1 Shilling - Lord Baltimore

Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, commissioned this coinage in London around 1659 — the only coinage ever authorized by a proprietary colony in British North America. Struck by a private silversmith rather than the Royal Mint, the pieces were intended to address the chronic shortage of small change plaguing Maryland's tobacco economy. They arrived in the colony in limited quantities and saw hard use.

The issue was contentious from the start. The Maryland Assembly resisted Baltimore's unilateral authority to coin money, and the series was short-lived as a result. Surviving examples in any condition are genuinely scarce.