BERMUDA (SOMMER ISLANDS) COINS
Groat (Fourpence) - rumored but unconfirmed
Copies, Reproductions, and
courtesy of Superior
"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
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.
"The London Company of Virginia: A Brief Account
of its Transactions in Colonizing Virginia", introduction by J.
Taylor Ellyson, 1908.