2017-06-07 Wed

One of the three existing 1786 New Jersey copper coins of its type was sold for $14,100 at Baltimore auction by Stack’s Bowers Galleries. The coin has a lot of patination as it was lying beneath the ground for almost 200 years.

The first US coins were struck for official circulation across the country at the Philadelphia Mint in 1793. Before that, different kinds of coins were used in America like foreign coins and Colonial and Confederation issues. “Colonial issues” are explained in detail in A Guide Book of United States Coins - the “Red Book”. Three of these colonial issues were offered by Stack’s Bowers. None of them is attractive, yet each one of them is very costly.

3 million coppers were to be produced within two years as commissioned by the New Jersey General Assembly. These are today found in hundreds of varieties which are explained in the 2013 reference book - New Jersey State Coppers.

In 2011, the second coin of this type was offered on eBay. The coin offered in the latest auction was found in Passaic County, N.J., by a metal detectorist in 2016. Experts stated that the coin travelled 20 or 30 miles from its place of manufacture and was discovered 230 years later.