Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-12-18
THE LORE OF RARE COINS.

sell for $780, while a half penny Of 1885,
bearing the legend payable at London,
Liverpool or Bristol" Is worth $500.
The fancy prices paid for rare coins be-
came inducements to the forger and coun-
terfeiter to go into the business of coin
ing them, and it is only the expert numis-
matist who can, in a great many cases,
detect the spurious from the genuine.
This he does with the aid of a powerful
magnifying glass. 1t is worthy of note to
recall the fact that the Roman laws pun
ished the counterfeiter with death. It was
comparatively easy work for the ancient
counterfeiter to float his spurious coinage
as the genuine, for the government coin
age was crude production at best.
The American dollar of 1904 is about the
best specimen of the modern forger's art,
and the numismatist alone can detect the
fraud. The dollar Of 1901 is used by the
forger, who removes the figure az and
inserts the figure "a
The first mint established in Boston in
1862 was sixteen feet square and ten feet
In height, but the first coin was struck
for the colonies in 1916, In memory of Sir
George Sommers, who was lost off the
Bermudas OF Sommer islands in 1872
These coins were made In England, and
consisted of brass shillings, sixpennies and
threepennies.
In this day of impoverished immigrants
it is refreshing. If it is not astounding,
to know that an Irish immigrant to New
Jersey in 1862 brought such a quantity of
metallic coins Of various denominations
that their calculation was authorized by
law as the circulating medium of the
colony. The Irish Mark Newly .shillings
in Massachusetts met with as decided an
opposition as they had in ireland. King
Charles had sold the privilege to Newly
to coin and circulate these debased coins
in Ireland, but the king was finally COM
PEELED by the opposition Of the people, to
withdraw the privilege and repay Mr..
Newly the sum exacted for the fran
chise.
. Newly then came out to the colonies
and endeavored to circulate his shillings.
The governor and the crowns represent
alive were instructed by order of King
Charles to aid Mr.. Newly, but the coin
circulated under such protest that the
profits of the undertaking were too small
for a profit all round, and the Newly
coinage disappeared.
The Newly shillings bear on the OBJ
verse side an eagle standing with extended
a crown. The reverse, st. Patrick, with
double cross, driving the reptiles before
him.
1t may be proper to notice that the
United States has coined other noncircu-
lating coins besides the four and the
one-dollar gold pieces mentioned. There
was a mintage of 500 silver dollars in
1874, bearing on the diverse side a mill
tary bust of Washington and on the
reverse side an eagle standing with ex-
tended wings. There were only sixty
quarter eagles coined in 1886, while the
first gold coins struck by the United
States were 744 half eagles in 1875, and
not until 1907 was the value of the coin
struck stamped upon them. The three
dollar gold coins authorized by congress
in 1853 were minted up to as late as 1889
when their coinage was discontinued,
They are worth but little over their face
value to collectors.
The Confederate silver half dollars
coined in New Orleans, will bring high
er price. These half dollars escaped the
fate of the coins prepared for the Con-
federacy Immediately previous to the out
break of the civil war, and in prepare
ton for that event The federal govern
ment captured the coinage at the outset
so that not a single piece Silver halt
dollars) got in circulation.