1770-6 Lewis Fueter Regulated Gold US$6 Portugal 1714 4000 Reis, (KM 184), NGC VF25. This rare, unusual 1770-6 Lewis Fueter Regulated Gold piece was regulated by Lewis Fueter, a Royalist who worked in occupied New York prior to the Revolution. The host coin is a 1714 4000 reis coin from Portugal. Its yellow gold surfaces show light, even wear and certainly could have been graded higher than the VF25 assigned by NGC. The 1770-6 Lewis Fueter Regulated Gold coin is plugged and stamped LF for Lewis Fueter in a vertically oriented rectangular cartouche. It was built up on the obverse and was flush on the reverse. Some of the diagonal edge reeding is missing, indicating that the edge was filed. The 1770-6 Lewis Fueter Regulated Gold coin was regulated to the occupied New York standard of 6 pennyweights, 22 grains, which was the equivalent of six dollars.

Coins from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, France, and England all circulated concurrently in early America. However, each had a different weight and fineness making trade extremely inconvenient. The problem was first dealt with in colonial times, when coins were regulated. This practice continued after Independence. A goldsmith or silversmith would drill a coin and add gold in the form of a plug to increase its weight. If it was then overweight, he would clip and/or file its edge. Thus, coins were regulated to certain standards. The plugs that were added were then stamped with a hallmark indentifying the regulator who guaranteed the gold content of the piece. Regulators, who were also jewelers and highly thought of members of the community, included John Bayley, John Burger, John David Jr., Lewis Feuter, Myer Myers, Thomas Pons, Thomas Underhill, and William Hollingshead. However, none was so prominent and famous in numismatic circles as Ephraim Brasher.

The host coin, a 4000 reis of 1714 from Portugal, KM 184. The obverse shows the Maltese cross with quatrefoils in the angles and the date above; the reverse shows the crowned arms; to the left is the vertical value and King Joao (John) Vs titles are at the right.

Usually numismatists are concerned about a coins pristine quality. In fact, today a perfect coin is given a grade of Mint State 70. Coins that are holed, clipped, filed, plugged, and counter stamped have considerably diminished value to most collectors. Most coins in these categories are considered undesirable and would not be certified by any of the major grading services except in the details category. However, in the realm of regulated gold coins, all of the previous notions of quality and appeal must be abandoned in favor of a different set of assumptions. Even counterfeit coins have been regulated and are highly collectible today. Obviously a regulated coin cannot be in Mint State condition. The host coin must be described in detail and, if possible, graded separately from the plug or plugs.

Regulated coins have been found in collections of famous collectors and numismatists. These include Virgil M. Brand, Louis Eliasberg, John J. Ford Jr., John Work Garrett, Waldo Newcomer, and John L. Roper. Edward Roehrs had an excellent collection of regulated coins that was auctioned in 2010 at the ANA Boston Worlds Fair of Money.

It seems unusual to modern sensibility that colonists and citizens of the early republic would have silver tankards, beakers, and porringers; however, it should be noted that these items represented a persons surplus wealth. Since there were no banks where a colonist could keep hard money, they took all their surplus coins to a silversmith and had them melted and made into useful objects. Since paper money often depreciated, savings were safer if invested in silver plate where they could also be useful in the home. In case of a theft, silver could easily be identified by the hallmark and engraving and recovered. If cash were needed, the silver could be taken to a silversmith and be reconverted into money. The silversmith had to be a man of highest integrity because he was expected to turn a certain quantity of silver plate into coin or the opposite.

Lewis Fueter worked for an old Tory firm that regulated coinage in occupied New York during the Revolutionary War. Edward Roehrs wrote a brief biography of Fueter in the December 2005 issue of The Numismatist. Fueters father, Daniel, was a well known silversmith in New York who worked for the British making peace medals. Father and son worked together in 1769, but the son soon began running the business alone. According to Roehrs, Lewis Fueter died in Jamaica in 1784 at the age of 38, just months after the end of the British occupation New York. He had left New York for Halifax, like many Loyalist evacuees, before ending up in Jamaica and meeting his early death. Most often his hallmark was F&G. Researchers do not know who G may have been.

The present coin is unique. Any coin regulated by Lewis Fueter alone is a great rarity, and this denomination is also extremely rare for a regulated coin.