Continental Currency

Today's coin isn't really a coin at all, it is a paper note from the beginning of the US. Continental currency, or continentals for short, were printed by the revolutionaries as early as 1775. The emblem on this particular note was designed by Benjamin Franklin, and is remarkably similar to the unfinished pyramid on our $1 bill.
But he's not the only famous historical figure involved, the plates for printing these notes were engraved by Paul Revere!


One of the first things you will notice about this note is its goofy denomination. There hasn't been a $1/3 note in over 200 years! And the other denominations of continentals were just as strange: $1/6, $1/2, $2/3, $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, and $8. There were also higher denomination continentals ranging from $20 to $80 dollars.


Oh and by the way, they aren't really talking about US dollars. They were talking about Spanish milled dollars, or pieces of 8. Hypothetically, if you had a $30 continental note, you could redeem it for 30 spanish silver coins at some future unspecified date.


Of course, if the colonies lost the revolutionary war the notes would be worthless. Also, the revolutionaries never really had the money to back the notes in the first place. If you add to that the fact that the British started pumping out counterfeits by the cartload, you can imagine what happened. The notes were worth far less than their face value, since no one trusted them. There is a famous quote from George Washington where he bemoaned that it took a cartload of continentals to pay for a cartload of supplies! When the government finally allowed them to be redeemed, it was at only 1/1000 of the printed value.



In modern times, as is often the case, the value of the continental has improved. They are not as expensive as one might expect, because they were so plentiful to begin with. A beat up note sells on ebay in the range of $100 to $200 dollars, whereas the really well preserved ones go for thousands. Even the british counterfeits have become valuable.


Thanks to the help of several ebay merchants, I have been able to put together a collection of images of continentals of all denominations and years of issue. Out of the 102 possible combinations, roughly half have images for you to browse. Check it out at CoinsDaily.com


Well, that's all for now, be sure to check back tomorrow for the next Coin of the Day!