Our nation’s first interstate, the National Road, traversed through Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. It was the United States’ first fully paved highway, funded and built by the Federal government. Providing a connection between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers, it initially stretched (more…)
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The California Gold Rush and the U.S. 3-Cent Piece
The United States three-cent piece owes its existence to a combination of factors all converging at and around the same time. In 1848 gold was discovered in California at Sutter’s Mill. “Gold fever” gripped the country. Prospectors and fortune seekers alike — the 49ers — flooded in from the east. The strike was so profound […]
The Kittanning Bridge Company & Its Tokens
The Kittanning Bridge Company was formed in 1838 by an act of the Pennsylvania State Legislature. Its purpose was to construct a bridge across the Allegheny River and connect the towns of Kittanning with West Kittanning PA. Until that time there was no fixed bridge that crossed the Allegheny River …
The Machin’s Mills Counterfeit Halfpence
Operating in total secrecy, the mint was located in upstate New York, about 60 miles north of New York City. Most of its minting activities were done at night, under cover of darkness. Despite this, the number of counterfeits that the clandestine mint struck were prolific …
New York’s Crystal Palace & The H.B. West Tokens
The brainchild of a German immigrant, New York’s Crystal Palace was built in the early 1850s as an exhibition hall. Inspired by London’s famous Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, entrepreneur and promoter Christian E. Detmold had a dream to erect a similar venue in the United States, where (more…)
Florida’s Tallahassee Rail Road & Its Obsolete Scrip
Conceived and financed by cotton planters who needed a way to get their crop to textile mills in northern states, in 1834 the Tallahassee Rail Road was organized in the Territory of Florida. Being one of the first operational railroads in the United States, construction for its route began in the same year (more…)
The 18th Century Coinage Emissions of William Wood
William Wood was a person of considerable wealth and financial standing. Throughout the west of England, he owned numerous profitable iron and copper mines. Known as a shrewd businessman, in addition to his ventures in mining (more…)
The Mysterious Blacksmith Tokens of North America
In 1910 Howland Wood published an article in The Numismatist entitled ‘The Canadian Blacksmith Coppers.’ Blacksmith Coppers are contemporary counterfeits of evasion tokens, produced from the early 19th century until about the 1840’s. (more…)
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