Show FIRST U S COIN SHILLING OF 1652 melted candlesticks used to make silver piece on may M ay 26 20 john I 1 lull hull minted the first piece of silver for use in the american colonies feeling the need of a satisfying medium of exchange the boston colonists induced the legislature to enact a statute permitting the coinage of money in the colony john hull n boston householder offered to erect a building at his expense on his own land to be used as adint a mint ills proposition ans accepted and he was made master of the mint As compensation lie he wits to receive one shilling for every twenty that he minted for the colony so out near the loarn harn on its property he built a one room shack 10 feet wide and 10 feet long on and here in this unpainted building was minted the first shilling in the colonies the event was baked by an absolute absence of ceremony ile went about the task in the same matter of fact way that lie he would have approached the task of candles using an engelh shilling as a in model ode this first minting of a few silver pieces was a days job hull and a friend melted up some silver c candlesticks andle sticks in an oven hunt built of field stones it required a long time to get the oven hot enough with the tt ae wood they were using as fuel ito however w late in the afternoon the two men were ready to pour the molten silver into flat in moulds at this point mrs airs hull appeared on the scene to persuade them to pat eat supper which they lid did unwillingly after supper they returned to work by candle light first they removed the sliver silver that tant had cooled in flat stabs slabs anti and pounded it town down to the right thinness then with a heavy hammer and a punch they cut out the discs on one stile side of which they stamped JN E standing for new england and on the other XII denoting 12 pence finally they weighed each disc sen BCD ara ft rotely tely if the disc weighed more than 72 grains they cut on a piece which Is why most of them are of such irregular shape thus thua with trude crude tools a and nd methods lid did the first colonial shilling ome come unceremoniously into being |