1970 Bermuda One Cent- Boar

Nice! The design is very historical! There are several early versions of this Hogge money coin from 1616 that was made for Bermuda when it was known as the Somers Isles. The coin was the first coin made for British North America. They were made in a variety of denominations of silver-plated brass and are incredibly rare. The Somers in question is Sir George Somers who shipwrecked on the island in 1609. He had been on a relief mission to Jamestown, Virginia, but instead ran into trouble himself, later dying in Bermuda in 1610. The shipwrecked Englishmen ate island porkies to survive so therefore the pig on the coin! As for Jamestown, it faced its own struggles with the Starving Time Winter of 1609-1610, when out of about 500 colonists only 61 people survived, the rest succumbing to starvation or disease. George Percy, president of the colony, wrote about how the colonists resorted to eating dogs, cats and mice and eventually he even had to punish a man for cannibalizing his wife!!! They were ready to turn back to go back to England when Baron De la Warr arrived and forced them to return, thus saving the colony that later became one of the core colonies of the United States, giving us the House of Burgesses, our first representative government as well as being the first colony to acquire slaves (coincidentally, in the same year). Bermuda, on the other hand, remained British with the name of the original Spanish discoverer becoming the official name of the island. Happy Fourth of July!!!

@slerk Welcome!

Welcome! Thanks for sharing your coin!