Description
USA, Vermont, copper Cent, 1786, VERMONTENSIUM RES PUBLICA 1786, Sun rising over mountains with plow below. Rev. STELLA QUARTA DECIMA, eye with pointed rays and stars (KM 4).
In NGC holder graded XF 40 BN. Rare in this condition.
Reuben Harmon Jr. of Rupert, Vermont was granted permission to mint copper coins in 1785 for the entity of Vermont. Vermont was a Republic then and these copper coins continued to be made until its admission into the United States in 1791. Colonel William Coley, a goldsmith from New York, made the first dies. Obverse of the design shows a plow and the Sun rising over the Green Mountains. Reverse of the 1785 and 1786 design features an “all-seeing eye” with thirteen stars surrounding. It also features a motto: STELLA QUARTA DECIMA (the fourteenth star) which is cited in literature as the aspiration for eventual admission into the United States.