Washingtonia Digital Test-PRO

All of this is speaks to the probability that the Nova Constellatio coins were produced by Benjamin Dudley in New York, with the financial backing of Robert and Gouverneur Morris. Eric Newman has traced a partnership between the Morrises and William Constable in the establishment of a “House of Commerce at New York” under the name William Constable & Co. Newman has concluded that the coins were struck in England through the offices of the company’s London partner John Rucker. It is possible, however, that the coins were actually struck in New York, and that Rucker merely provided the “correction,” that subsequently appeared in the London Advertiser . Newman has pointed out that company records for the period between late 1784 and 1786 are missing. Could this reflect a desire on the Morrises’ part to keep their involvement quiet, given their public positions? This is not to suggest they had any nefarious intent in making the coins. Small denomination coinage was in short supply, and their coppers were of “good weight.” The dies and letter punches were probably just part of the inventory when Walter Mould and/or James F. Atlee acquired the mint. This could also explain why so many of the early coppers, including the General Washington and Confederatio coins are linked by common letter punches, and the various mules that subsequently appeared. Whether the General Washington/Confederatio and General Washington/U.S. Shield coins were struck as patterns for a proposed coinage or simply as mules is perhaps debatable. That they were made in England seems doubtful. Either way, they are among the rarest and most desirable of all the Washington, or for that matter, confederation period coins.

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The star and letter punches c, o, n, t, e and i of both the 1785 NOVA CONSTELLATIO dies, and the 1785 immune columbia die match those on the CONFEDERATIO die. Several of the punches match the 1786 IMMUNIS COLUMBIA die as well. The mules below would seem to tie them all to the same maker as the Gen. Washington coins.

Breen 1131

Breen 1128

1. Breen felt that Constellatio Nova was a more grammatically correct Latin usage. It also fit well into a complex hexameter verse he had discovered. Newman presented a strong case for Nova Constellatio being the correct word order. The translation into English is New Constellation , regardless of which position the word Nova sits in. For this reason, the American usage is retained. 2. The five-unit coin was described by Samuel Curwen in his diary entry for May 15, 1784 as having been presented to him at tea by a Mr. Bartlet. Curwen refers to young Mr. Bartlet of Salem in several of his diary entries. This was in all likelihood, Josiah Bartlett, Jr., of Salem, New Hampshire, whose father was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and who was still serving in the Continental Congress. The senior Bartlett could have obtained the coin from Charles Thompson, secretary to the Congress, who in turn had received it from Thomas Jefferson. To complicate matters slightly, Curwen’s diary entry adds the word Et to Libertas Et Justitia , which does not appear on the original pattern coin. As the diary entry was written before the Nova Constellatios were reissued, either Curwen added the word by mistake, or it was added by an editor who thought he was making a correction. 3. Sometime in the 1860s, Joseph Mickley made cast copies of the two larger denomination coins. Copies were also made by John W. Haseltine and Robert Bashlow.

10 • Medallic Washington