Owner Comments:
Pictured above, is a pewter example of the highly coveted Continental Dollar (hereinafter referred to as "CD"), dated 1776, graded Unc. Details by PCGS, and categorized as Newman 1-C and W-8445. Although the reverse of this mint state piece is pleasing and problem-free, it was somewhat affordable because of 3 blemishes on the obverse - i.e. two "hits" to the legend on the left, and a minor tooling of the "R" in Curency.
CDs were fashioned in one of 3 metals: silver (extremely rare), brass (scarce), and the most common, pewter. Pewter, is generally a poor material to use in coining, in that it is largely composed of tin, that deteriorates easily in cold weather. The design of the CDs, based upon motifs suggested by Benjamin Franklin, mimic those found on various fractional Continental Currency paper bills of the time. This CD variety features the word "Curency". Others spell this word as either "Currency" or "Currencey". Still another variety exhibits "EG Fecit" (EG made it) on the obverse.
HISTORY - Even as to coins hundreds of years old, numismatic research is constantly evolving. For example, long standing misconceptions about the iconic half disme were upended, upon discovery of Thomas Jefferson' s Memorandum Book of expenditures, and publication of the scholarly conclusions reached by Orosz, Augsberger, and Smith.
Similarly, the traditional view of the CDs was that they were: 1) The first $1 coins authorized by Congress in 1776 to replace their paper currency equivalent. 2) That they are based on devices and mottos traceable to Benjamin Franklin. 3) The coins were purportedly struck in pewter because silver was a scarce commodity during the Revolutionary War. 4) The CDs were intended as a circulating US coin or prototype, but did not widely circulate here. 5)They may have been distributed to diplomats or other dignitaries. 6) Even respected numismatic authors, such as Eric Newman, went so far as to attribute the dies of the one variety that refers to EG fecit, to Elisha Gallaudet, a N.Y. engraver.
However, modern research conducted by Erik Goldstein and David McCarthy, authors of The Myth Of The Continental Dollar, radically challenges the long accepted theories. Their investigations establish that: 1) No official records of the Continental Congress authorized the CDs. 2) The first historical references to these pieces do not appear until at least 7 years after the 1776 date shown on the coins. 3) No CD was possessed by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, an American historian, and considered the most prolific collector of his era. 4) Neither of two prominent and politically well-connected individuals - famed Boston silversmith Paul Revere, and Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution, ever saw one. 5) No American newspapers of this era make mention of CDs. 6) No excavations at any Continental Army encampment sites have yielded any CDs. 7) Ledgers and notations of Sarah Sophia Banks, the matron of the British and Royal Mint museums' numismatic holdings, establish that CDs were privately produced commemorative tokens or medals, struck in Europe circa 1783, not as official money, but as merchandise for sale to collectors, or political sympathizers abroad. 8) In further support of this "European connection", the earliest datable image of a CD, from 1783, featured legends translated into German. The E.G. reference on at least one CD may be attributable to a prominent German die cutter, Elias Gervais, whose style, lettering, and line shading are similar to other of his work. A 1785 German publication advertised the sale of a CD in Nuremberg, Germany.