I been collecting coins since the late 1960's. Been studying the Redbook since 1976. Granted I do not enjoy the museum quality 18th century pieces that @Eduard shared with us here..... But after all these years I am just now realizing that only cents and half cents displayed their denomination. Considering we were a brand new nation with brand new coinage, seems folks would have been somewhat confused at the time.
Interesting point you make, and it made me curious too. I checked the edge of the dollar and it says "ONE HUNDRED CENTS ** ONE DOLLAR ** OR UNIT ". So folks had to check the edge to verify what it was they had. I'll check the halves tomorrow. I am guessing the relative size and weight of the coins would have been a good indication as well.
You know that makes me think that it must have been a confusing time mid-1800s with the transition to small cents, 2 cents and 3 cent coins but that's probably a subject for another thread..
Remember in the early days of US coinage, there were actually relatively few US coins. Foreign coins of all sorts circulated in gold and silver, and even in copper. A merchant would often be more interested in the fineness and weight than a stated denomination: convert to unfamiliar dollars quickly from Spanish reals, British shillings, crowns, and sovereigns, Dutch stuivers and gulden, and French sous, livres, and Louis d'or (and, by 1795, francs), all of which might be in a merchant's cash drawer on a given day. No other country on earth had adopted a decimal system of money until France followed our example, and mental computing in units of 10 was as confusing to them as for modern Americans trying to figure out decimal system measurements, and for the same reasons.
Actually, Russia had one in 1700. I guess that's a technicality. Good point overall. Anyway, I love seeing these copper coins!
Lovely set, thank you for sharing. Here is a 1795 gold https://www.ebay.com/itm/1795-DRAPE...666639?hash=item285e78cbcf:g:aVgAAOSw4GFbNFnG
That's a great set Eduard, I really like the quality of the metal in the copper coins and the surfaces of all of them especially the silver. Your draped bust dollar has exactly the look that I am searching for! Thanks for posting these.
The early halves also had the denomination on the edge. The half dime, dime, quarter and gold coins did not have the denominations on them. This wasn't that unusual though. The colonists considered themselves to be British and were familiar with their coins none of which had denominations on them. People were expected to know the denomination based on the metal and size. This is why you sometimes run across copper coins that have been silver of gold plated, because they were the same or almost the same size as larger denominations.
I have had to come back and ogle over that flowing hair dollar a hundred times today. man, that one just knocks my socks off.