Book Description

Excerpt from Catalogue of Coins, Tokens, and Medals in the Numismatic Collection of the Mint of the United States at Philadelphia, Pa With the view of relieving to some extent the money stringency oi the colony, Massachusetts in 1651 projected a mint for the coinage of silver. Preliminary arrangements were speedily made, and in the following year the mint was opened at Boston and began operations by striking the almost plain New England Shilling (pl. 1, the Sixpence and Threepence. The standard of fineness of the new coin was the same as the correspond ing English coin. It is very improbable that there was any intention to continue long such a simple form of coin as this piece is, being in fact but little more than a plain disk. For it must have been apparent at once that the coins could be easily clid and also fraudulently washed until their weight and value were seriously reduced. It is very likely that the exceedingly simple form of the first issue was the result of great haste to get the mint into operation, and that the preparation of other and more suitable dies was begun at once on the opening of the mint, and that they were put into use as soon as completed. At any rate, in the same year of 1652, the series with a tree on the obverse and on the reverse N EW eng lan D ano. With the date and value within a beaded circle, was begun. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.