Fiscal Documents: Massachusetts
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    Massachusetts

    Treasury Certificates - December 1, 1777
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    MA Treasury Certificate         6% interest         due March 1, 1781

    Anderson  MA-10         Certificate No. 1607          Dated December 1, 1777

    Amount £10                To: Joh Webster


    Dimensions: 229 x 205mm (border dimensions: 179 x 190mm, horizontal dimension measured from inner right edge of the left border in the indented portion of the note to the right outside border).


    Indented treasury certificate authorized by the General Court on October 13, 1777. This amount £10 was the smallest denomination authorized. Blank certificates were signed by a committee of John Scollay, Ezekiel Price (in red ink) and Peter Boyer. When completed certificates were signed by the Treasurer of the Commonwealth, Henry Gardner. Upon redemption the treasurer's signature was cancelled with an XX and the certificate was embossed with a seal showing a handshake with a partly legible motto "Dat vires...". The back has a handwritten annotation "F No. 6" and a modern pencil note stating "Nath Hurd engraved this." Click here to view the annotated back

    Comments: Engraved by Nathaniel Hurd in Boston with the vignette of a soldier with a sword in his right hand and a scroll with "Independence" in his left. Around this is the state legend "Ense petit placidum sub libertate quietem." (By the sword one seeks peace under tranquil liberty). The entire symbol is encircled by a rattlesnake.

    Provenance: EANA mail bid auction 04/20/96 lot 474. Purchased through the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment.