20 Shillings, Massachusetts, 1690
date: label: date made
content: 1690-02-03
name: label: issuing authority
content: Massachusetts Bay Colony
notes: label: Description
content: Called upon by the British government to help fight the French in Canada in 1689, Massachusetts authorities were hard-put to comply, because official money was unavailable. The Hull/Sanderson mint, which had created Pine Tree Shillings and other coins, had been closed on Crown orders years before, and all coinage was now in extremely short supply.
label: Description
content: Then someone had an idea: Why not issue paper certificates to pay for the supplies and troops that Massachusetts was expected to contribute? The Crown had promised to reimburse the colony, in coinage, at war's end. The experiment was tried, and it worked. The first government-issued paper money in the entire Western world had made its appearance unexpectedly in Massachusetts.
label: Description
content: Since these notes could eventually be redeemed for coinage - were in fact as good as gold or silver - another unknown functionary had an epochal idea: why not leave them in circulation? After all, everyone accepted their status as "real" money, and the need for them was great. So it was done. Colonial authorities elsewhere watched, and when the Crown did not stop the experiment in the Bay Colony, other colonies decided to begin issuing paper currency of their own.
label: Description
content: Paper's popularity spread, and colonial America became dependent upon it. But paper was vulnerable to counterfeiting, or, in this case, to tampering. No twenty-shilling notes were actually issued by Massachusetts in 1690. Yet someone skilled with a pen thought there ought to be one, and proceeded to create it, altering the original denomination of two shillings sixpence.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
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content: Coins
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content: Numismatics
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content: Coins, Currency and Medals
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content: Legendary Coins
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Zoomable Image and Details
label: Related Publication
content: Feingold, Ellen R.. Value of Money, The
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Leonard H. Finn
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: NU.71.133.1
label: serial number
content: 419
label: accession number
content: 297196
label: catalog number
content: 71.133.1
objectType: label: Object Name
content: note
label: Object Type
content: paper money
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14.3 cm x 10.5 cm x .01 cm; 5 5/8 in x 4 1/8 in x in