Delaware Currency
June 1, 1759
An emission of £27,000 in legal tender bills of credit. Of this total £20,000 was to be used to replace the bills of February 28, 1746 and to be used by the Loan Office until June 1, 1773. The remaining £7,000 was to pay for public expenses. Printed by Benjamin Franklin and David Hall in Philadelphia. The front of the bills contain the English arms (sideways on the four lower denominations) with top and bottom border cuts and typeset design in the right and left margins. The reverse of the four lower denominations are blank while the four higher denominations have a series of new nature prints, below them are the engraved animal cuts first used on the February 28, 1746 emission. Denominations printed were: 1s, 1s6d, 2s, 2s6d, 5s, 10s, 15s and 20s.obv
rev
20s Serial Number: 45,167 DE 06/01/59
Signers: David Hall, William Armstrong and [John Barnes, faded off].
Size: 91 x 72mm (front border design 89 x 71mm; back border desgin 87 x 69mm).
Comments: Numbered and signed in brown ink. The bottom signature of John Barnes is completely faded off. On the front are top and bottom border cuts and the English arms. the denomination is keyed to four crowns. There are two varieties of this note. In the present variety the Y in TWENTY is under the center of the stop in No . ; in the other variety the stop is to the right of the Y. The back contains a cut of a lion as was first used in the emission of February 28, 1746. There is also a new nature print (50mm square) consisting of two leaves and typeset side borders. Printed by Benjamin Franklin and David Hall.
Provenance: Purchased through the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment from the EAHA mail bid auction of 11/1/97, lot 313.
