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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Virginian, post: 895059, member: 15201&quot;]Generally speaking, Regal Coins from Britain did not circulate very much in the American colonies as the Crown did not like to actually pay we lowly colonists in real money, like specie of gold, silver or copper from the London banks. Typically, we were issued letters of credit to use to buy finished goods that were drawn on a London bank since we were forbidden to start any banks of our own. Here in Virginia, tobacco planters and warehouses actually used chits issued in bushels of tobacco as a kind of currency. In the absence of most regals coins, the colonists, being good smugglers and traders often encountered LOTS of Spanish and Portugese coins from the other colonies in the carribean....hence the Spanish dollar becoming more or less a standard for everyday commerce. These dollars were cut into 8 bits or reales for smaller transactions. There was still a shortage for even smaller copper change and 3 attempts by the crown were made to supply us with them were made. The Woods Rosa Americana and later the failed Woods Hibernia coinage were dumped on us. As a rule a regal pound and its units were at a 2:1 ratio with colonial pounds, but even the Woods coins were so underweight, most were heavily discounted in everyday trade and generally not liked. Right before the American Revolution, the Virginia General Assembly got permission from the King and Parliament to have Virginia Half Pennies and even a Virginia Shilling made at the Tower Mint in London. These were made and shipped in late 1774 and arrived in 1775 just as the revolution was getting started and the Royal Governor of Virginia had most of them that had not been distributed, put in the attic of a court house where they remained until the late 1850s still sealed in their barrels. A Philadelphia antiques dealer purchased them and the family is still slowly releasing them. As to Regal coins from the period, I have found uncirculated versions on eBay and at Colin Cooke Coins in the UK for about $400-600 or so. There are only half pennies and farthings from this period until after the revolution and the Soho Watt milled coins in the late 1790s.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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