Plinky's Coin of the Month
February 2000

Six years before the Declaration of Independence, the man on this silver dollar was the first patriot to die in the American Revolution.  Can you name him?

Hint: He was shot during the Boston Massacre.

Crispus Attucks was the first patriot killed during the American Revolution.  On March 10, 1770, Attucks and four other men were shot by British soldiers.  Patriots named the fight the "Boston Massacre," and they used it to unite the colonists.  Angry about the fight, people came together and demanded that British troops be removed from Boston.

Attucks was also the first Black Revolutionary War Patriot to die for American independence.  In all, more than 5,000 African Americans fought in the Revolutionary War.  The back of this silver dollar shows a Black Patriot family.  It's the same design created for the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial.  Both the coin and memorial commemorate these early veterans who fought in the Revolutionary War and the families who supported them.