1/2 Penny - Bar Cent

The Bar Cent was almost certainly produced by a private contractor — most likely in England — and imported for use in post-Revolutionary New York, where small change was desperately scarce following the collapse of colonial currency systems. Thirteen bars on the reverse correspond to the original states, a detail with obvious political intent from a period when national identity was still being constructed coin by coin.

No authorizing legislation has ever been conclusively identified for this piece.