That trade brought bullion, or uncoined gold and silver, into the colony, which led, in 1652, to the exercise of an act of sovereignty on the part of the authorities of Massachusetts by the establishment of a mint.

It was authorized by the general assembly, in 1651, and the following year "silver coins of the denomination of threepence, sixpence and twelvepence, or shilling, were struck.

This was the first coinage within the territory of the United States." There lived in Boston at this time a family named Stevens.

The head of the family was a white-haired old man named Mathew, whose dark eyes and complexion indicated southern blood.

He was a foster-son of the Pilgrim Father, Mr.Robinson, and had come to New England in the _Mayflower_ when she made her first memorable voyage to Plymouth, thirty-two years before.
Mathew Stevens had removed with his family from New Plymouth to Boston the year before the king of England lost his head.