Coins and Tokens of Connecticut: Higley Coppers

We invite CMCH members to join us for a brown bag lunch talk with Jim Rosen, President of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club, a worldwide group of numismatists focused on pre-Federal coins used in the earliest days of the United States. Dr. Rosen has spent many years volunteering at the CMCH to catalog our coin and currency collections. Recently retired from his medical practice focusing on pediatric and adult allergies, he has helped to curate the display of Higley Coppers and Early Coins in our Nawrot History Nook.

His brown bag talk will focus on the extremely rare Higley Coppers in the CMCH collection and other significant coins and tokens from 1737-1785 in the collection. The first coins (or tokens) in the Colony of Connecticut were minted in 1737 and 1739  by Samuel Higley of Granby, Connecticut. They were not officially authorized by the General Assembly of Connecticut, but rather struck for apparently personal reasons.  They are very rare and hence quite valuable.  In 1785, the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut did authorize the minting of copper coins in New Haven.  These coins were minted from 1785-1788 and were struck with over 360 varieties known. Unlike the Higley coppers, they are quite plentiful and not rare. A discussion of the important examples in the CMCH collection will offer the seasoned numismatist and budding coin collector insight into the history of coins in Connecticut.

We will provide coffee and dessert, feel free to bring your brown bag lunch to enjoy during the talk. Please RSVP by May 13 and indicate the program name and date by calling (860) 236-5621 x238 or emailing rsvp@chs.org.