US Colonial Currency, New Jersey: Three Shillings, March 25, 1776 (Fr#NJ-177)

[Quant.Geek]

US Colonial Currency, New Jersey: Three Shillings, March 25, 1776 (Fr#NJ-177)

Ben Franklin discovered that the veins of leaves are unique and hence used them as a means to prevent counterfeiting.  Since Franklin was a inventor as well as a great statesmen, he gave away all the secrets to his inventions, except this one.  To this day, scientists do not know how he created copper plates with leaves printed on them.  But they do have some theories.  The problem here is that he would have used plaster to create the leaf imprint, but adding molten copper would have broken the molds.  So, the theory is he must have coated the mold with some type of heat resistant material like asbestos, but they don't know if this is the case or if he used another type of material.  Innovation at its best...

Notice that it was printed by Isaac Collins, the Royal printer in NJ as well as the founder of NJ first newspaper, the New Jersey Gazette.  Franklin originally printed notes for NJ around 1736  onwards and hence Collins used the same design for his notes...

Graded PCGS-64PPQ

Signers: Robert Smith, Jonathan Johnston and John Smyth.

Front: Signed and numbered in brown inks. Printed in red and black on the front with border cuts and the British arms. Small zodiac symbol of Aries the ram to the left of the serial number.

Back: Nature print of a sage leaf on back with an ornamental border design. Paper contains mica flakes and is watermarked: "NEW JERSEY" oriented to be read from the front with the note upside down.