“A Peculiar Stampe of Our Owne”: The Massachusetts Mint and the Battle over Sovereignty, 1652–1691

The Massachusetts mint of 1652-82 was a remarkably bold expression of colonial sovereignty. As a restored monarchy sought to wrest control of the Boston coinage after 1660, pragmatic moderates within the colony simultaneously sought to overpower the radical faction that, in clinging to the Bay shilling, demonstrated its dangerous pretensions to independence.