Heavily Damaged, Holed, And Corroded 1787 New Jersey Nova Caesarea "Batman" Maris 48-G?

At one point I was starting to collect New Jersey coppers by die variety but it just became too costly. I ended up trying to get most of the major types, I have about thirty I believe.

There are examples of Colonial State Coppers used for machinery parts even some well known collectors as Bill Anton have indicated used to tag livestock as cattle based on their hole design.

Based on the available description of the article, the late Clem Schettino's August 2008 The Colonial Newsletter article examined three newly identified "What'sIt?" pieces fashioned from genuine New Jersey coppers after their circulation life had ended. The study documented how authentic colonial coins were altered and repurposed into non-monetary objects, providing additional evidence that some New Jersey coppers survived not as coins but as raw material for other practical or decorative uses. While the article did not specifically identify cattle tags or machine parts, it demonstrated that New Jersey coppers were sometimes modified for secondary purposes, supporting the broader concept that heavily worn colonial coppers could be recycled or adapted long after their original monetary function had ceased.

For your question, the significance is that it provides documented colonial-coin evidence of post-circulation reuse rather than mere speculation. The article shows that New Jersey coppers were occasionally transformed into entirely different objects, making other utilitarian uses such as washers, tags, or farm-related adaptations historically plausible, even if those specific applications were not the focus of Schettino's study.