Box-Of-20 Colonial Type Set

Hi all, a while back I started this thread to get ideas on what a "colonial type set" would look like. Of course no one will agree perfectly but here's my take on a 20-piece set, nothing magic about that number except the slots in a box (but 20 actually feels about right). And my novice-level 1-liner of what each one was about, please correct if any of this is wrong. What do you think?




1636 Netherlands Leeuwandaalder - "lion dollar", the most established world currency in these early days, this one got Detailed but is one of the nicer strikes I've seen.

1652 Pine Tree Shilling - there's various trees and denominations and the penultimate NE coin, but this is the most famous and accessible so it stands in as the rep.

1670 Saint Patrick Farthing - Irish coin used in New Jersey, I love this one with the Saint casting out serpents, the anatomically correct front of the harp, the brass "splash" on the crown, the funky little church, just magical.

1688 American Plantations - so apparently British tin mines were going broke and they convinced the crown to mint tin coins the "plantations". What could go wrong? Mine unfortunately is a later pewter restrike, I want to upgrade this to a real 1688 tin eventually.

1694 Elephant Token - a New England or Carolina would be more fitting but that's a whole 'nuther league. Seems questionable whether these actually circulated in the colonies or are just associated by the NE/Carolina motifs

1721 French 9 Deniers - "Colonies Francoises", a reminder that the French were here too (mostly gulf coast & Canada areas)

1723 Wood's Rosa Americana - Wood made these for the colonies but they were underweight and disliked, even with the desperate shortage of coinage

1723 Wood's Hibernia - rejected in his home Ireland, boy this Wood guy had a hard time of it

1749 Spanish 8 Reales - "pieces of eight", replaced the Dutch lion daalder above as the definitive world coin, some say that "$" looking drape/pillar became our dollar sign. This one has a "WINGS" sticker, which appears to be kind of like the CAC of world coins. Who knew? They have good taste I must say, this is the best looking coin in the whole batch.

1760 Voce Populi - another unpopular underweight Irish thing that got shipped to the colonists like refuse, seems uncertain if many circulated in the colonies but it gets included in all the lists.

1766 Pitt Half Penny - Pitt the Elder was a great friend of America - "No Stamps"! Also Wade Boggs's favorite Prime Minister -

1773 Virginia Half Penny - authorized for Virginia by the crown, there's King George still front and center. 3 more years to go to get rid of him.

1776 Machin's Mills - one of many fake Brit halfpennies floating around, this one seems the most famous

** OK so now post-1776 we're not "colonies" anymore, but coins still got cranked out that didn't recognize the unified country, so I'm keeping them in the same set -

1778 Rhode Island ship medal - these weren't "Rhode Island" so much as a warning by the Brits to the Dutch to stay out of the 'skirmish'. This one is brass, they come in copper & pewter too

1783 Chalmers Silver - filled a niche where no one else was making silvers, this one's a details coin but it looks so good, obverse anyway. This was from the Syd Martin auction, so I guess he chose this actual coin himself.

1786-7 "big four" state coppers - VT needs to be the landscape with that goofy sun head poking up. MA and NJ did their own thing, CT copied the Brit coins. I live in NH and they had one too but they're a bit pricy - https://www.rarecoinwholesalers.com...0-sku-139752

1787 Nova Eborac, New York coin stands separate from the above 4 because it wasn't issued by the state itself, cranked out by Brasher & one other guy .. do I have that right?

1787 Auctori Plebis - mystery British thing that looks like a CT coin, "authority of the people" is anti-royalist and a neat twist.

There's other stuff of course, Sommers Hogges and Higley coppers which get crazy pricy, plenty of other candidates, but that's my stab.

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The following I don't include in "colonials", they are early attempts at a nationwide currency before the US mint got cranking, so these will go in my "early USA pre/post mint" box of 20 -



1783 Nova Constellatio - the new privately minted Morris coins meant to unite the new country under a single currency and introduce the decimal-based system, sadly didn't catch on

1787 Fugio Cent - you all know the story of these, Ben Franklin designed, I picked this one for its eye appeal and planchet flaw and die clash and the fact you can read all of "Mind your business", which often gets chopped off.

1791 Washington Cent - I like the small eagle type which predicts the heraldic eagle a few years later with the clouds over its head. Also cool how George himself rejected these coins, wanted a general 'liberty' instead.

1793-ish Kentucky Token - another British coin recognizing the new nation, nothing actually "Kentucky" about it except K is on top of the pyramid and was the most recent state to join.

Half Disme would hopefully someday get added here, then 1793 copper, etc.
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Any case, someone needs to make a 'Dansco 7070' for these, it would provide a roadmap for newbies like me, make it less intimidating, and I think really jump-start interest in this period. Thanks all, look forward to any thoughts.