Virginia Currency
March 1, 1781
An emission of £10,000,000 in legal tender treasury bills redeemable in Spanish milled dollars by December 30, 1792 at the rate of $40 in paper currency for each Spanish dollar. Legal tender status was revoked in November 1781. The bills were typeset on both thin and thick laid paper. There are three signers. Denominations issued were: $20 (£6), $50 (£15), $80 (£24), $150 (£45), $250 (£75), $500 (£150), $750 (£225) and $1,000 (£300).obv
$250 Serial Number: 11,729 VA 03/01/81
Signers: J. Rose, W. Martin, Foster Webb.
Size: 78 x 100mm (front border design 76 x 94mm).
Comments: Numbered and signed in brown ink. Equivalencies stated on the bill are £75 or $250, exchangable at a rate of one Spanish milled dollar to forty in currency. On the front of the note in the right border there is the phrase "Two Hundred and Fifty Dollar8" with an 8 for an s. The back is unprinted but contains a fragment of a handwritten annotation, most likely a note or receipt denominated in pounds. Click here to view the annotated back.
Provenance: Purchased through the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment from the EANA mail bid auction of 04/20/96, lot 616.
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$750 Serial Number: 55,668 VA 03/01/81
Signers: J. Rose, W. Martin, Foster Webb.
Size: not availabe
Comments: Numbered and signed in brown ink. Equivalencies stated on the bill are £225 or $750, exchangable at a rate of one Spanish milled dollar to forty in currency. On the front of the note in the right border there is the phrase "Two Hundred and Twenty Five Pouns" with the d missing in Pounds. Also in the main text the first two words set in gothic type read "This Qill" in which the Q was used instead of a B fol "Bill." An image of the unprinted back was not available.
Courtesy of Early American Numismatic Auctions, Inc. Images used with permission from their on-line auction catalog for the auction of April 20, 1996, lot 617.
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$1,000 Serial Number: 12,103 VA 03/01/81
Signers: Bolling Stark, W. Martin, Foster Webb.
Size: 79 x 100mm (front border design 77 x 95mm).
Comments: Numbered and signed in brown ink. Equivalencies stated on the bill are £300 or $1000, exchangable at a rate of one Spanish milled dollar to forty in currency. The typeset border has severa anti-counterfeiting marks: there is a question mark (?) with a cedilla on it in the top border and two question marks the bottom border; there is a mark like a seven (7) in the left border and the letters P O O N E D in the right border design. Interesting a counterfeit of this note does exist and the counterfeiter copied all of these marks exactly but then made the mistake of setting the S in backwards in the word DOLLARS in the left margin! The back contains some old collector tape reapirs. Click here to view the blank back.
Provenance: Purchased through the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment from the EANA mail bid auction of 01/17/98, lot 422.
