Tough Colonial notes
logger7
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Which areas of Colonial notes do others look for online? I remember displays at the ANA, one from Kagans that had a very tough high end collection of early Colonials. Why was NH a tough state to find Colonials, like this one I was following? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Hampshire-Colonial-Currency-NH-April-29-1780-Twenty-Dollar-Note-/152620224834?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&nma=true&si=OkchVR3o%2B9TIQ8pc3ZlnvCx84Mc%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
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Frankly for me it is non-North Carolina notes printed prior to 1750 - they get much scarcer than 1760s-1780s notes.
The NH note is indeed scarce, wasn't a very populous colony and not a lot of need for notes - in comparison to nearby Massachusetts and New York. Similarly Vermont was not really a colony but more a province betwixt NH and NY that sought it's own status - the notes from there are particularly scarce.
My earliest notes from Delaware reflect at the time that it was still a province of the Pennsylvania - also interesting because they were actually printed by Ben Franklin.
OK, thanks. I've been finishing up a 500 page Ben Franklin biography; and he mentioned how much in favor of paper money he was for economic growth, but then he was a printer.
This particular NH note is a better one for two reasons.
It's not cancelled and it's part of a better series.
This series bears the designation of "The United States" on the back and shares a common design with notes issued by several other states. The most available of these are from Massachusetts and are hole cancelled. These can be had for under $50. Without the hole cancel this same Massachusetts note is $200-$400.
Hole cancelled NH notes similar to this one can be had around $200-$300 but this uncancelled one sold for $800+.
I think one fascinating aspect of colonial notes, particularly those of N. Carolina from the late 1740s and everywhere else in the 1760s 1770s is that the cancelled/redeemed notes were held in archives and never got destroyed etc.
Another fascinating aspect is that the 1780 Guaranty notes issued by the states but backed by the United States were eventually redeemed at 40:1, into the war of 1812 they were still being turned in for long term bonds.
Benjamin Franklin is purported to have said that the issuance of the paper money during that time and it's loss in value was a form of a tax for independence. Paper money issuance in the colonies, particularly after the Crown "prohibited" it in the 1760s was a particular sticking point that would eventually manifest into the colonies seeking their independence.
During the 1770s the British flooded the paper money market with fakes. After fighting was over the Americans were left with huge amounts of paper money, "not worth a Continental" is connected to the value. Hyperinflation in the 1780s was a major problem which led to a call for precious metals backing of US money, pushed by Roger Sherman.