I know of many collectors of U.S. coins that own a pillar dollar (or 2 or more)

[James_OldeTowne]

... but, how should they be categorized?

 

Colonials?

Pre-colonials?

Early dollars?

Patterns ?

 

Seriously, I am looking for some guidance on what a good cross-section of the hobby (i.e. the board members!) might think.

 

Thanks.

[TomB]

Cool.

[PerryHall]

They are foreign coins. If you are interested in colonial coins an example should be a part of your collection since they widely circulated in the American colonies. But then again, many other foreign coins circulated here during the colonial era.

[BillJones]

They are foreign coins. If you are interested in colonial coins an example should be a part of your collection since they widely circulated in the American colonies. But then again, many other foreign coins circulated here during the colonial era.

 

In a sense they are not exactly foreign coins because they were legal tender in the U.S. until 1857. In addition Continential Currency and other colonial and state currencies were "supposed" to have been backed by Spanish Milled dollars. I'd say that examples dated up to 1776 would be colonial coins. The pieces after that would be named after the govenment that was then in charge (Confederation, Constitutional).

[RWB]

Many coins made by other countries were legal tender prior to 1857. One of the Mint Director's jobs was to compile lists of these coins and their value in dollars. Bankers' journals had lists of exchange rates in every monthly issue.

 

Since they were not products of the US, they were not US coins, but an accepted medium of exchange based on bullion value and convenience.

 

 

[BillJones]

The term "legal tender" means that you could go into a court of law and have your payment in foreign coins accepted as a satisfaction of a debt as a matter of law. That is something more than just paying for a purchase with bullion coins which would be a matter of acceptance of paying a debt in the civil sense.

[RWB]

True....only some foreign coins were legal tender.

[coinman_23885]

I would call them Non-U.S. circulating issues or more simply "other circulating issues during the colonial and early republic period."

 

I wouldn't consider them colonial and I would reserve that term for coins produced by the colonies themselves.

 

Since they were produced contemporaneously with the existence of the American colonies, I wouldn't consider them pre-colonial.

 

As was pointed out, many foreign coins (and these particularly) were legal tender until 1857, so there could be a more descriptive term than "foreign."

 

[Conder101]

I consider them to be Spanish colonials. Not because of the US colonies, but because most of them were struck by colonies of Spain. A far as from a US point of view they are simply foreign coins, some of which were legal tender at times here in the US.

[coinman1794]

Spanish silver was mined in Central and South America and dispersed across the world. It became the ubiquitous silver currency of the 18th century. Other nations did not let their coinage circulate internationally, with the exception of the minor, copper coins. The Mercantile economic system of 18th Century Europe dictated that countries would hoard gold and silver taken in trade for manufactured goods, and not allow any precious metals to leave the country. Britain seems to have been best at carrying this out, not even allowing the colonies in America to have British silver coins, or to strike their own silver currency. Spain had so much silver coming from the Americas that they could not keep a tight lid on it. They were willing to circulate it in the British colonies, but they were very protective of their holdings in North, Central, and South America, up until the death of Carlos III in 1789.

[World Colonial]

As an avid collector of pillar coinage, I do not consider them US coins. But by the definition of some here, I do not believe that some other colonial coins in a source such as the "Red Book" are colonial either. I'm not familiar with the specifics for individual issues but I understand that many were not struck in the colonies or Britain and they did not circulate as widely as pillar dollars either.

[DirtyGoldMan]

I consider them to be foreign coins that circulated in the American colonies and early US. I have a few and some related issues in my collection of coins of the Early Americas.