Early Paper Money of America / New York / 1737 December 10

Early Paper Money of America (NNP Edition)|£48,350 in legal tender Bills of Credit approved on Dec. 16, 1737 and originally good for 12 years. Mortgage loans were to be made with 40,000 of the issue at 5% interest. The redemption date was extended to April 3, 1768. Border cuts on the top and left sides of the Bills were engraved by Charles Le Roux. The cut of the Arms of the City of New York was reused from the prior issue. Pound weights as symbols were keyed to the higher denominations to deter alteration. The denomination was removed from within the Arms to a position below them. The abbreviation of number was changed from NU. to No. On the £5 denomination there is a crude line through only the text in each of the two border designs. On the £10 there is a crude line through the full length of each border design. These were apparently counterfeit or alteration deterrents. Other denominations have no such lines defacing their border designs. Printed by John Peter Zenger with blank backs. Zenger, as a newspaper editor, was jailed for libeling the New York colonial government and became the first defendant in America to be acquitted on the Freedom of the Press doctrine that truth is a defense against libel. He was not granted any further currency printing. Signers were James Alexander, G. Beekman, A. DePeyster, B. Hinchman, Peter Jay, Simon Johnson, P. Lefferts, James Roosevelt, S. Rowe, Peter Schuyler, James Stringham, Cornelius Van de Veer, and Stephen Wood.

5s [10,000] ▷CF◁
10s [7,700]
20s [5,000] ▷CF◁
£2 [4,000] ▷CF◁
£3 [3,000] ▷CF◁  Fine $2,760 Stack’s May, 2004
£5 [2,000]    Fine $2,990 Stack’s May, 2004
£10 [1,000] ▷CF◁  Very Fine $4,887 Stack’s May, 2004