Description

The Higley or Granby tokens were the first privately produced tokens struck on American soil that actually reached circulation. All are extremely rare. Dr. Samuel Higley, a Connecticut resident and a graduate of Yale University, took matters into his own hands because of the coinage shortage in his state. He engraved his own dies and used copper from a mine he owned located near Granby. There are 2 reverse types, the other is a broad-bladed cleaver (CT-2). Because people were skeptical of their copper content, Higley added the legend, “I AM GOOD COPPER” to the reverse surrounding 3 crowned hammers and the year 1737. When that failed to silence the critics who persisted that the face value was too high, the value was changed to “VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE.” Even so, the Roman numeral III remained, which placed them in the category of bartering pieces which could be exchanged on the basis of weight.
CT-1 an exact copy