On July 12, 1722, William Wood (1671 – 1730), who was a hardware manufacturer, ironmaster, and mintmaster, received a contract from the British Crown to strike an issue of Irish coinage from 1722 to 1724. He also struck the ‘Rosa Americana’ coins of British America during the same period. Wood’s coinage was extremely unpopular in Ireland for being overvalued in monetary value compared to the intrinsic metal value. It was seen as the King attempting to create money from nothing or fiat despite the fact they were coins.
The British coins minted for Ireland were recalled and exported to the American colonies. Wood was also granted a patent to mint 300 tons of coppers for the North American Colonies over a 14-year period for an annual fee to the Crown of 300.149. He produced the ‘Rosa Americana’ coinage which was very attractive, but they were an alloy of 75% brass, 20% tutenague, 5% silver. One pound of the alloy was to produce 120 halfpence, which was a substantial profit of about doubling his money. The obverse depicted the laureated head of George I, while a Tudor rose with the inscription ROSA AMERICANA, UTILE DULCI was on the reverse.
This post was published at Armstrong Economics on Dec 12, 2017.