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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jimski, post: 2916620, member: 77373&quot;]1773 Virginia halfpenny, Tower Mint London, Type: No Period, Seven harp strings, Newman 7-D, Breen 181, Rarity – R2 (common)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]705287[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]705288[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>From: <u>The Coins of Colonial and Early America</u>, Louis Jordan, University of Notre Dame, Department of Special Collections. <a href="https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/VA-halfd.intro.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/VA-halfd.intro.html" rel="nofollow">https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/VA-halfd.intro.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Although the April 10, 1609 charter for the Virginia Plantation included the authority to mint coins the colony did not choose to exercise this privilege until May 20, 1773, when the Virginia Assembly authorized the coining of a halfpenny at the Tower mint in London. … Five tons of halfpence (about 670,000 pieces) arrived in New York aboard the ship &quot;Virginia&quot; on February 14, 1774 but were not distributed until written royal permission was obtained about a year later. The Virginia treasurer, Robert Nicholas, published a notice bearing the date February 27, 1775 in all issues of the Virginia Gazette printed between March 2-16, explaining that &quot;copper money is now ready to be issued in Exchange either for Gold, Silver or any Treasury Notes.&quot; Soon after the initial disbursement of the coins commenced, the Revolutionary war broke out in Massachusetts at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Consequently Virginians hoarded the new halfpenny, along with all other copper coins, until the end of the war. Although the halfpenny contained the portrait of the king of England, it is clear these coins were used in Revolutionary and post war Virginia, for out of fifty-nine coins found during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, forty were Virginia halfpence.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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