A few years ago, an old rifle was found leaning against a Juniper tree in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park. It was left there an estimated 100 to 125 years prior. Hundreds of millions of people have been born and died in that time but no one had seen the aged gun. It wasn’t until archeologists doing a survey in Great Basin that one of them noticed it.
New England is particularly rife with wonderful finds. Just last month, a handful of coins dating back over 300 years were dug up near a fruit orchard in Rhode Island. Among them were Arabian coins struck in 1693. They are strongly believed to be a part of a hoard plundered by the notoriously cruel pirate Henry Every....
Some 30 years ago, on Long Island, a woman digging in a potato field uncovered an historic New England six pence minted in 1652 – just 30 years after the Pilgrims landed. While quite a few coins exist from the late 1600s, the one she found was quite rare. It sold in 1992 for $35,000. A few years ago, it went to auction again bringing a whopping $430,000.
When I was young, I recall leafing through coin guide books and magazines looking at images of the valuable old coins. The colonial examples were especially exciting – partly because of their high values but also given their connection to the earliest days of America. I dreamed of finding one.
While coin guides and catalogs are still available, two new books detailing US colonial coins and their values have just been released by numismatic luminary Q. David Bowers. “Colonial and Early American Coins” is an exhaustive compilation of every coin struck in the early days of America. It includes color photos of each plus detailed information about their values in various levels of condition. Naturally, better preserved coins fetch top dollar. Coins from Massachusetts, Virginia, Georgia, Vermont, New York(e) and other colonies are all included.
While there are several chapters on collecting, grading, identifying and the history behind the coins, “Colonial and Early American Coins” is primarily a reference volume. In 342-pages the tome is ideal for those seriously looking for early American coinage.
Bowers was simultaneously busy with his 25th volume in the incredible “Bower’s Book Series.” His latest entitled “A Guide Book of Colonial Currency And Coins” is a look into the paper money of the colonies. As Bowers states, “Only a few weeks after the ‘Shot Heard ‘Round the World’ (April 18, 1775) the American Continental Congress authorized its very first issuance of paper money.”
Conventional wisdom might lean toward paper from 250 years ago not surviving well. Not true. Paper from that era was thick and contained a high cotton content. Most bills, letters and documents have held up very nicely. Much of the paper for early paper money also contained flecks of mica to thwart counterfeiting.
To stop the forging of bills (primarily by the British to ruin the US economy) Ben Franklin conceived the idea of using the image of leaves on the reverse of the bills. His idea was that the veins in the leaves couldn’t be easily duplicated. He was right. It worked surprisingly well.
Making the bills even more unique were actual signatures of prominent individuals on them. Each bill was signed in red or black ink by colonial luminaries – some of whom also signed the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Each bill was also hand numbered in pen.
Of course, Great Britain still wanted to do whatever it could to compromise our new nation, including producing counterfeit notes. In response, on the reverse of some bills were the words, “To Counterfeit Is Death.” Not a lot of gray area there.
The best part is that many of those bills are still waiting to be found between the pages of old books people haven’t opened for years.
Both of the new books by Dave Bowers are produced by Whitman Publishing. For more information on either, log onto www.Whitman.com.