A few weeks ago, fellow EACer Henry Hettger contacted me on behalf of another EACer, JimMyers, who had purchased a group of historical documents which included some from thestate of Connecticut. Jim, who was seeking documents related to family history, purchasedthem in an on-line auction for less than a hundred dollars. While he did not find any records offamily significance, three Connecticut state documents caught his attention.

The state documents are signed by George Wyllys, the Secretary of the General Assembly ofthe State of Connecticut. Since each document contains the phase followed by Wyllys' signature, they are apparently the handwritten copies of thelegislative record sent out for printing into public notices.

The first document, dated November 29, 1780, instructs tax collectors to turn in to the statetreasury any they had received or would receive in the future. The other twodocuments, dated December 29, 1790 and May 2, 1791, authorize the sale of copper coins inthe state treasury. All three documents are obviously genuine. Not only does Wyllys' signaturematch his signature on Connecticut state notes, but the May 2, 1791 document has a very clearwatermark of the Connecticut state seal.

Talk about a fantastic find; I was pretty much floored. While I've handled thousands of suchdocuments in state, federal, and museum archives, I don't recall ever seeing documents withsuch direct numismatic connection in private hands. I told Jim he had documents collectorswould love to own and that would form the core of a really interesting collection.

Jim is now pursuing a collection with the documents as centerpieces. I suggested that hedisplay the documents and the collection he forms around them once he has enough to make areasonable presentation. Hopefully, we'll see them in the near future.

So, how did these documents come into the public domain? Erik Goldstein, Senior Curator ofMechanical Arts & Numismatics with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, noted that in the1970 the Connecticut state archives tossed out (!) most of their 18 th century paper documentsafter microfilming it and that a friend had rescued much of it from the dumpster. Perhaps thesedocuments came from that haul.