Surfs up!
worldcoinguy
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I finished my Hawaiian set this week and wanted to share the copper piece. I know.....a bit out of the realm of Russian coins and German talers, but I found the 1 year Hawaii type set to be intriguing.
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Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
You gotta love those "crossover" coins that are both Liteside AND Darkside, too.
Matter of fact, Hawaiian stuff that looks this good could always be justified in my Russian collection.
Someone in Russia had to know someone in Hawaii at one time, right?
Nick
Shep
Keneta or cent 1847:
Diameter: 27 millimeters
Weight: approximately 9 grams
Composition: copper
Edge: plain
Number coined: 100,000
Net mintage after melting: 11,595+
The creation of large plantations and the adoption of a Western style economy beginning about the 1820s created a demand for coined money. At first, this money consisted of coins carried in from a variety of countries having interests in the islands. This source proved unreliable, and coins were in chronically short supply. As dissatisfaction grew, King Kamehameha III (1825-54) set out to rectify this shortage by including a provision for a Hawaiian monetary system in his new legal code of 1846. This system provided for a unit known as the dala, which was based on the American dollar. The dala was divided into 100 keneta, or cents. Several denominations of fractional silver coins were included in this system, as well as a copper piece to be valued at one keneta.
Coining of the silver pieces required a two-thirds approval by the Privy Council, and these issues were deferred while the monarchy addressed the more urgent demand for cents. The Minister of Finance was directed to have the latter coined as quickly as possible. Through Royal Agent James Jackson Jarvis, editor of the newspaper Polynesian, a contract was made with the private minting facility of H.M. & E.I. Richards of Attleboro, Massachusetts, familiar to American numismatists as a manufacturer of Hard Times tokens.
As prescribed by law, these copper pieces bore on their obverse a facing portrait of Kamehameha III with his name and title KA MOI (the King). Though coined in 1846, all examples were post-dated 1847 to coincide with their anticipated arrival in Hawaii. The reverse of each coin featured two laurel boughs tied at their juncture to form a wreath. Around this wreath was the legend AUPUNI HAWAII (Kingdom of Hawaii). Within it was supposed to appear the denomination HAPA HANELI (Money of 100), but Yankee diesinker Edward Hulseman had mis-spelled it as HAPA HANERI. Adding to this disappointment was the fact that the King’s portrait was essentially unrecognizable. Taken together, these flaws caused the natives to view this new money with disgust, and it was widely rejected. There were rumors that many workers threw the coins in the ocean rather than accept them as just payment for their labor.
It was originally anticipated that the 100,000 pieces included in this initial delivery were to be just the first of many, yet the overwhelming rejection of the copper coinage meant that no more would be struck. After 1862, the Hawaiian Treasury ceased disbursing the unwanted cents, and a mere 11,595 pieces remained outstanding at that time. Though these coins ceased to have legal tender status after 1884, examples were still seen in circulation for the simple reason that no other coins of such low value were readily available. Their use came to a complete end only when cents of the United States were imported at the turn of the century.