A BRIEF SURVEY
OF THE
COINAGE OF NORTH AND SOUTH
AMERICA

By G. C. BROOKE, B.A.
Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum.

The discovery of America by Columbus in 1492 was made under the flag of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain whose portraits appear on the remarkably fine gold coin (a Quadruple Escudo) figured on [Plate I.], No. 1; and it was therefore to the empire of Spain that the West Indian Islands on which he landed were annexed. The money circulated in these islands was Spanish, and after 1535 coins were struck specially for currency in these islands and other American colonies of Spain at the mint of Mexico which was established in that year (see [Plate I.], No. 6, and [Plate VI.], No. 2). This is the reason why countermarked Spanish "Pieces of Eight" or fractions of them were the regular currency in these islands during English and French occupation even so late as the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. English settlement in the West Indies began with Drake, Hawkins and Raleigh and continued through the first half of the seventeenth century; in many cases (e.g., St. Lucia, Dominique and Guadeloupe) their possession was long disputed with France and was not finally settled before the Napoleonic wars. All this time these countermarked Spanish pieces formed almost the only currency; on [Plate I.] are shown such pieces made current for Tortola (Fig. 2), St. Lucia (Fig. 3), Dominique (Fig. 4), and Guadeloupe (Figs. 5 and 6). The two last pieces of Guadeloupe are especially interesting as showing how a fraction was cut out of a "Piece of Eight" (i.e., 8 reals), and the remainder of the original coin also put into circulation; it was originally struck by Ferdinand VII. at the Mexican mint in the year 1811. In 1816 Guadeloupe became French and such pieces were put out of circulation in favour of regular issues of French colonial coins. The Bermuda Islands, discovered by Bermudez in 1515, were not inhabited till Sir G. Somers (from whom they were also called Somers islands) was wrecked there in 1609, and a colony was sent from Virginia a few years later; here were struck the first coins of any English colonies in America; shillings, sixpennies and threepennies were issued bearing on the obverse a hog and on the reverse a ship; a threepenny piece is figured on [Plate I.], Fig. 7; they are now commonly known, from the obverse type, as Hog-money; these coins were probably struck between 1616 and 1618, certainly before 1624 in which year John Smith published his Historie of Virginia, etc., in which he mentions their use during the government of Daniel Tucker; the type of the hog, says John Smith, is in memory of the abundance of hogs found at the first landing in the islands. At the end of the eighteenth century copper coins were issued for Barbadoes; a penny of 1788 is figured on [Plate I.], No. 8; the types are mercantile—a negro's head and a pine-apple; the slave trade was abolished in 1806, and a later halfpenny token bears the motto "Freedom without Slavery."

PLATE I.

[View larger image]

Five years after the first voyage of Columbus, John Cabot, sailing from Bristol, discovered Labrador and Newfoundland, and within forty years Verazzano and Cartier opened up the St. Lawrence River as far as Montreal for French settlement; before the end of the century Frobisher had explored Hudson Bay and Gilbert made the first attempt at colonising Newfoundland and Virginia; in 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers sailed the Mayflower into Cape Cod Bay, where five years later the colony of Massachusetts was planted. The coast settlements from Maine to Connecticut assumed in 1642 the name of New England, where were used the interesting silver pieces struck at Boston with N E and the mark of value (XII., VI. or III.); a sixpence is shown on [Plate II.], Fig. 9; Fig. 10 on the same plate is a Massachusetts shilling of 1652 with the inscription, which runs from obverse to reverse, "Masathusets in New England: An. Dom. 1652. XII." (=12 pence), which type was substituted in 1651 for the earlier New England pieces. The foundation of the Baltimore, or Maryland, plantation in 1632 is illustrated ([Plate II.], Fig. 11) by a shilling made, together with sixpennies and groats (or fourpennies), in England in 1659 under direction of Lord Baltimore, the founder, whose bust and title "Cecil, Lord of Maryland," and coat of arms are seen on the coins. [Plate II.], Fig. 12, is a pewter piece struck by James II. (who is seen on horseback) for circulation as small change in the American plantations; its chief interest lies in the fact that being rated as one twenty-fourth of the Spanish real it recognizes Spanish money as common currency. The next coin ([Plate II.], Fig. 13) is a penny token (dated 1694) of Carolina, the colony which Charles II. presented to his favourite nobles in 1668. In 1717 and 1722 George I. issued copper coins (twopence, penny, and halfpenny) for the American colonies, called the Rosa Americana series; those of the latter year (of which a penny is figured on [Plate II.], No. 14) were made by William Wood whose Irish halfpence of the same year were pilloried by Swift in the Drapier Letters. By the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 the quarrel between French and English settlers was embittered by the ill-defined clause which gave to England "Acadia with its ancient boundaries;" Acadia never had any boundaries except the sea, but it was more or less identical with Nova Scotia. These quarrels culminated in the Seven Years' War, when after her victories at Louisburg, Quebec, Montreal, etc., England became possessed of Canada and the country between Mississippi and the Alleghanies by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. In the first half of the nineteenth century tokens played the part of copper money in British North America; on [Plate II.], Fig. 15, is a token of Prince Edward Island, which was originally part of Cape Breton and took its name in 1800 from the Duke of Kent; it became a province of Canada in 1873. Similar tokens, issued by banks, companies, or tradesmen, are illustrated on [Plate III.], Nos. 16 to 20; Fig. 16 is a halfpenny token of Upper Canada, Fig. 17 a sou of Lower Canada, Fig. 18 a halfpenny issued by Montreal Bank (a rare piece showing a corner view of the bank), Fig. 19 a halfpenny of Nova Scotia with a branch of mayflower on the reverse; earlier tokens had the thistle for reverse design to commemorate the Scottish settlements of 1623 in the French country of Acadia; Fig. 20 is a trade token of Newfoundland. Fig. 21 shows a gold Two-dollar piece of Newfoundland of 1870, and Figs. 22 and 23 (Canadian 25 Cent pieces of Victoria and Edward VII.) show the present currency issued for Canada by the English mint.