BERMUDA (SOMMER ISLANDS) COINS

Twopence 
Threepence 
Groat (Fourpence) - rumored but unconfirmed 
Sixpence 
Shilling 
Copies, Reproductions, and Fantasies

Images courtesy of Superior Galleries 

"Sir George Somers was born of respectable parentage in 1554. In 1595 he began his career on the sea. A year later he made a voyage to the West Indies, and in July, 1603, he was knighted. He became a member of Parliament, but his seat was declared vacant by reason of his absence in Virginia. In 1609 he set sail for Virginia as Admiral under the new charter which had been granted by King James, but his vessel was wrecked on the Bermuda Islands and he did not arrive in Virginia until May, 1610. He found the colony on the point of starvation, and therefore advised the abandonment of Jamestown. The settlers had actually set sail for England with Somers, but returned after one night’s absence on learning that Lord Delaware had just entered the mouth of James River. A little later Somers returned to the Bermudas to secure supplies for the Virginia colony, and there, in November, 1610, he died. His body was carried back to England and interred at Whitchurch in Dorsetshire."

Hogge Money (so named because of the pig that appears on the obverses of the coins) was introduced to the Bermuda Islands circa 1616 by Daniel Tuckar, the new Governor of the Bermuda Company.  All of the coins are rare to extremely rare.  They were struck on thin planchets of brassy copper - some or all may have been silvered after striking.  Many of the known specimens have been found in the last few decades by beachcombers and metal detectors.

Sources and/or recommended reading:
"The London Company of Virginia: A Brief Account of its Transactions in Colonizing Virginia", introduction by J. Taylor Ellyson, 1908.