Early Paper Money of America / New York / 1771 February 16

Early Paper Money of America (NNP Edition)|

£120,000 in Bills of Credit receivable for taxes pursuant to an Act originally passed in 1769, reenacted on Jan. 5, 1770, revoked by the Crown on Feb. 14, 1770 and reenacted Feb. 16,1771. Decorative top border, left border, and Arms of New York City cut by Elisha Gallaudet who also made the cuts for the New York City Water Works notes, the Feb. 17, 1776 Continental Currency fractional issue, and the dies for the 1776 Continental Currency coinage. The left borders read upward except for the £10, which reads downward to deter alteration. Printed by Hugh Gaine on thin laid paper. Due to extensive counterfeiting followed by a suggestion in a newspaper, separate backs showing three counterfeiters on the gallows were authorized in March 1773 to be pasted on all genuine bills in circulation, but this was never done. Signers were Theophylact Bache, Walter Franklin, Henry Holland, A. Lott, and Samuel Verplanck. Facsimiles were published in 1856 and 1859.

5s [8,000] ▷CF◁
10s [8,000] ▷CF◁
£1 [6,000] ▷CF◁
£2 Four variations [5,000]
(a) Comma after February. Stars on bottom border have 12 points.
(b) No comma after February. Stars on bottom border have 12 points.
(c) Stars on bottom border have 12 points except 7th from right.
(d) Stars on bottom border have 8 points.
£3 [6,000] ▷CF◁
£5 [6,000] ▷CF◁
£10 [6,000] ▷CF◁

See also Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1859 (David T. Valentine), discussed in "A Newly-Described Printing of Charles Ira Bushnell's Early New York Tokens" (The Asylum, vol. 37, no. 4, Winter 2019), by Joel J. Orosz.