Massachusetts Copper Coins (Unofficial)

About This Coin

Distinct from the well-documented official Massachusetts copper coinage of 1787-1788 authorized by the state legislature, Massachusetts Copper Coins (Unofficial) encompasses the murky category of privately produced coppers that circulated in Massachusetts during the Confederation period without explicit state authorization. Struck in copper, weighing approximately 9.5 grams with a plain edge, these pieces occupy the gray zone between legitimate coinage and entrepreneurial token-making that characterized the 1780s monetary landscape. Some may represent unauthorized productions by individuals or workshops seeking to profit from the demand for small change, while others may be patterns, proposals, or die trials associated with the official Massachusetts coinage program but not part of the authorized production run. The "unofficial" designation distinguishes these pieces from the state-authorized coins bearing the Indian-and-eagle obverse and reverse designs that Massachusetts contracted Joshua Witherle and others to produce. Within the Post-1776 Private and Regional Issues (1778-1820) series, Massachusetts Copper Coins (Unofficial) represent a collecting frontier where the boundaries between official and unofficial, authorized and entrepreneurial, remain subjects of active scholarly investigation. These pieces attract specialists in early American copper coinage who value the detective work required to classify and attribute coins produced in a period when monetary authority was diffuse and record-keeping was inconsistent.