The Nova Constellatio patterns of 1783 were produced at the initiative of Gouverneur Morris, then Assistant Superintendent of Finance under Robert Morris, who proposed a decimalized coinage system built on a unit he called the "mark" — subdivided into 1,000 units. The 5-unit piece fit within a proposed series of 5, 8, 100, 500, and 1,000-unit denominations. Congress never adopted the system, in part because the fractional relationships between the proposed units and existing Spanish milled dollars proved too awkward for everyday commerce.
The patterns were struck in Philadelphia, likely by Benjamin Dudley. Fewer than a handful of copper examples are confirmed to survive.
The Nova Constellatio patterns of 1783 were produced at the initiative of Gouverneur Morris, then Assistant Superintendent of Finance under Robert Morris, who proposed a decimalized coinage system built on a unit he called the "mark" — subdivided into 1,000 units. The 5-unit piece fit within a proposed series of 5, 8, 100, 500, and 1,000-unit denominations. Congress never adopted the system, in part because the fractional relationships between the proposed units and existing Spanish milled dollars proved too awkward for everyday commerce.
The patterns were struck in Philadelphia, likely by Benjamin Dudley. Fewer than a handful of copper examples are confirmed to survive.