Regulated Gold Coins - During the confederation period, gold coins from various countries circulated in the United States. After independence, enormously increased trade took place between the West Indies and seaports in the northeast. The very productive mines in Brazil allowed Portuguese gold to become the most important gold coinage of early America (Colonial American Coins). Gold from other countries also circulated. However, this imported gold had varying weights and values making commerce difficult. The problem was solved by “regulating” the gold coinage. It was drilled, filed, and plugged to change its weight to a uniform standard. To raise the weight or gold content of the foreign coins, they applied gold plugs with punches. They clipped coins to reduce their weight. The hallmark stamped on a coin was taken as proof that the item was the proper weight and fineness.

When America achieved independence, it made legal provision for the process to continue. Section 8 or article I of the Constitution gives Congress the power to “regulate the Value…of foreign Coin.” An act of Congress that was passed on February 9, 1793 demonetized all foreign coinage except gold coins of Great Britain, Portugal, France, Spain, and Spanish America.

Thomas Jefferson spoke about Regulated Gold being like architecture where “putting up and pulling down is a favorite amusement.” Jefferson meant that gold coins’ values based on their weights and finenesses changed over time. For example a coin might lose some weight from honest wear. It would also lose weight from the unscrupulous practices of clipping and “sweating.” Sweating was shaking a bag of coins to gather the chips and dust that resulted. Consequently, it was necessary to adjust or “regulate” these coins by adding gold in the form of a plug. If the plug was too heavy, the regulator would then clip a portion of the coin. Sometimes coins had to be regulated more than once because of the ravages of time or man. These double regulated coins had the hallmarks of two regulators on their punches.

Well known gold and silversmiths had the responsibility of regulating the coins. Most notable to numismatists is Ephraim Brasher of the famous Brasher Doubloon. Brasher was a New York goldsmith, sliversmith, and jeweler. He was also George Washington’s silversmith, neighbor and personal friend. In the late 1870’s he struck gold coins that were equivalent to $16 and equal in weight to the Spanish doubloon. His EB hallmark is punched on the coins.

Brasher was a respected and valued member of the community. In a Coinage magazine article, March 1978, “The Bicentennial,” David T. Alexander said: “In the late 1700’s, silversmiths and goldsmiths were particularly respected members of the community, often acting as bankers, assayers, and authenticators of the Babel of gold and silver coins of the world which circulated in the bullion-starved colonies and the new republic.”

It seems unusual to modern sensibility that colonists and citizens of the early republic would have silver tankards, beakers, and porringers; however, it should be noted that these items represented a person’s surplus wealth. Since there were no banks where a colonist could keep hard money, they took all their surplus coins to a silversmith and had them melted and made into useful objects. Since paper money often depreciated, savings were safer if invested in silver plate where they could also be useful in the home. In case of a theft, silver could easily be identified by the hallmark and engraving and recovered. If cash were needed, the silver could be taken to a silversmith and be reconverted into money. The silversmith had to be a man of highest integrity because he was expected to turn a certain quantity of silver plate into coin or the opposite.

Other goldsmiths and sliversmiths were also regulators of coins. These include William Hollingshead, Thomas Underhill, John Burger, Thomas Pons, and Lewis Feuter.

William Hollingshead was a Philadelphia silversmith who conducted business at the corner of Arch and Second Streets from 1754 until 1785. He was born on October 11, 1728 in Rocky Hill, NJ. He married Elizabeth Harvey on February 26, 1748 in Philadelphia. Hollingshead advertised in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Gazette, offering his services to the public as a gold and silversmith. In March of 1776 George Washington purchased two dozen silver cups from Hollingshead and had his family crest engraved on each.

Hollingshead’s silver was simpler than the style that was prevalent in England, reflecting the sober, simple and rigorous life in America. It was beautifully proportioned with sturdy, clean lines. It was clearly designed for practical, domestic purposes.

An example of his silver is a sugar bowl which represents the inverted pear form which was fashionable shortly before the Revolution and persisted into the early classical period. He also made a little cream jug on three legs. Like the sugar bowl, it is pear shaped. It has a scroll-cut lip and double-scroll handle. Both pieces are engraved with the monogram R A T suggesting that the two pieces formed part of a tea set.

Thomas Underhill was born on May 18, 1755 in Monroe, New York. He married Elizabeth Thorne in 1779. From 1775 to 1786 he worked in New York City as a silversmith. He was a partner in the firm of Underhill and Vernon with John Vernon from 1786 to 1787. Underhill died in 1824. A set of 6 teaspoons was recently auctioned. Made by Thomas Underhill of New York City, they are marked “TU” in a rectangular punch, much like the present coin.

Thomas Pons was a Boston silversmith and spectacle maker. In 1757 he married Sarah Fosdick in Boston. Pons worked from 1782 until 1811 and was listed in the 1800 city directory at 51 Newbury Street, the heart of Boston. By 1807 the Boston city directory listed him as a “spectacle manufacturer.” Three years later he declared his intention to make spectacles in the March 28, 1810 edition of The Massachusetts Spy and offered to lease or to sell his other business holdings. His PONS is the earliest known American spectacle maker marking. All of Pons’ regulated coinage is rare. He is one of the few known silversmiths who worked and lived in Boston in the post-Revolutionary period.

Lewis Feuter’s father, Daniel, was a well known silversmith in New York who worked for the British making peace medals. Father and son worked together in 1769, but the son soon began running the business alone. F&G always marked at the center, often with a big lumpy plug. Feuter died in Jamaica in 1784 at the age of 38, just months after the end of the British occupation New York. He had left New York for Halifax, like many Loyalist evacuees, before ending up in Jamaica and meeting his early death.

John Burger was a New York silversmith who also regulated coins for the new United States government. In 1786 his address was listed as 207 Queen Street in New York City. He was born in 1747 and died in 1828. He married Sarah Baker in 1767 in New York City. They had two children, Thomas and David. He was an apprentice to Myer Myers, a leader in the New York Jewish community and ardent supporter of the Patriot cause.

In 1775 he was a partner with Prichard, and from 1779 to 1783 he partnered with Myer Myers. From 1784 to 1805 Burger worked as a gold and silversmith in New York City. He was a member of the Gold and Silver Smiths Society of New York. Other members of this small guild included Myer Myers and Ephraim Brasher. In 1803 John Burger was also appointed as Corner in New York City. From 1805 to 1806 he worked with his sons, Thomas and David, at 62 James Street. In 1825 he was appointed as Regulator of Public Clocks in New York City.

The usual numismatic rules do not apply to these unusual and historic pieces. Under normal circumstances, a coin’s value is considerably diminished by counter stamping, drilling, and plugging. However, in the case of regulated coins, their value is greatly enhanced.

The provision that allowed foreign gold and silver to be used as legal tender in the United States remained until the Act of 1857. It was then that the niche that foreign coins filled ended. It is clear that America’s dependence on foreign coinage was galling to Hamilton and other Federalists. However, the demographic and commercial success of the country in post-Revolutionary times made it dependent on the gold of Brazil and other countries of the Americas. As long as these imports circulated, they had to be regulated.