First Independence Day Prompted Striking of Earliest U.S. Coin

New Research Reveals Founding Father Robert Morris Ordered First American Coin Struck Hours After Learning of American Independence

News provided by

David J. McCarthy

Jul 01, 2021, 09:54 ET

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The first consciously sovereign act of the newly-independent United States was to strike a coin, according to an article published in the July 1st issue of The Numismatist, the official magazine of The American Numismatic Association. The new research details the arrival in Philadelphia of the first ship carrying news that the United States had won the Revolutionary War, prompting the subsequent striking of the fledgling nation's first coin, which was delivered only days later.

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The Plain Obverse Nova Constellatio Quint - Struck by order of the United States and delivered to the Treasury on April 2nd, 1783.
The Plain Obverse Nova Constellatio Quint - Struck by order of the United States and delivered to the Treasury on April 2nd, 1783.
An 18th Century U.S. Flag based upon the design of Francis Hopkinson, who is believed to have designed the first American coin as well.
An 18th Century U.S. Flag based upon the design of Francis Hopkinson, who is believed to have designed the first American coin as well.

"I was blown away when I found the payment in Robert Morris's diary – I couldn't believe that the entry had gone unnoticed since 1783," says the article's author David McCarthy, Senior Numismatist at Kagin's Inc., "Within hours of finding out that the United States had won the Revolutionary War, the chief executive of the U.S. government ordered our first coin."

The coin, known as the "Plain Obverse Nova Constellatio Quint," or "Quint," and was designed by Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hopkinson also designed the United States flag, later sewn by Betsy Ross.

Significantly, the nation's first coin was also the first decimal coin struck in Western Europe or North America, making the Quint the direct ancestor to the dollar, and consequently all money used in the world today. After Robert Morris showed the Quint to founding father Alexander Hamilton in April of 1783, it disappeared from history, until it was rediscovered in the holdings of an unnamed New York City family in 1870. It is among the most historically important and valuable coins in the world.

"Mr. McCarthy's historical insight and research skills have once again brought to light an important and previously unrecognized moment in American history: the events surrounding the creation of the first coin produced by the United States," says Douglas Mudd, Curator of the American Numismatic Association's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum.

Read the full article here: https://www.money.org/act-of-independence

NOTE TO EDITORS: The Latin word below referring to the name of this unique early American coin correctly is CONSTELLATIO (not CONSTELLATION).

News media contacts:
Dr Jennifer Zahrt
Office: 415-435-2601  Mobile: 646-583-0555  Email: [email protected]  

SOURCE David J. McCarthy

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