A Chalmers Shilling
BillJones
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John Chalmers was a gold and silver smith who lived and worked in Annapolis, Maryland. As it had been during the colonial period, there was shortage of money in The United States after the Revolutionary War. One of the more popular ways to make change was to cut up the Spanish Milled Dollars, or "pieces of eight" into in pie slice shaped pieces. Here is an example of this. This piece was made for use on the island of Curacao in the Dutch West Indies circa 1818 to 1825.
Although dividing a Spanish dollar into eight parts or "bits" was probably satisfying, it was even more fun if one could divide it into nine or ten bits. These underweight "short bits" started to become a problem in the Annapolis area and John Chalmers and another silver smith, Thomas Sparrow, decided to do something about it. Sparrow and perhaps Chalmers made sets of dies for three pence, six pence and shillings, and offered to convert the "bits" into coins which had a defined weight and purity for the very modest of charge of 8%. Although these coins were unofficial, the powers at be seemed to be okay with it because there is no record of any proceedings taken against Chalmers and his partner.
Today the Chalmers coins are quite scarce with perhaps a couple hundred shillings known. The three and six pence pieces are much scarcer. The piece shown below is the more common "short worm" variety. The "worm" is the prize that the two birds are fighting over on the obverse.
It has been claimed that this design in making a political statement. Supposedly the while the two birds fight over the worm while a snake from behind the fence is looking to make both of them into a meal. The past it was claimed that this was a political cartoon that warned the people of the individual states that a strong federal government was lurking to take their freedoms. Since this piece was issued a few years before the Constitutional Convention, which created our current Federal system, this interpretation might be far fetched.
Although dividing a Spanish dollar into eight parts or "bits" was probably satisfying, it was even more fun if one could divide it into nine or ten bits. These underweight "short bits" started to become a problem in the Annapolis area and John Chalmers and another silver smith, Thomas Sparrow, decided to do something about it. Sparrow and perhaps Chalmers made sets of dies for three pence, six pence and shillings, and offered to convert the "bits" into coins which had a defined weight and purity for the very modest of charge of 8%. Although these coins were unofficial, the powers at be seemed to be okay with it because there is no record of any proceedings taken against Chalmers and his partner.
Today the Chalmers coins are quite scarce with perhaps a couple hundred shillings known. The three and six pence pieces are much scarcer. The piece shown below is the more common "short worm" variety. The "worm" is the prize that the two birds are fighting over on the obverse.
It has been claimed that this design in making a political statement. Supposedly the while the two birds fight over the worm while a snake from behind the fence is looking to make both of them into a meal. The past it was claimed that this was a political cartoon that warned the people of the individual states that a strong federal government was lurking to take their freedoms. Since this piece was issued a few years before the Constitutional Convention, which created our current Federal system, this interpretation might be far fetched.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
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--Severian the Lame
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I knew it would happen.
Steve
Thanks for the thread on the Chalmers Shilling.
This is real Americana and is a must for every Colonial type set. For those that want to see the whole set, examples of all varieties and denominations they were displayed and sold in the 1983 Roper sale at Stacks. Those were the days.
<< <i>That's awesome, Bill. I see that the long worm piece on CRO is on hold. Tremendous history in these pieces! >>
John has a great eye for these things...
One of my favorites, I got this one from John awhile ago. It is in a PCGS VF30 holder; I like it more than some others in 40 and 45 holders I have subsequently seen. It just has the right look for a 230 year-old silver coin.
<< <i>Yes, I would say that piece might be under graded, Rays. >>
I thought it was an XF, but I did not want to crack it out of this holder:
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