Images(2)

USA "Bar" copper

Dateca. 1785

OriginEngland, Birmingham

MediumCopper

DimensionsDiameter: 25 mm Weight: 83.2 grains

Credit LineGift of the Lasser Family

Object number2004-8,42

Label TextSurprisingly modern in appearance, this copper coin was first documented by the New York City newspaper "Daily Advertiser," in their December 12, 1785 issue;

"A new and curious kind of COPPERS have lately made their appearance in New York. The novelty and bright gloss of which keeps them in circulation - These coppers are in fact similar to Continental buttons without eyes; on the one side are thirteen stripes and on the other U.S.A., as was usual on the soldiers buttons. If congress does not take the establishment of a mint into consideration, and carry it into effect, it is probable that the next coin which may come into circulation, as we have a variety of them, will be the soldiers old pewter buttons, for they are nearly as valuable as the coppers above described, and hardly so plenty."

While the obverse design was certainly based on the standard "USA" button worn by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, it is little known that the other side was based on a patriotic American button too. Worn by some officers during the war was a button bearing thirteen stripes (or bars) united by a common edge, a visual metaphor for the union of the Thirteen Colonies.

The appealing design of these coppers didn't guarantee their popularity with the American public. Because their size and weight fell somewhere in between the standard halfpenny and farthing coins, they were deemed inconvenient, and quickly disappeared from circulation. Although popular today, original examples are very scarce.

Breen #1145