Pounds, Pence & Pistareens; The Real Story of Money in the American Colonies
Erik Goldstein, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
The July lecture is given in memory of Michael Weller, friend, scholar, consummate professional and collector of, among many other things, coinage and medals.

This Spanish colonial gold “doubloon” was struck in Lima, Peru, and was worth about 15 or 16 dollars.

The “pine tree” shillings were struck in Boston during the late 1660s and early 1670s. They were the first coins produced in what is now the United States.

This 1774 prototype silver shilling from Virginia, one of only five known, suggests that Virginia might have minted its own coins had the American Revolution not begun the following year.

This bill, banking on the widespread familiarity with the silver “pistareen” coin in the Chesapeake region in the mid-1770s, was an exact paper equivalent worth 15 pence Virginia money.
One of the most obvious things we have in common with American colonists jingles in our pockets or gets folded and stuffed in our wallets. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars didn’t just appear once we declared our independence from Great Britain. Their origins go back to the vast array of coins that made it to our shores after 1607 and the paper notes that were created when there weren’t enough coins to go around.
Historical records, corroborated by archaeological finds, document that everyday money came from Mexico and Peru, sources of precious metals, as well as the Netherlands, France and England. Coins were first struck in the British American colonies between 1652 and 1682. Specie was so scarce that foreign coins remained legal tender until 1857 — 64 years after the United States Mint was established!
The Lincoln penny that you just throw into a jar is the direct descendant of the regal British halfpenny. The Washington quarters you feed into a soda dispenser have Spanish great-grandparents, the once ubiquitous two-reales coin popularly known as a “two bits” piece.
Although the term “dollar” is firmly associated with the United States, and capitalism, Americans did not come up with the concept or terminology. Since its debut in the 1480s, innumerable European nations have produced “talers,” “thalers,” “daalers” and “pieces of eight.” Each of these coins is a large-size, silver coin which preceded our beloved silver dollar.
We, as Americans, happily spend “dollar bills” and coins, while taking their availability for granted. The average American colonist heading to market would have been very familiar with a bewildering array of coinage, from exotic places so far from the eastern seaboard that the colonial shopper could only dream of them. Erik Goldstein will teach us about the cross-continental reach of these utilitarian pieces of metal and scraps of paper. He will cause us to rethink the role of specie, as well as credit, in a global economy.
Erik Goldstein studied anthropology and archaeology at Adelphi University and graduated from the Parsons School of Design with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and illustration. He combined passion with career as a professional numismatist, then independent dealer and consultant. His curatorial responsibilities as Colonial Williamsburg’s curator of mechanical arts and numismatics, since 2002, continue his lifelong study of numismatics, arms, military history and material culture of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Mr. Goldstein’s books about antique weaponry and military history are: The Swords of George Washington (2016); Ray’s Story, A Lost Gunner of the 45th Bomb Group (2013); The Brown Bess, An Identification Guide (2010); 18th Century Weapons of the Royal Welsh Fuziliers from Flixton Hall (2002); The Socket Bayonet in the British Army 1687–1783 (2000); and The Bayonet in New France 1665–1760 (1997).