Vermont Currency
February 1781
An emission of £25,155 in legal tender bills of credit. The issue was authorized by an act of April 4, 1781 to pay for military expenses and to increase the supply of paper money in circulation. An earlier act of February 22, 1781 had authorized the printing of L5,590 but was never carried out. Unfortunately when the bills were printed they carried the date of the wrong act! This is the only emission issued by Vermont. The bills were redeemable by June 1, 1781 at the rate of 6s in bills for a Spanish milled dollar or its equivalent in gold. After that date their legal tender status was revoked but they could still be used to pay taxes. Redeemed bills were burned. The engraved seal on the face shows 13 linked circles with one unlinked circle at the top. This, of course, represents Vermont which was not included as one of the original 13 colonies. The motto around the seal reads "VERMONT CALLS FOR JUSTICE." The front and back have engraved border cuts with typeset text. The notes were printed in Westminster by Judah P. Spooner and Timothy Green III (Green is the son of Timothy Green II of New London, CT who also printed currency). Denominations printed were: 1s, 1s3d, 2s6d, 5s, 10s, 20s, 40s and £3.
obv
rev
10s Serial Number: 2136 VT-02-81
Signers: E. Walbridge, John Fasset
Size: not available.
Comments: Numbering and first signature in red ink, second signature in brown ink
Provenance: Courtesy of Early American Numismatic Auctions, Inc. Images used with permission from their on-line auction catalog for the auction of November 16, 1996, lot 736.
