Volume 14 , Issue 32

Worthless As A Continental Bill

The Colonial currency was the continental bill signed with several different signers. On the back of most Continental currency issues was a leaf design. This was called a nature print. The technique was first used by Benjamin Franklin. An impression of a real leaf was made in plaster which was then used to make a metal mould. The idea was that no two leaves were alike so as to deter counterfeiters.

David Hall, working under Franklin in the mid 1760's took over the printing shop with William Sellers. They printed notes for Pennsylvania as well as all of the issues of continental currency for the national government during the Revolutionary War.

The Continental notes were denominated in Spanish milled dollars (Spanish eight reales). It was not decimal unit but rather equal to a certain number of shillings. In several states the spanish dollar was equal to 6 shillings. Coppers often circulated at 18 to the shilling so a spanish dollar was equal to 108 coppers.

Massachusetts actually minted cents which were suppose to circulate at 100 to the spanish dollar but actually circulated at 108 to the dollar.

The Continental Congress printed many millions of dollars of currency without ever having the funds to back them. This was one of the ways they financed the Revolutionary War. Of course, inflation set in and the notes were devalued. It was by 1780 forty dollars in Continental paper traded for one Spanish milled dollar coin. By 1781 in Virginia to took $1000 paper dollars to get one dollar in coin. This was the origin of the phrase "As worthless as a Continental."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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