1000 Units - Nova Constellatio Pattern

The Nova Constellatio patterns of 1783 were produced at the initiative of Gouverneur Morris, then Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris's assistant, who proposed a decimal coinage system for the new nation before Alexander Hamilton or Jefferson had put their own plans to paper. The 1000-unit piece — the "mark" in Morris's scheme — was struck in Philadelphia, almost certainly by Benjamin Dudley, the English engraver brought over specifically to produce these experimental pieces. Congress never adopted the system; the unit itself, based on a grain-weight common denominator Morris calculated to reconcile existing Spanish, English, and state coinages, was considered too small for practical arithmetic by most who reviewed it.

Surviving examples are few. These were presentation and trial pieces, not a circulating proposal awaiting approval.