Description

These were the first silver pieces struck by the newly born federal government in 1783. At this point the system of cents & dollars had not yet evolved: but there was no wish to continue use of the British pound standard. So Governor Morris, an Asst. Financier of the Confederation, hired Benjamin Dudley to design the pieces &then tried to evolve a currency system in which the chief denomination was a mark, consisting of 1,000 units which was equivalent to a dollar. But with little support for his proposal, the patterns were never approved for general circulation.
Just one specimen is known to exist of each example, however there are 2 types of the 500-unit piece which equaled 50 cents.
AN EXACT REPLICA
US-5