1737 HIGLEY OR GRANBY COPPER
Connecticut, Higley or Granby copper, 1737, three hammers, VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE variety (Breen-241), 147.7 grains, 200 degrees die alignmment, good overall, better in places, date and partial legends on reverse, an important rarity in all grades, perhaps a dozen or so specimens currently known
Details
Connecticut, Higley or Granby copper, 1737, three hammers, VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE variety (Breen-241), 147.7 grains, 200 degrees die alignmment, good overall, better in places, date and partial legends on reverse, an important rarity in all grades, perhaps a dozen or so specimens currently known
Provenance
Waldo Newcomer; Colonel Green; Burdette Johnson.
Further details
Dr. Samuel Higley (circa 1687-1737), was a Connecticut native and a graduate of Yale. He was, at various times, a schoolmaster, a surgeon, and finally, a metallurgist. He discovered and patented a process for making steel in 1727, and, later that year, discovered a huge copper deposit on property he owned near Simsbury. By 1737, he was striking his own copper coinage, which was said to be so pure that jewellers melted down many of his coins for alloying with precious metals. While enroute to England in 1737, his ship was lost at sea, but it is believed his brother John continued the copper coinage business for a year or more after Samuel's death.