Owner Comments:
John Chalmers was a talented gold and silversmith hailing from Annapolis, Maryland, which at one time served as the temporary seat of the Continental Congress. He had numerous and diverse interests: At various times, he served as an officer in the Continental Army; a sheriff in Baltimore; a tavern keeper; a Common Counsel representative; a rope factory owner; and a Methodist preacher.
In 1783, the same year the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Revolutionary War, the public was desperately clamoring for full weight, unadulterated, and reliable coins to facilitate small transactions. Even the Spanish (8 Reales) Dollar, a mainstay of circulating coinage, was the subject of serious abuses. It was frequently cut into pieces to create small change (most commonly into halves, quarters, and eighths). The unscrupulous sought a quick profit by "fudging" on the sizes of these fractional segments.
Not one to pass up an opportunity, John Chalmers established a small, purely private, non-governmental mint to produce 3 pence, 6 pence, and shillings of 81-83% fineness. For a commission, people could convert their underweight fractional pieces into a reliable standardized coinage.
The coin pictured above, formerly part of the prestigious Long Island Collection, is a Chalmers 3 pence, classified as Breen 1018 and W 1760, and graded XF 45 by NGC. It is a tiny piece, measuring a mere 13 mm in diameter. The obverse features two clasping hands, possibly symbolic of the unity of the States. The prominent placement of "Chalmers" in the obverse legend served as a convenient additional advertisement of the family name. The reverse depicts the date, the denomination, and a floral spray within a ring of 3 leaf clusters. Although the Chalmer's 6 pence is the rarest of the 3 denominations, (the shilling being the most common), the 3 pence is very scarce: a total of 20 specimens have been graded by PCGS, with only 4 by NGC. The substantial wear exhibited on most surviving Chalmer's pieces attests to their extensive contemporary circulation.