have much to be thankful for; and also, that instead of a currency-symbolical of monarchal power on one side, and the liberty and justice on the other, which is weighed in such scales, we have our free native eagle and other insignia of true liberty and independence.

Reverse. The Goddess of Liberty seated, holding in her right hand the liberty pole, and in her left, the olive branch.

Legend.-INDE ET LIB *

Exergue.-1788.

(Size 7 and 8. See Plate IX., Figure 15.)

From the following described types and varieties, it is evident that the coining association, we have previously referred to, was equally emulous, with similar organizations in other States, in supplying the people with a copper currency; as this emission, though limited to the single year it bears date, consisted of two sizes, thirteen types, and twenty-six varieties.

The last noted, not formally included in the types, is said to have been issued at the time when leading men in Vermont were tampered with by partizans of the British crown. We think it furnished a bust for the domestic article.

The varieties of the types are determined by the punctuation of the legend, facing of the bust, or decking of the head. In some of the varieties there are peculiarities, viz: in Type 2, one variety has no legend on the reverse; in Type 4, one variety has INDE ET placed on the left hand side of the field; and in Type 7, the legend reads, LIB ET INDE.

Five years after this famous issue of copper, New York relinquished its claims to jurisdiction over Vermont, which was admitted into the Union in 1793.

CONNECTICUT.

AUCTORI CONNEC.

Device.-A bust in coat of mail, head laureated. and facing to the right.

Legend.-AUCTORI CONNEC

1785.

Reverse. The Goddess of Liberty seated on the globe, facing to the left, the liberty pole, surmounted by the cap, in the left hand, and the olive branch in the right.

Legend.-INDE: ET LIB.

Exergue.-1785.

(Size 8. See Plate X., Figures 4 to 10.)

Connecticut in 1785 granted exclusive permission to Samuel Bishop, Joseph Hopkins, James Hillhouse, and John Goodrich, to establish a mint, and coin money for the State.

The grantees subsequently formed a copartnership with Pierpont Edwards, Jonathan Ingersoll, Abel Buel, and Elias Shipman, for coining coppers. Six pennyweights was the required amount of copper in each of the pieces as defined by statute, which also designated a device.

A Board for the inspection and approval of these coppers was appointed by the General Assembly, composed of Roger Sherman, James Wadsworth, David Austin, Ebenezer Chittendon, and Isaac Beers. The amount inspected, during the three years the mint was in operation, was twenty-eight thousand, nine hundred and forty-four pounds, of coined copper.

In 1786, Edwards, Shipman, and Ingersoll, sold their interest to James Jarvis, who took their places in the company. In the same year, the mint-works were leased to Mark Leavenworth for six weeks, at the expiration of which, Leavenworth became a purchaser and stockholder in the company. With frequent changes made in the division of shares up to this period, the company continued to coin coppers till June, 1787, when operations were brought to a close.

In 1788, Major Eli Leavensworth prepared blank coppers, which were stamped in New York, with various impressions.

The affairs of this company were investigated by James Wadsworth and Daniel Holbrook, by authority of an act of Assembly in 1789. The report was honorable to the parties concerned.

The date, 1785, determines the first appearance of these coins, and our investigations have resulted in establishing for them eight distinct types, consisting of twenty-nine varieties. In six of these varieties, the bust faces to the right, and in the other two, to the left. The head is unusually large, the face full and round, and the features manly-the anatomical lineaments being better proportioned in fact than the generality of effigies of that period; the bust in most specimens, represented in armor, and the workmanship decidedly better than the issues of similar coins in succeeding years. They are very irregular, however, in size and weight, varying in the latter, by tests made at the United States Mint, from 94 to 144 grains.

These coins must have been a necessity, and a great convenience to the people of Connecticut at that time. There may be a few, still living in the commonwealth of their origin, whose memories are cognizant of much that would be interesting in relation to them, beside the statutes that gave them existence. Certain it is, that they are the representatives and memorials of an epoch in American State coinage, when subjective relations had been succeeded by those of entire independence, and the Goddess of Liberty, adopted on the reverse of the coins, could be symbolized and worshipped without reproach or fear.

The prominent genius and actor in this coinage appears to have been Mr. Abel Buel, who was also the master-spirit in the construction of the machinery, which was so efficient as to turn out one hundred and twenty pieces of the coin in a minute.

With us this coinage had, without any authority for it, become associated with Simsbury mines. We have not, however, been able to learn that any of the copper used in it came from that locality. All we can learn is, "that the mines were first wrought in 1707, and at that time, and subsequently, up to the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and that at some period the ore must have been smelted, as appears from tradition and the remains of old furnaces." "

From about the period of the adoption of the Constitution, till 1827, they were famous as the penal locality of Connecticut, furnishing an industrial home for a class who will not appreciate honest labor, nor be contented with the moral restrictions of true freedom.

The types of this coin are as follows:

Jeffrey O. Phelps, Simsbury, Connecticut.

This classification furnishes, by the punctuation and the direction of the face, an index by which the type can be determined. Either the figure, legend, punctuation, or the olive branch, in the left hand of the Goddess of Liberty, on the reverse, determines the variety. In some of the types there are peculiarities, which may not at first attract the attention of the numismatic student. In No. 1, the head of the bust is entirely different from the others, the neck being unusually short and thick, giving it a peculiar appearance; No. 2, the neck long; No. 3, the head large, neck short and thick, and the bust robed in a Roman tunic, looped upon the shoulder; No. 4, head singular, and the face so distorted as to be anything but handsome.

Our attention has also been directed to what I believe to be an imperfect specimen of Type No. 1, which appears to have been impressed upon another copper, and the letters of the two coming in contact in such a manner as to cause the legend to read Acti, instead of AUCTORI.

AUCTORI CONNEC.

The coinage in this year was increased in the number of the types, and more care was observed in milling the copper into the required thickness, before 1786. subjecting it to the dies; thereby avoiding injury to the edge of the coins, which

is so perceptible in the emissions of the preceding year. Of the issues of this year, we have found eleven types, consisting of twenty-seven varieties-four of the types facing to the right, and the other seven to the left. But two of the types filletfestooned, all the others laureated; in some, the edges of the leaves are serrated. The types are as follows: