During December Thomas Goadsby, still fearing the minting equipment would be seized to pay Cox's debts, shipped the Rahway press, three ingots of copper and the some 30,000 blank planchets to Walter Mould's mint in Morristown. Possibly during November, but certainly by December, Albion Cox was in jail. From later documents we know the items were: one pair of rollers, two iron cutting presses, a coining press, twelve ingot molds for casting copper, sixty ingots of copper and six hundred weight of finished copper planchets (672 lbs or between 32,000 and 28,000 planchets). On November 6th, Goadsby obtained a writ allowing him to seize jointly held coining equipment and the stock of copper bars and blank planchets. Albion Cox, who was already in debt to an English relative named William Cox, had problems repaying his loans.

On July 7, 1787, Goadsby loaned Cox £1200, with Samuel Atlee of New York City acting as the cosigner. On January 19, 1787, Mould secured his bond and was allowed to mint one million coppers at a independent site two miles west of Morristown, on the Sussex Turnpike at a residence called 'Solitude,' owned by John Cleve Symmes, a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court. The petition was granted on November 22nd, at which time the two partners could legally begin minting two million coins. Goadsby and Cox then petitioned the state to allow them to divide the contract. They charged that Mould would not post his required surety bond. At this point it seems Goadsby and Cox had a disagreement with Walter Mould. Matthias Ogden provided surety for the payment of the lease. Apparently the copper planchets were produced at one location and the stamping was done at the other location (Trudgen 1992). The two locations were about a mile apart on the Rahway River in Elizabethtown (now Rahway), New Jersey. Although their coinage contract was only for two years Marsh leased the sites to the partners for a period of seven years. New Jersey coppers were the first coins to bear the national motto.īy the fall of 1786 the partners had selected two buildings for their coining operation: a grist mill and a saw mill, both owned by Daniel Marsh, one of the state legislators who had sponsored the coinage bill. In Roman times this island was called Caesar's Island ( insula Caesarea) so when latinizing the state name, the word 'Jersey' was transformed to 'Caesarea.' The 1688 indenture issued by Charles II called the colony 'Nova Caesarea, of New Jersey.' The reverse of the coin depicted an American shield that is similar to one used on some of the confederation patterns along with the national motto as the legend, E PLURIBUS UNUM (One from many). The use of 'CÆSAREA' is based on the ancient classical name for the Island of Jersey in the English Channel. The obverse of the copper displayed a plow beneath a horse head facing right with the legend NOVA CÆSAREA (as on the state coat of arms) and the date.

The design of the coins was not resolved, the legislation simply stated they were to have 'Marks and Inscriptions as shall be directed by the Justices of the Supreme Court, or any one of them.' The coppers were to circulate at fifteen to the shilling and were to be produced within New Jersey. On June 1, 1786, the New Jersey legislature authorized Walter Mould, Thomas Goadsby, and Albion Cox to mint three million copper coins at a weight of 150 grains each over a two-year period in return for a ten percent royalty to the state and the posting of a £10,000 surety bond. New Jersey Coppers 1786-1790: Introduction

Copper coins