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1785 or early 1786. In fact, Gouverneur Morris did not go to England until sometime in late 1789 or early 1790. The last point to be made is that if the problem with striking the coins in America was an inability to obtain the needed “silver bullion,” why did he have them struck in copper? Breen further wrote that documentation would likely never be found as all of Wyon’s records were destroyed by fire sometime prior to 1790. It is curious, however, that Robert Morris, who kept such a careful record of the Nova Constellatio patterns in his personal diary (which fortunately, was not destroyed by fire), should have failed to mention so large a coin purchase from George Wyon. Neither was a remittance from Congress preserved in the record. One final argument against their having been struck in England is that they do not appear listed in any of the contemporaneously published catalogs of coins or tokens made in Birmingham, although several other Washington coins were. Their earliest notice was a brief paragraph in the Thursday, March 9, to Saturday, March 11, 1786 edition of The St. James Chronicle . This same notice also appeared in several other English newspapers on or around March 11: The Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser printed the following “correction,” on March 16, 1786. It is the first and only indication that the Nova Constellatio coins might have been struck in England: A correspondent observes, that the paragraph, which lately appeared in several papers, respecting a copper coinage in America, is not true. The piece spoken of, bearing the inscription “Libertas et Justitia, &c.” was not made in America, nor by the direction of Congress. It was coined at Birmingham, by the order of a merchant of New York. Many tons were struck from this dye, and many from another; and they are now in circulation in America, as counterfeit halfpence are in England Bushnell’s sources were probably two. The first was a brief notice in the Massachusetts Centinel of May 10, 1786: The second source appeared in the New York paper, The Daily Advertiser , on May 26, 1786, and was an almost verbatim reprint of the March 16 Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser notice. Both entries are suspect. The “correction” is offered by an unnamed correspondent, and the second opens with a kind of wishy-washy, legalese, “it is said…”. Neither item mentions who might have struck the coins, simply that they were struck in either Greenwich or Birmingham. Bushnell certainly had no reason to question these notices, and his contribution of the Wyon and Morris names was probably just an educated guess. It is interesting, however, that several months later, on Wednesday, November 1, 1786, the same paper that published the “correction,” offered the following: It is said, that 40 tons of copper, have been coined in half-pence, at Greenwich, in England, for American circulation. Device - on one side, an Eye of Providence, and thirteen stars. The reverse, U.S. Better these than that bane to honesty, paper money. The American Congress have lately made a copper coinage, which is now in general circulation: one side of the halfpenny bears this circular inscription, “Libertas Et Justitia;” round a central cypher U.S. — On the reverse is a sun rising amidst Thirteen Stars circularly inscribed “CONSTELLATIO NOVA!”

The United States of America have lately struck a halfpenny; on one side of which, encircled within a wreath of laurel exceedingly well executed, are letters U.S. in cypher, surrounded with an inscription, Libertas et Justitia, dated 1785. On the reverse, in the center, is a constellation, from which issue thirteen illuminated rays, and between each ray is a small star, expressive of the Thirteen United States; around these rays and the stars, is the following inscription: Nova Constellatio. The new American halfpenny is in weight as three to two of the English coin.

The Early Medals: 1777 to 1858 • 9