Why did Americans in 1785-89 tolerate King George and Britannia on their States Coppers?
ambro51
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It is something that befuddles me. Yes the circulating coppers of the era, both Regal and imitations, had George II and George III on them BUT--- the War was fought and most who used these coins had personal memories, lost limbs, lost relatives.... You had your new coppers STILL with the picture of that fat old hated King on them... Here we were all proud of our Liberty, but we keep this ex Ruler on our coins??? Does anyone have any insight into why they tolerated this??
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1/3 for separation
1/3 loyal to crown
1/3 neutral
Also if the choice is no circulating coin or one with G3, the latter was a viable option.
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I don't claim to know what the options were, but would new issues at that time have been as accepted as the established existing coinage among the merchants and people of the day or would they be thought of as perhaps something else? Could they have relished using the coins as a form of expression - using the metal in a sort of two-word protest way - using the Kings metal and image?
Eric
nor was there a choice, since the mint wasn't operational yet.
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<< <i>Geroge III wasn't such a bad guy and wasn't fat either. >>
While he may not be considered fat by today's US standard, he was pretty hefty.
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<< <i>It is something that befuddles me. Yes the circulating coppers of the era, both Regal and imitations, had George II and George III on them BUT--- the War was fought and most who used these coins had personal memories, lost limbs, lost relatives.... You had your new coppers STILL with the picture of that fat old hated King on them... Here we were all proud of our Liberty, but we keep this ex Ruler on our coins??? Does anyone have any insight into why they tolerated this?? >>
It's a good question, one that I've wondered about before. First, I think it's important that in the legislation allowing for the various state coinages,(Vermont and Connecticut would be most pertinent here) the only requirement for the design was a generic effigy on the obverse and a seated figure on the reverse. Clearly, the dies were modeled after Geo II and Geo III halfpennies, but technically, the bust is not a representation of the king and the seated figure is not Britannia. The reason for the similarity in design was probably a utilitarian one - allowing for an easier acceptance into commerce since the British halfpenny was a familiar coin. Aside from this, I like to think that the choice of the design and legends on CT and VT coppers was also a sort of mockery of the crown, the coins' legends replacing the king's authority with the authority of the U.S. state and replacing Britannia motto with "Independence and Liberty."
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<< <i>Simple.
People don't care WHAT their money looks like as long as it spends! >>
Exactly! There was no room for politics, at the time, when circulating coinage was all that mattered. If a lump of sh** circulated as currency at the time, there would be no qualms about using it.
-Dan
Interesting!......makes me wonder why there wasn't more grafitti on those coins, on the king's face, done in protest.....
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1) There wasn't much option. Scarcity of coinage was a profound problem of the era.
2) Modern Americans vastly overestimate the degree to which the average colonist was ready to go to battle against the motherland. A huge part of the country was loyalist before, during, and after the war.
3) Today, the "evil empires" of the world have a particular fondness for US currency. Stories of what was found in Sadam's palaces are legend.
<< <i> Stories of what was found in Sadam's palaces are legend. >>
There was a news story datelined in Moscow last week about a shipment of currency in crates that was reputed to be about $30 billion that the article surmised could be some of the missing money that went to Iraq during the US occupation of the place.
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<< <i>I once lived in a country that overthrew its ruler in a coup d'état. The ruler's face was all over the money years after the coup. Nobody cared. It was more important just to have money to buy the necessities of the life. >>
Zactly, China has Mao all over their bills. The peeps don't care he "purged" 60 million, actually they don't know. Either way In Mao They Trust it seems.
<< <i>Interesting!......makes me wonder why there wasn't more grafitti on those coins, on the king's face, done in protest..... >>
Perhaps because if you defaced it, you might have had a harder time spending it. What was true during this period was that if it was round, brown, looked like it was worn which indicated that someone else had accepted it, AND it had a head on that was at least somewhat like the king's portrait, you stood a better chance of passing it. The words or misspellings did not matter since most people could not read. These are the reasons why Machain's Mills and other lesser known counterfeiters used designs that resembled the British coppers. It also explains why the Connecticut and Nova Eborac coppers looked the way they did.
<< <i>Simple.
People don't care WHAT their money looks like as long as it spends! >>
That can be seen today today IMHO. In this case I disagree with Mustapha Monde. History IS pleasant.
Eric