Numismatist Article and George Clinton Cent Pubblico Deposited
- From mantoloking2002@yahoo.com Sat Aug 10 08:37:52 2002
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Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 15:37:51 -0000
To: colonial-coins@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Numismatist Article and George Clinton Cent
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From: "mantoloking2002" <mantoloking2002@yahoo.com>
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All,
I was wondering if any of you have had a chance to read John
Kraljevich's article in the July Numismatist on the Early Coins of
New York? It provides a nice overview of both the historical and
economic setting in New York surrounding the various colonial coins
that circulated in New York.
The part of the article I found the most interesting was the
discussion regarding the manufacture and issue of various trial
pieces for New York following the Articles of Confederation's
authorization to issue state coinage. In this section John discusses
the deliberations of New York's State Assembly to either produce a
native coin or to accept various other circulating coppers at
differing exchange rates depending on the metalic worth of the issue.
The article discusses how the later avenue was adopted and the
ensuing problems with counterfeits and the Coppers Panic.
As part of the deliberations for native coinage, John discusses the
production and submisiion by Machin of The Eagle over Globe and the
New York Arms coppers as trial pieces accounting for their existence
and rarity. The epiphany in the article for me though was John's
assertion that the George Clinton Cent was also submitted as a trial
pattern.
The Clinton cent is a coin that has always intrigued me. The coin
itself is quite a rarity (maybe 8 to 10 in existence) . But Clinton
himself is more intriguing. One of the most shadowy individuals of
the founding fathers generation. He was New York's Govenour for about
20 years as I recall, Vice President to Jefferson following Burr's
exile, a clear political power broker whose main preoccupation
appears to have been himself, his elite New York freinds and New York
in that order...never the nation. Nevertheless, if John is right, I
beleive he may be one of only two living Americans (besides
Washingon) to ever have his visage proposed for an officially
circulating coin.
I had previously thought this was some sort of vanity piece Machin
made Atlee produce to secure some benefit from Clinton. However,
judging it as a serious trial pattern makes me consider how much
power Clinton really did have, how widely respected he really was,
and what influence he had over the State Assembly as Govenour.
When I quit my day job, I have always wanted to do a serious piece on
the Clinton cent, but in the meantime I was curios about the views of
others.
Roger - 2002-08-10
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