Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Coin Found by Mark G. Story Below. |
Mark G., reader and frequent contributor to this blog, sent me an email about a coin he found, which is shown above.
When I was young growing up in the heart of Connecticut about 12 to 14 years old I used to go bottle hunting with my dad or every payday we would go through a few roles of pennies, but he always kept the bottles and the pennies. I still remember finding MY first old bottle, brown glass hand blown cork top flask and the joy it gave me to hold it as a piece of history. In Connecticut my dad’s parents settled a small farm in the early 1900s. Coming over from Europe my Gramma was from eastern Europe what is now Czechia and my grampa from Ireland. When my dad married he got a few acres of the farm then when I married I got a few acres to build a house on. My house was directly across the street from my dad’s old farm house I sold it to my son when I moved. My Aunt still lives there today.
Before I married and back when I was only 12 or 14 years old, I distinctly remember visiting gramma just up the road. She had chickens and sheep, and I was watching the chickens scratch at a hole in the chicken coup. I saw the chicken scratch out something round. I went into the coup to get it and it was bigger than a quarter, black and very dirty could barely make out some symbols on it. I put it my pocket took it home and saved it, I didn’t know what it was, but it looked like it was something, that was 50 years ago. I remember when we moved to Florida I still had that shoe box full of all my “special” stuff from being a boy. I tried to find that box several times after we moved then we moved again, no sign of any shoe box or stuff I remember being in that box.
Lately now that I have been learning about precious metals old coins and history and now that I have the ability to know what that thing was I have to find it. I have been dreading the feeling that it could be just another one of my great blunders, I know I threw away a winning lottery ticket in the thousands one day in a stupor and I am pretty sure I threw out at least 1 Cobb I dug before I knew what a Cobb was. I have literally having bad dreams about it. I tore the house and garage apart at least twice in the last few months until today.
The wife asked me to get some jewelry out of the safe she wanted to start wearing and in the back of the safe I found a 2” x 2” box of old coins the wife had gotten from her father. I thought I had gone through all the stuff in the safe but I missed this little box, when I opened it there it was unmistakenly black and corroded round thing. A wave of calm came over me and I slowly walked out to the wife and told her this is the best day ever.
Little did I know just how good this day is going to be. The coin, yes it turns out it is a coin and not just any coin it’s a 1783 Quint 500 unit made of silver. This coin is a rare glimpse into early American currency rich in history and failure. I know this from copilot AI which says:
What You Might Have Found: Nova Constellatio Coin
These coins were part of a pattern series created by Robert Morris, the Superintendent of Finance, to establish a national currency after the Revolutionary War. They were never officially circulated, but a few were struck in silver and copper as prototypes.
Key Features:
- Obverse (front): Often shows the Eye of Providence surrounded by rays and 13 stars, symbolizing the original colonies.
- Reverse (back): Includes the inscriptions “LIBERTAS” (Liberty), “JUSTITIA” (Justice), and the date 1783, often encircled by a wreath.
- Denominations: Ranged from 5 to 1000 units, with the 1000 Unit “Mark” being the largest and most iconic
Even better they were only minted in 1783:
1783 was the only year the 500 Unit Nova Constellatio “Quint” was minted. These coins were part of a short-lived pattern series proposed by Robert Morris, the Superintendent of Finance, to establish a unified national currency after the Revolutionary War. The Quint was struck in silver and intended to represent half of a “Mark” in Morris’s decimal system.
🕰️ Why Only 1783?
- The coins were experimental prototypes, not official circulating currency.
- Congress never adopted Morris’s full monetary plan, so the minting stopped after the initial trial run.
- Only a handful of Quints were produced—each one is a historical artifact from the dawn of American coinage.
There is a lot there to talk about already. I won't get to a lot of it today but probably will get back to some things in future posts.
... “The Financier, therefore, in his report, well proposes that our Coins should be in decimal proportions to one another. If we adopt the Dollar for our Unit, we should strike four coins, one of gold, two of silver, and one of copper, viz.:
1. A golden piece, equal in value to ten dollars:
2. The Unit or Dollar itself, of silver:
3. The tenth of a Dollar, of silver also:
4. The hundredth of a Dollar, of copper.”
This is the first written description of the monetary system ultimately adopted by the United States, underscoring the influence of Morris’ Nova Constellatios.
Much has been written about these important and intriguing coins; however, two years of intensive study has led me to believe that we have much more to learn about them. The publication of The Papers of Robert Morris and the availability of portions of the papers of Congress from the Confederation era have given us access to a tremendous number of facts about the Nova Constellatio coins. In fact, probably more primary source information is available about these coins than any other early Federal issue...
I'll leave it at that today.
Thanks much for sharing your find Mark.
I'm sure a lot of you can dig an old find out of an old box and realize that you had something interesting that you didn't appreciate enough.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov. |
That is something to watch.
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| Fort Pierce Surf Chart from Surfguru.com |
Looks like no big surf this week.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net