Early American currency
John Hull was authorized by the Massachusetts legislature to make the earliest coinage of the colony (the willow, the oak, and the pine tree shilling) in 1652.No longer subject to monetary regulations arbitrarily imposed by the British parliament, the states began to issue paper money to pay for military expenses.To meet the monetary demands of the war, state and continental governments printed large amounts of currency, leading to rapid depreciation.By the time Parliament decided to prohibit the printing of paper money in the colonies, their hired counterfeiters were able to take advantage of the common people, widening the gaps between socioeconomic classes.[9] This depreciation of colonial currency was harmful to creditors in Great Britain when colonists paid their debts with money that had lost value.After much lobbying, parliament amended the act in 1773, permitting the colonies to issue paper currency as legal tender for public debts.When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, all of the rebel colonies, soon to be independent states, issued paper money to pay for military expenses.[53] "Some think that the rebel bills depreciated because people lost confidence in them or because they were not backed by tangible assets", writes financial historian Robert E. Wright.Benjamin Franklin later wrote: The artists they employed performed so well that immense quantities of these counterfeits which issued from the British government in New York, were circulated among the inhabitants of all the states, before the fraud was detected.[54][52] For this reason, some Quakers, whose pacifism did not permit them to pay war taxes, also refused to use Continentals, and at least one Yearly Meeting formally forbade its members to use the notes.[60] Morris also presided over the creation of the first mint operated by the U.S. government, which struck the first coins of the United States, the Nova Constellatio patterns of 1783.[61] The painful experience of the runaway inflation and collapse of the Continental dollar prompted the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to include the gold and silver clause into the United States Constitution so that the individual states could not issue bills of credit or "make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts".
pine tree shillingProvince of PennsylvaniaBenjamin FranklinDavid HallJohn HullMassachusetts legislaturethe pine tree shillingThirteen ColoniesUnited ColoniesSpanish dollarColonialpaper moneyeconomic activitiesBritish parliamentcurrency actsAmerican Revolutionmilitary expensesContinental CongressdepreciationcounterfeitingBritish Americacommodity moneyCommoditieswampumdenominatedshillingsMassachusetts poundPennsylvania poundpound sterlingcolonial eraSpanishPortuguesemedium of exchangeProvince of Massachusetts BayKing William's WarMassachusetts shillingsbills of creditinflationNew EnglandMiddle ColoniesCurrency Act 1751legal tenderAdam SmithThe Wealth of NationsCurrency Act 1764American Revolutionary WarThirteen ColonyNational Numismatic CollectionSmithsonian InstitutionStamp Act CongressUnited States Declaration of IndependenceArticles of ConfederationUnited States ConstitutionConnecticutDelawareJohn McKinlyThomas CollinsGeorgiaWilliam FewMarylandMassachusettsNew HampshireJohn Taylor GilmanNew JerseyJohn HartJohn Stevens Jr.New YorkJohn Cruger Jr.North CarolinaEdward MoseleyPennsylvaniaFrancis HopkinsonRhode IslandMetcalf BowlerJonathan ArnoldSouth CarolinaVirginiaPeyton RandolphJohn Blair Jr.Robert Carter Nicholas Sr.Continental currency banknotesdepreciatedRobert E. Wrighteconomic warfareYearly Meetingtreasury bondsRobert MorrisSuperintendent of Finance of the United StatesBank of North Americabullion coinsNova ConstellatioConstitutional Conventiongold and silver clauseJuilliard v. GreenmanEconomic history of the United StatesFederal Reserve NoteHistory of economic thoughtHistory of the United States dollarMonetary policyMoney creationUnited States dollarHyperinflationObsolete United States currency and coinageUnited States coinageCanceled denominations of United States currencyHalf dismeHalf centFugio centLarge centTwo-cent pieceThree-cent nickelThree-cent silverHalf dimeTwenty-cent pieceGold dollarQuarter eagleThree-dollar pieceHalf eagleDouble eagleFractional currencyLarge denominations of currencyfive-hundred-dollar billone-thousand-dollar billfive-thousand-dollar billten-thousand-dollar billone-hundred-thousand-dollar bill