1787 New Jersey Copper, Small Planchet, Plain Shield, PCGS VF20, CAC. This 1787 colonial New Jersey copper is uniformly toned with clean, original surfaces. All of the design elements are present, and the wear is uniform. Although slightly weak at the bottom of the obverse, the date is fully readable. The horizontal lines of the shield are complete as are most of the vertical lines as well. The CAC sticker indicates that the coin is a premium quality piece that fully deserves the assigned grade. The coin shows a horses head above a plough. No sprigs are under the horse and the beam is curved. The obverse inscription is NOVA CAESAREA or New Jersey with the date below. The reverse shows a Union shield with the motto E PLUIRBUS UNUM separated by six-pointed stars. Dentils are around the peripheries of both sides.

New Jersey was founded in 1664 by a Royal Charter and was sometimes called Nova Caesarea. Shillings of Massachusetts and Spanish coins were used in its early days along with English Shillings, which were the primary small change used in the colony. There was much light weight imitation coinage in circulation. In 1787 the governing Council passed a measure that punished those who passed light weight coinage by forfeiting ten times their normal value.

The State of New Jersey established coinage in 1786 by allowing Walter Mould, Thomas Goadsby and Albion Cox, later the first Assayer at the United States Mint, to mint copper coins. The coins had to be 126 grains minimum weight. These men continued to produce this coinage together and then separately until 1788. When the Constitution was adopted in 1789, New Jersey stopped making coins.

In its population report, as of October 2013, CAC shows 1 Small Planchet, the present coin, confirmed at the VF20 grade level. Less than 5% of all PCGS and NGC certified 1787 New Jersey Small Planchet coins have been stickered by CAC.