Pre-1776 States Coinage (1652-1774)

About This Series

Before American independence, individual colonial governments authorized their own coinage to address chronic currency shortages in British North America — producing some of the most historically significant and collectible coins in all of American numismatics. Massachusetts led the way in 1652, when the General Court authorized John Hull and Robert Sanderson to strike silver shillings, sixpences, and threepences in Boston, beginning with the austere NE (New England) coinage and progressing through the Willow Tree, Oak Tree, and Pine Tree designs that bore the fixed 1652 date throughout their production into the 1680s. Virginia authorized copper halfpennies in 1773-1774, struck at the Tower Mint in London and shipped to the colony in enormous quantities. Connecticut coppers, produced under state authorization from 1785-1788, generated over 350 die varieties cataloged in the Miller reference. These pre-independence coinages document the economic challenges of colonial life, where barter and foreign coins filled the void left by Britain's mercantilist policies restricting colonial minting. The Massachusetts silver coinage represents an early assertion of colonial autonomy decades before the Revolution. Collectors pursuing pre-1776 states coinage encounter a field rich in historical resonance.