Mind Your Business: Our First Minted Coin – REWIND

In memory of my Father-in-Law, this episode was one of his favorites. It was first released in July of 2021. Despite the United States Mint not being established until 1792, the first American coin struck for circulation was actually designed in 1787 by none other than Benjamin Franklin. But why did it feature the words “Mind Your Business?” In this episode explore the coin known as the “Fugio Cent” and then quiz comedy writer Jimmy Mak!

Every American knows who Benjamin Franklin was. A man so important he’s one of only two non-Presidents to be featured on U.S. paper currency. He was an inventor, a writer, a diplomat, a scientist, a statesman and most notably, one of the few men responsible for drafting America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776. He was the only person to have signed all four major founding documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Alliance with France, The Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution. 

But there’s something that Ben Franklin did that not as many people are familiar with. An artist and designer of American money. 

About a decade after the founding of the new nation, a problem was arising. There were a lot of counterfeit and lightweight copper pennies in circulation. States were minting their own pennies and because of the inconsistency in weight and counterfeiting, businesses were losing money accepting these coins, which would occasionally be accepted as less than face value. This was hurting the economy of the 13 original states. To fight the problem, the Continental Congress of the Confederation decided on a resolution in 1787. It was for the contract to mint a national copper cent. 

About 10 weeks after the resolution was signed, a design had been approved for the coin. The Reverse of the coin (a numismatic term for the back of the coin), would have an unbroken chain with 13 links representing the colonies. In the center of that, the words “We are one.”  The obverse, or front of the coin would feature a prominent sun dial with a sun shining down on it. On the right, the date 1787 (even though all of these coins were struck in 1788) and on the left the word FUGIO. This is a latin word meaning “I Fly” and is apparently a reference to time flying by and the coin flying across the sky, represented by the sun and sun dial. But perhaps the most interesting part of the coin to me are the big letters on the bottom, under the sun dial. The words “Mind your business.” 

Eric Newman was a Numismatist who wrote several books about the Fugio Cent and in them, he was able to show that the design of this copper coin was the handiwork of Benjamin Franklin. He was known for several of these mottos and designs like the 13 chain links. It’s also very similar to a dollar coin that Franklin had designed in 1776 for the new nation, but was never circulated.

But why the words Mind your business? It seems weird to have on a coin. Well when the coin was designed in 1787, this phrase didn’t mean what it means today. Today when we use the phrase, we obviously “stop being nosy.” But Benjamin Franklin meant “Mind your business” literally. As in “pay attention to your business.” Business literally meaning business. Among all of those things I listed about what Ben Franklin was, he was a business man, with a strong worth ethic. These coins reflect that ethic.

The story of how these first coins were minted is rather interesting as well. The United States Mint wasn’t established until 1792, so how did they mint this first national cent? 

The Congress of the Confederation asked for bids on striking the coins and several copper makers came forward wanting to make the coins. The contract went to a man named James Jarvis in Connecticut. Connecticut had opened the first state mint in 1785 and Jarvis owned a controlling interest in the company, called the Company for Coining Coppers. And in true fashion of politics in America, he won the contract by bribing the Head of the Treasury board, William Durer, with $10,000. Durer was the assistant to the Treasurer and was an old family friend of Jarvis, so he was awarded the contract and started the process of constructing the dies to make the coin.

To carve and build these dies, he looked to a man who was missing part of his ear and had a small C branded into his forehead. The reason for these disfigurements was this man, Abel Buell, was a known counterfeiter. He had been caught counterfeiting 5 pound notes and his punishment was lopping off the top of one of his ears and branding him with a letter describing his crime – this was what they did back then. 

He set up the dies and began striking the coins, along with the help of an enslaved man named Aaron, several children, a freed black man and others. It was a group effort to get these coins made and the problem became apparent quickly.

The coinage requested by the contract required 300 tons of copper. There wasn’t 300 tons of copper in the United States. He had put his father in law, Samuel Broome in charge of mining additional copper, but it wasn’t very successful. After Jarvis’s mint produced 1200 pounds of coins,  they ran out. This was a problem, not only for the nation, not only for Jarvis, but for the Treasury. Jarvis had been given the first 30 tons of copper and he never paid the Federal Government back for it. Ultimately, he fled to Europe – to look for more copper and to escape his troubles. 

Eventually Abel Buell fled to England as well. He eventually returned and is credited for printing the first U.S. Map, but he died penniless. 

Jarvis’s father in law, however, Samuel Broome, continued to mint coins at the Connecticut mint, but just made them lighter and thinner. In the end, he made about 400,000 Fugio Cents. This was 4 tons of copper instead of the 300 tons. 

The Fugio Cents never did see a whole lot of circulation. There was a huge devaluation of copper and there just weren’t enough coins to be in large use anyway. The population of the country at that time was just under 4 million, so there just weren’t enough of these coins to be effective.

Today, collectors pay up to $10,000 for a Fugio Cent. Only 3,811 have been officially cataloged and graded. In 1926, a secret stash of these coins was found. They had been stored away in 1788. Those several thousand coins represent the largest chunk of the Fugio Coins that are now owned. 

Who owns them? How do you get one? I think there’s a saying about that from one of our founding fathers and from modern numismatists. Mind Your Business.

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