All Guide To Territorial Values Articles

The coins that Machin’s Mills struck were underweight. They took in old British Half Pennies for their services and paid out their obligations using their new lightweight imitations. The counterfeit British Half Pennies are identified by the very thick lips of King George III on the obverse or by the large, triangular-shaped denticles on the coin’s edge.

Reuben Harmon of Rupert, Vermont, was authorized to strike copper coins for the independent republic of Vermont in 1785. Colonel William Coley, who was a goldsmith from New York, was charged with creating the designs and the dies. They crafted 14 different designs over a four year period.

America’s first private gold coins were some gold doubloons struck by Ephraim Brasher in 1787. Brasher was a goldsmith from New York and a next-door neighbor and friend of George Washington. No one is certain whether these coins were patterns for gold coinage or patterns for proposed copper coinage.

With so many competing firms no longer in business due to incorrect assays, Wass and Molitor obtained coinage dies for $5, $10, $20 and $50 coins.

In 1852, the United States Assay Office of Gold issued two different $50 “slugs” of different fineness in addition to issuing a $10 gold coin.

Templeton Reid, a Milledgeville, GA, jeweler and gunsmith struck the very first private gold coinage in the United States. Reid saw an opportunity and decided to try his hand at striking coins from Georgia-mined gold.

Templeton Reid achieved fame striking Georgia Private Gold coins in 1830, which were in high demand in and around Georgia until his weights were shown to be inaccurate.

It is believed that the firm of Broderick and Kohler bought the coinage dies and struck coins using the obverse and reverse dies witha sledgehammer, as coins had been struck since ancient times.

The Oregon Exchange Company began striking gold coins for use in the Oregon Territory. Machinery was fabricated or purchased and shipped to their building in Oregon City.