ON THE RELATIVE VALUES OF EARLY AMERICAN COINS AND MONEY

The recent blurb on the Albany Church Penny included one of the most frequently-made errors about early American coins and money: that pounds, shillings and pence in the colonies, Confederation, and United States were the same as British pounds, shillings, and pence. Even though the names were the same, the pounds, shillings, and pence of the various American polities had no more to do with British pounds, shillings, and pence than US dollars have to do with Australian dollars today.

Pegged against the Spanish milled dollar in the era ca.1790, it took eight New York shillings to equal a dollar, but just four shillings sixpence in British sterling. To render this decimally, it means a British penny was worth .0185 Spanish dollars (equal to 54 to a dollar) but a New York penny was worth .0104 Spanish dollars (96 to a dollar). So considering an Albany church penny as equal to a British penny overvalues it by almost 2-1.

In real life, the "penny" was essentially equal to a "copper," a non legal tender unit whose value floated in the marketplace quite independent of the pegged relationship of the Spanish milled dollar to the British pound or the New York pound. During the Copper Panic of 1789, the value of coppers descended as low as 160 to the dollar in parts of New York. By 1790, it had only barely stabilized and varied from locale to locale.

Given this non legal tender status, had the Church Treasurer wanted "British sterling" in the treasury, he would definitely not have asked for donations of copper: just silver or gold would have fit the bill.

Hope this clears up the misunderstanding a little -- it's a very common one in books by major historians of the era!

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: MORE ON THE ALBANY FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH'S PENNY (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n40a14.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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