Delaware Currency
February 28, 1746
An emission of £20,000 in bills of credit to exchange for prior issues and to use for the Land Bank loans. Printed by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. The front of the bills contain the English arms and top and bottom border cuts. Newman states Thomas Leech of Philadelphia engraved the arms and included his name in the design. The reverse of the four highest denominations have animal cuts above and nature prints below. The animal cuts consist of two sea serpents on the 5s, an elephant on the 10s, a hores on the 15s and a lion on the 20s notes; these cuts continued to be used through the emission of June 1, 1759. The 1s-2s6d and the 20s notes have both plates A and B. Denominations printed were: 1s, 18d, 2s, 2s6d, 5s, 10s, 15s and 20s.obv
rev
20s plate B Serial Number: 16,237 DE 02/28/46
Signers: William Armstrong, (a faded signature possibly Hugh Durborrow), John Clowes
Size: 89 x72mm (borders trimmed).
Comments: Numbered and signed in brown ink, whith the middle signature almost completely faded. On the front is the British arms and to the right are four crowns keyed to the denomination. The plate number B is below the text to the left. The bottom border cut has XX in each corner, for 20 shillings. The back contains a print of a lion with the denomination 20 between the lion's front and back feet. Below the lion is the central design, a nature print of parsley. Printed by Benjamin Franklin.
Provenance: Purchased through the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment from EAHA mail bid auction 12/12/98 lot 283.
For the obverse of another example of the 20s plate B note click here. This image is courtesy of Early American Numismatic Auctions, Inc. Image used with permission from their on-line auction catalog for the auction of April 20, 1996, lot 370.
