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Message:: [QUOTE="Eduard, post: 2602528, member: 8959"]Here is another coin of British origin with a strong connection to america - The 1791 George Washington Cent.  It was minted in England with the hope of obtaining a contract with the U.S government for use in the U.S. Here is a brief history of this coinage.  ''In the hopes of obtaining a contract from the U.S. government to produce copper coins the firm of W. and Alexander Walker of Birmingham England commissioned John Gregory Hancock to design a copper cent. Hancock designed two different cents, each with a bust of George Washington on the obverse and an American eagle of the reverse. Hancock worked at Obadiah Westwood's mint in Birmingham, England, where the coppers were minted. The two coppers are know as the Large Eagle and the Small Eagle cents. The Walkers had a cask of these cents shipped to his American associate, the firm of Thomas Ketland and Son, in Philadelphia. They were to distribute the coins to cabinet officers, senators and congressmen in the hopes of securing a federal minting contract. It has been assumed the cask was a a normal size hundredweight barrel, which would accommodate 112 pounds or about 4,000 coppers. It has been further conjectured about 2,500 of the coppers were the Large Eagle variety and about 1,500 were Small Eagle cents. Although the coins were well made no contract was awarded. George Washington rejected the idea of having his portrait on coins as overly monarchical and he also rejected the notion of contract minting. His desire was to open a national mint to control coin production. Nevertheless, the some four thousand copper cents that had been sent over were put in circulation. Following this unplanned issue, no presidential portraits were found on government issued coins until the Lincoln penny of 1909.'' Here is my example of the small eagle variety. [ATTACH=full]568302[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]568303[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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