Beyond the small quantity of Higley coppers, the colonies primarily relied on counterfeit and royal British coppers imported from Britain and Ireland. To increase the local supply of small change Samuel Higley minted his own coppers in Simsbury, Connecticut in 1737.
In Massachusetts the colony printed small change currency notes on parchment so citizens would have an alternative to the hated Rosa Americanas. These coins were two and a half times lighter than royal British halfpence and were rejected by the colonists. Later, in 1722-24 William Wood made another attempt at minting coins for the colonies obtaining royal authorization to produce "Rosa Americana " coppers (actually the coins were made of a compound called Bath metal composed of Brass, zinc and a little silver). In 1688, with government approval, Richard Holt coined tin "American Plantations Tokens" that were never accepted by the colonists. In the following year, 1682, a group of Quakers brought some 300 pounds of British halfpence and farthings to Philadelphia.Įven though small change continued to be scarce, the colonists resisted lightweight base metal coinages imposed on them by Britain. In 1681 Mark Newby brought a large supply of Irish St. The earliest supplies were brought over by the colonists themselves. There were no restrictions on importing British coppers, so while the colonists had to look toward foreign coinage for their silver they could expect British denominated small change coppers. This situation differed from the problem with silver coinage. The creation and retention of an adequate supply of small change copper coins was also a continual problem in colonial America.
Colonists had to adapt to foreign silver coins as the British government outlawed the export of silver coinage from the homeland and discouraged colonial minting. The Copper Panic and Small Change Notes 1789-1799ĭuring the colonial period there was an inadequate coin supply throughout the American colonies.
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