A Lesson on Colonial Coins

*** Incomplete 1st Draft***

Early Colonial Era

In the early 1500s when the American Colonies were first settled under the English Crown people had not used coinage in their trade system that much the reason being is that coins were used to pay for supplies from Europe and the English had not permitted the colonist to produce their own money. So people would barter for good and services mainly by using tobacco which was regulated by weight by the English Crown. In time the Spanish dollar had become the currency of the colonies as a result of trade with the West Indies. The Spanish dollar become the most trusted source of coinage for the colonist because of its consistent silver content.












Massachusetts Creates The Boston Mint

Soon the colonies became more self-sufficient as their economies had stabilized. In 1652 the Massachusetts Bay colony established the very first Mint in the colonies which openly defied the Crown of England and struck a series of silver coins such as the pine tree shilling shown below. Though the Miint struck these coins for several years they kept the date set at 1652, this way if England were to find out about these illegal coins Massachusetts could defend itself by saying they had not made any coins since 1652. Pretty Clever huh?




Problems had arose as people had begun counterfeiting the coin. In response these coins were replaced by the willow,oak,and pine tree series. All of which bore the date 1652 except the oak tree 2 pence. These coins were minted until 1682 and a request to renew the coinage was denied in 1686 by the general court of Massachusetts.The willow tree threepence has only 3 known to exist and the six pence with 14 known to exist. An uncirculated sixpence sold at auction for $253,000 in November 2005.

The Oak Tree

The oak tree twopence coins are dated 1662 and have common variants known as small 2 and large 2. These variants are basically equal in value in most grades.

 

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Reserved

 

Reserved

 

how does everyone like it thus far?

 

Reserved.

 

I have a question. Everyone relax, it is just a question,

I am assuming this is the beginning, a draft, as you say, of what you were planning to roll into the CoinUniversity, right? So my question is this, the title is "A Lesson on Colonial Coins;" what portion of a class, a course, a degree, does this piece you presented represent?

The reason I ask is that there are entire books written about this. Entire books written about individual colonies. One major barter thing that I know of just off the top of my head is that barter wasn't limited to just tobacco, in fact, it also included compressed tea bricks. Little bricks of tea leaves that were used like money. But they aren't durable and therefore didnt truly fulfill the role of money. But it was used. A lot. And I know nothing of Colonial coins.

I am just curious, partly because I want you to wrap your head around a little better, the freakish vastness of this hobby. I want you to see how people weren't beating you up about your idea, just that you were putting the horse before the cart, before the rider even woke up that morning! Does that make sense?

 

yes it does and yes there is a ton of things involved with colonial coins. I am sticking to basics right now. I have been working on this piece for the past couple of days. I might go more in depth with this with a thread title "An advanced lesson on colonial coins" at a later point in time.

 

You answered "yes" to a question that asked for a numerical value. Thats like asking someone what their favorite smelling this is and they yell out "Purple" as an answer. Unless you have Synesthesia, that really doesn't make sense.

 

my yes was in response to when you said does that make sense? at the end

 

Josh, thanks for this.

Question: What is the comments "reserved" about?

 

If this is the basics, what, in your opinion, would constitute advanced?

 

If it made sense, did you miss the two MAIN questions in the middle? The ones I was asking if it makes sense about?

you're scaring me buddy....

 

just in case I need some extra room to add some things.

 

You saved them to later edit? That is awesome. Hysterical, but awesome.

My sister used to sit on money when we played Monopoly, literally under her toosh, so we never knew what she had. But it was always a $500 and 2 x $100's unless she hit free parking. I don't know why she did it. You still only have "x" amount to pay when you land on a hotel, but it was always funny to us.

 

My brain is fried man... it has been a rough day. you losted me man

 

FYI, I am pretty sure there is a time limit to when you can edit a post. Don't wait too long to finish your thread.

Btw, if those are not your photos, you should provide a reference.

 

they are stock photos

 

Stock photos from where?

It's a write off! These guys just write it off! - You dont know what a write off is do you? - No; Do you? - No - But they do write it off ~Seinfeld

 

umm ????

 

Before your time young man...wow I feel old.