A Little Piece of Americana - Part 2 - 1783 Washington & Independence GR Edge Cop Restrike

Kindred4u

Given the current state of our country, I thought I’d add a post of another item in my collection. Let’s all remember our great country and where we started all those years ago.

Mark

The coins are probably interesting and perhaps its my monitor but really all I can see are two round black circles. Do you have any pictures that lighter and show more detail?

Jimnight

Can't see the coin.

Zoins

@Mark said:
The coins are probably interesting and perhaps its my monitor but really all I can see are two round black circles. Do you have any pictures that lighter and show more detail?

I brightened the coin area in the following photo. I kept it to the coin area as otherwise I would need sunglasses!

Here's what it looks like when the entire photo is brightened.

Zoins

Here are mine. They are lower condition but I got them because they are off center.

Capstick

I hope this doesn’t sound like a stupid question, but I don’t know much about these.

The date on the label is 1783. Is that when they were restruck? If so, when was the original date of striking?

Very cool coins.

ricko

@Zoins ....Very nice off center strikes....and two of them.... did you find them searching coin shows? Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@ricko said:
@Zoins ....Very nice off center strikes....and two of them.... did you find them searching coin shows? Cheers, RickO

Thanks! They are the only two I've ever seen. I did find them searching, but on eBay

Sonorandesertrat

@Capstick said:
I hope this doesn’t sound like a stupid question, but I don’t know much about these.

The date on the label is 1783. Is that when they were restruck? If so, when was the original date of striking?

Very cool coins.

There is a family of Washington & Independence tokens, dated 1783, which includes the Unity States, Military Bust, and Draped Bust coppers. They are believed to have been made around 1820; proofs were made for collectors, in both copper and silver in the mid-19th century in England.

Zoins

@Sonorandesertrat said:

@Capstick said:
I hope this doesn’t sound like a stupid question, but I don’t know much about these.

The date on the label is 1783. Is that when they were restruck? If so, when was the original date of striking?

Very cool coins.

There is a family of Washington & Independence tokens, dated 1783, which includes the Unity States, Military Bust, and Draped Bust coppers. They are believed to have been made around 1820; proofs were made for collectors, in both copper and silver in the mid-19th century in England.

I've read this too and the restrikes are certainly do come in high grade, but I wonder why there would seem to be so many well-circulated pieces if they were just made for collectors. Has there been any discussion of the circulation pieces in the made for collectors discussion?

Sonorandesertrat

They did circulate, likely in both Britain and the U. S. There was a shortage of copper coins in both countries in the early 19th century, so unofficial tokens were used in commerce. The proof pieces are a different story--these 'restrikes' were made decades later.