of its value. Therefore money would have to be in coin form. There was a debate as to whether the government should run a mint or turn the responsibility over to private contractors. The failure of Fugio Cent had shown some that private minters were not the answer, but some members of the House and Senate continued to push for a privately produced coinage. One of the proposals for a U.S. coinage came from England. This coin, which was made at the Bolton and Watt Soho Mint was an example. Two gentlemen from Birmingham, England, W. and Alex Walker, sponsored the project. They set a key of these cents to The United States and had them distributed to members of Congress. There were 1,500 of these pieces with the small eagle and the date on the reverse, and 2,500 pieces with a large eagle and the date on the obverse. Washington rejected all of it, including the pieces with his portrait which were made in The United Stats. He did not want his portrait to appear on the coinage because it was something a king would do, not the leader of a republic. Despite the fact that these coins were not accepted a “coins of the realm,” they went into circulation. Americans were desperate for a circulating coinage. They would willing to use just about anything. These pieces are known in circulated and Mint Stage condition. It is believed that almost all of the Mint State pieces which are known, were collected by British numismatists. There were almost no collectors in The United States at the time, and there would be very few coin collectors until 1857 when the large cent was discontinued. When that happened, coin collecting in the U.S. became popular. This piece is graded MS-64, Brown. Virtually none of these coins show any mint red, and those that do show only a trace of it. Of course coin doctors would be more than willing to make them red if they thought it would be to their financial advantage.
I have always found it fascinating that after a long and bloody war that the British were so eager to resume commerce with us. Very cool piece @johnmilton !
