My latest coin acquisition

The Connecticut state coppers were dated 1785 through 1788, and comprise
pieces made from well over three hundred die pairs. They were made by
various individuals with varying degrees of skill under varying conditions.
Poor workmanship and materials plague these coins, and the survivors attest
to this unhappy fact. A look at pages 58-60 in a recent edition of the
Redbook will show many spelling anomalies in the legends on both sides.

The reverse legend should read INDE ET LIB (Latin abbreviations for
Independence and Liberty) but my coin reads FNDE ET LIB. Punch link studies
have shown that this particular coin was made in the same place, at the same
time, and by the same people as the much more widely known "FUGIO" coppers
(Redbook, pages 83-84). The hypothesis is that the diecutter thought he was
making a die for a FUGIO, but after punching the letter F into the die was
told that he was making a Connecticut, and should have been punching INDE in
that location. As was often done, instead of discarding the erroneous die,
he was told to correct it by punching the proper I over the F and then
completing the rest of the legend. Thus this variety is known as the FNDE
over INDE. The die in question is known as reverse aa, pictured he

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...zman/revaa.jpg

This particular piece was selected from a dealer's double-row box of
colonials just yesterday afternoon.

James the Early American