A Specialist’s Perspective on Colonial Coins

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The latest in our interview series has just gone up! This time around, Steve Feltner speaks to a specialist in the area of coins, tokens, and medals produced by the early colonists and revolutionaries. Below are just a couple of the questions in the interview.

Q. Is there a specific series that you personally find most interesting and exciting?

A. I love all of it, really and truly. I love Fugio coppers, since they were the first coins authorized and struck for circulation in the United States. I love Massachusetts silver, struck within the lifetime of the Pilgrims and the very first coins struck in what became the United States. I love regulated gold coins, foreign gold issues that were clipped and plugged and stamped by American silversmiths to show that they were the correct weight for circulation.

Q. I know that you have owned many impressive rarities over the years. Is there a “holy grail” coin, so to speak, that you hope to one day acquire?

A. One of the only colonial issues I've never owned or catalogued is the 1714 Gloucester Shilling, a super-rare (two known) brass token produced (probably locally) for use on the Virginia peninsula just north of Williamsburg. It's been decades since one even sold. They don't look like much, but it's the rarest of all the early colonial issues, struck even before Washington was born – and not far from where he was born, for that matter, either.

See the rest of the interview here: https://www.pcgs.com/news/specialists-perspective-on-colonial-coins

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asheland

Very cool! I have a colonial American spoon made by one of the regulators...

asheland

William Hollingshead of Philadelphia:

CaptHenway

WOW on that Shilling!

Klif50

During the bicentennial year and the years either side of 1976, we, in the coin shop, were absolutely sure that Continental Currency and coins from that period were going to go out of sight price wise. So we advertised heavily and bought everything that came in from that time. Couple of years after and we hadn't sold a single piece. Now I would love to have stuff from that period and before. I did handle a few Bar Cents but they were not super grade and didn't impress me much at the time.

johnny9434

Cool write up. The shilling is pretty cool as well

messydesk

Incredible shilling and nice interview. Thanks for posting.

ricko

Interesting interview and thanks for the link. That Chalmers Shilling is amazing....and only two known...Cheers, RickO