In 1783, after eight difficult years, Great Britain declared it would cease hostilities with the United States, creating an end to the long Revolutionary War. The 1783 Treaty of Paris officially ended the war and recognized the United States as an independent nation.

Now, our young nation faced its next serious problem. At that time, there was no official coinage and the thirteen early American states all used different forms of official or unofficial money.

Robert Morris, who served as the U.S. Superintendent of Finance from 1781 to 1784, could be considered the father of the 1783 Nova Constellatio pattern coins and the solution to the young nation’s currency challenges.

Morris began to work with each of the 13 states and their tangled web of monetary systems. He developed a concept of national coinage with a system of 1,000 units that would allow all but one of the thirteen states to normalize their state currency against the proposed national coinage.

This system included a silver Mark of 1,000 Units, a silver Quint of 500 Units, a silver Cent of 100 Units, a copper Eight of 8 Units, and a copper Five of 5 Units.

These ultra-rare and historic early American Nova Constellatio pattern coins were struck in Philadelphia in 1783 under the authority of the U.S. Treasury Department. Benjamin Dudley, an English emigrant and a metallurgist was tasked to prepare dies and strike examples of these denominations. How many pattern coins were struck remains a mystery today and any survivors are ultra-rare. There are five different 1783 Nova Constellatio pattern coins.

If you took Latin in high school, you may recall that Nova Constellatio is Latin for “new constellation.” The aptly named 1783 Nova Constellatio patterns coins reveal thirteen stars among the rays of glory representing all thirteen states as a “new constellation“ surrounding the eye of God. The coins featured the Latin words LIBERTAS and JUSTITIA, intended to signal that Liberty and Justice would govern the new nation.

After all that work, Morris’ coinage plan never got off the ground. The proposal never emerged out of the Continental Congress’s committee that was assigned to consider it. Nonetheless, the intriguingly beautiful Nova Constellatio pattern coins represent an important part of our nation’s early history and America’s numismatic legacy.

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In 1936 the Wisconsin Centennial Commission appointed a Coinage Committee to pursue the development and minting of a commemorative coin to celebrate and help finance the Wisconsin Centennial that year.

The Wisconsin Centennial half dollar came at a time when the commemorative coin market was booming. This surge was due to previous commemorative coins that were minted in low quantities causing them to appreciate in value significantly. Many of these pieces sold at a premium to their earlier prices.

By the end of March of 1936 the Senate passed the bill paving the way for the half dollars. From there, the bill moved on to the House of Representatives where an amendment was requested which would increase the authorized minting to 25,000.

The job of designing the coins fell to David Parsons, a local art student. The only stipulations he was given was that the seal of Wisconsin Territory had to appear on one side, and a badger had to be on the other. However, his designs were deemed unsuitable mostly due to the light relief that did not adequately show the detail of the art. After the Bureau of the Mint rejected his work, the Wisconsin Centennial Commission tasked New York sculptor Benjamin Hawkins with the job of designing the coins. After being given a three week deadline, Hawkins submitted his designs which the Commission of Fine Arts approved almost immediately. 

The image on the obverse, a miners arm gripping a pickaxe, meant to represent the mining activities that drew so many to southeast Wisconsin in the 1820s. In fact, a lead mining boom started in the late 1820s. The metal was so important at the time that many called it “gray gold.”

The badger on the reverse was selected because it is the state animal. This choice also reflects the fur-trading business that characterized the area at the time. The three arrows behind it illustrated the conflict between early settlers and the Black Hawk Indians. The olive branch next to the arrows is meant to symbolize the peace that followed. However, some contend that this “peace” was nothing more than the forceful expulsion of Indians from their land. The “H” appearing below the badger marks the work as Hawkins’. 

The Philadelphia Mint struck the coins and made them available to collectors via mail order at a cost of $1.50 per coin. The composition of the coin, 90% silver, 10% copper, made it more valuable than the face value of $0.50. Organizers marketed the coin at the Centennial Cavalcade of Wisconsin in late July of 1936. The complete minting was sold by the1950s.

Today the images on the coin recall the early days of Wisconsin before its admission to the Union in 1848. Prior to this, the Wisconsin Territory had been part of the Northwest Territory before the British gave up the region amid the Treaty of Paris. The coin is a reminder of the hard-won land that became, and remains, such a part of America’s identity.

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The 1937 silver 50-Cent Antietam coin was minted to commemorate the 75th anniversary of a Civil War battle that had major national significance.

On September 17, 1862, nearly 5,000 were killed and 20,000 were wounded in the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland. it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil and is remembered as the single bloodiest day of the Civil War. Civil war buffs will remember that this battle saw Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia pitted against Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.

The period leading up to the battle was fraught with tension. Confederate forces, commanded by the esteemed General Robert E. Lee, were on a winning streak and had initiated an invasion into the Northern states. Their objectives were manifold: to sway the impending midterm elections, garner recognition from Europe, and shift the war’s pressure off Virginia.

On the other side, Major General George B. McClellan led the Union forces. Known for his cautious approach, McClellan moved his troops to counter Lee’s advance into Maryland. In a stroke of luck, the Union stumbled upon the Confederate battle strategies (Special Order 191), offering critical insights into Lee’s tactics, although McClellan’s actions following this discovery were less decisive than they might have been.

The ensuing battle was characterized by ferocity and a high death toll. It was a sequence of relentless attacks and counterattacks across the Antietam Creek, leaving heavy casualties in its wake. The Cornfield, the Sunken Road (also known as “Bloody Lane”), and Burnside’s Bridge were some of the critical conflict zones during the battle.

Despite the intense fighting, the day concluded without a definitive victor. However, due to their numerical disadvantage, Lee’s troops withdrew to Virginia. McClellan’s decision not to chase the retreating Confederates eventually led to his dismissal by President Abraham Lincoln. While the battle ended in a tactical stalemate, the Union considered it a strategic triumph as it halted Lee’s Northern invasion.

The outcome of the Battle of Antietam provided Lincoln with the assurance he needed to present the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This declaration asserted the impending freedom of slaves in territories held by the Confederacy, transforming the war’s goal from solely preserving the Union to actively abolishing slavery. Consequently, this new objective made it problematic for European nations to justify siding with the Confederacy.

Baltimore sculptor William Marks Simpson designed the highly sought Battle of Antietam silver half dollar, which was minted in 1937 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the battle.

The coin’s obverse features the two generals who led the fight that day: General Lee and General McClellan. The reverse reveals a view of Burnside’s Bridge over Antietam Creek which was ground zero for that historic battle in 1862.

The Philadelphia Mint produced the entire mintage of 50,000 silver half dollars in August 1937. The first coin struck was presented to President Franklin Roosevelt on August 12, 1937. The remainder of the mintage were offered by the Washington County Historical Society to the public at $1.65 a piece.

At the time, however, the coin didn’t attract large public interest and, ultimately, 32,000 were sent back to the mint to be melted, leaving a remaining mintage of 18,000 coins. The survival rate is estimated at no more than 15,000 today.

The Antietam silver half dollar attracts strong collector interest today and typically sells for a premium over the price of other commemorative issues with similar mintages and survival rates. Perhaps this is due to the historical and military significance of the battle it commemorated in our nation’s early history.

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