George Washington's Coppers

At the well-attended Fairfax Coin Club meeting on Tuesday, May 13 at the ViennaCommunity Center, John Kraljevich gave a talk on "The Coppers of GeorgeWashington's America: 1732-1799." Kraljevich, an expert on the coinage ofColonial America, is Director of Numismatic Americana for Stack's BowersGalleries, a leading auction house. ( https://stacksbowers.com/ )

Although scarce gold and silver coins of many nations circulated in early Americabased on their bullion value, humble copper coins used as small change werebasically just tokens, not "legal tender." Kraljevich explained that "if it was small and round and brown, it passed as a copper." Officially, 96 coppers exchanged for one Spanish milled dollar, but in the "Copper Panic of 1789" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Panic_of_1789) when the colonies wereflooded with lightweight counterfeits, the rate rose as high as 180.

The Red Book, issued annually since 1947 is the standard reference for collectorsof American coins, but it is not a good guide to what actually circulated in Americaduring George Washington's life. The Red Book contains many costly rarities thatmost Americans of the era would never have seen, it excludes many foreign typesthat circulated widely, and the inclusion of items in the book is often based moreon "tradition" than evidence.

Our modern understanding of the circulating coinage in the 18th century is basedlargely on archaeology, metal detector finds, and surviving documentary evidence.The most common copper coins of Colonial America were half pennies of GeorgeIII (who ruled from 1760 to 1820), which were widely counterfeited - in factfakes were more common than genuine pieces.

Kraljevich noted that the only "official" copper coin of colonial America was theVirginia half penny of 1773-1774.(https://emuseum.history.org/objects/67961/virginia-12d-no-period )

The talk was well-illustrated, with photos of many examples found in excavationsin and around Virginia. Many thanks to John for a most informative and enjoyabletalk.

For more information on the Fairfax Coin Club, see:
https://fairfaxcoinclub.com/