 |
|
Making Colonial Coin for Maryland? Off to Jail!Providing a bit of colonial coin for colonial Maryland seemed like a good idea to the Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, in 1658.In Maryland, as in the other English colonies, coins were in short supply. As the tobacco economy expanded, so had demand. The number of colonists had also increased. Limited liquidity, represented in the small number of coins, inflated prices and reduced purchasing power. At the Tower Mint in London, Lord Baltimore arranged for the production of coins – a copper denarium (one pence), and larger silver coins including a groat (four pence), a sixpence, and a shilling (twelve pence). Each displayed an image of Lord Baltimore on the obverse and his crest on the reverse. The crest is shown at the top of the page. So he just struck off some colonial coin -- just like that?Well sure... As Lord Proprietor of Maryland, Baltimore had a royal charter which he assumed granted him the coining privilege. He could strike coins for the colony as he saw fit. The charter didn’t expressly say so, but it was similar in most respects to the Virginia charter, which did provide the coining privilege, and to which his father had been a party. Lord Baltimore apparently felt he was on solid ground when it came to punching out a bit of change for his colonists.But there was a Richard Pight, with an ominous sounding job title – Clerk of Irons – at the Tower, who disagreed. Bear in mind that the Tower Mint was situated in the Tower of London, where heads were known to roll, so to speak. So this Pight, observing the production of the Maryland coins, bumped the authorities into issuing an arrest warrant for our Lord Baltimore, who was hastily hauled before the Privy Council. So he was charged?Not for making the colonial coins, but making them below the usual standard for coins made at the Tower Mint.But Baltimore was no fool. He had indeed ordered the coins made to a lesser purity than standard British issue. This was intended to discourage circulation outside the colony -- as with the Hogge Money of Bermuda -- and to make a profit. (The difference between a coin's face value and its production cost is called seignorage. It supports minting operations the world over, even today.) However, there was also the matter of exporting silver coins to the colonies, which had long been forbidden by law. So... make a batch of colonial coins... and rue the day!Not so fast!Lord Baltimore’s case was ruled in his favor, provided that the colonists themselves would approve. Baltimore wrote to the colonial assembly in Maryland proposing legislation favorable to the coining. So Lord Baltimore was off the hook, right?Well yes, except that the colonial Governor, Josias Fendall, fomented a rebellion which delayed the approval.But the rebellion was put down in time, and the coining legislation was handily approved in 1661. The coins circulated for another ten years or so. And all was well in the land of the crab…
Go to Top of Maryland colonial coin page Return to Early American Coin page... Go to Home page...
|
