The Little Known 1776 Continental Coin

Little is known about the significant and captivating coin called the Continental Dollar. The denomination of the coin is unknown, but acclaimed numismatist Eric P. Newman of St. Louis has inferred the value to be a dollar. The first four productions of Continental paper currency from May 10, 1775, through May 6, 1776, included a dollar bill, but the one dollar denomination was missing from the next six emissions and does not reappear until the last regular emission of Continental paper currency from January 14, 1779. It is thought that this Continental coin was meant to replace the paper dollar in these emissions. However who authorized or minted the coins is unknown.




Extensive research has produced no records of the Continental coin in the actions of the Continental Congress, although other coinage concerns of the time were in fact documented. On April 19, 1776 the Congress appointed a committee to determine the value of several foreign coins in relation to the Spanish dollar and on February 20, 1777 a congressional treasury committee recommended a mint be established, but nothing further was done on this matter. To date there is no evidence the Continental Currency coins were authorized or issued by the Continental Congress.



The design of the Continental Currency coin is based on the designs found on Continental Congress fractional One-Sixth of a Dollar note which was designed by Benjamin Franklin. In his book, The 1776 Continental Currency Coinage: Varieties of the Fugio Cent (1952), Newman published Franklin's original drawing for the joined ring design on the reverse of the coin.



There are seven known die combinations made from four obverse and two reverse dies, with one obverse die containing a misspelling of currency as CURENCY and another having the misspelling CURRENCEY. One variety features "EG FECIT", which is Latin for "EG made this". Newman has identified 'EG' as Elisha Gallaudet, who had previously engraved the design on the plates of the February 17, 1776, Continental fractional currency.



The Continental Currency coin was struck in three metals, pewter is the most common. The others, struck in brass and silver, are much rarer, with fifteen or so known examples in brass and four in silver.