US Colonial Currency, Rhode Island: Three Pounds, May 1786 (Fr#RI-301)

[Quant.Geek]

US Colonial Currency, Rhode Island: Three Pounds, May 1786 (Fr#RI-301)

Graded PCGS-65PPQ

With the Articles of Confederation, each state was still somewhat independent with a very weak central government.  States were still issuing there own currencies.  It was not until Shays' Rebellion do we see a need to have a stronger central government and progress towards our Constitution...

[Abhay]

Ram, you do have a lovely collection of these old colonial currency notes.

Here, again an "f" has been used in place of "s" like fhall for shall and paffed for passed. So, it seems that it was done deliberately.

Another interesting feature is the warning note at the reverse bottom - DEATH TO COUNTERFEIT. So, it seems that the problem of counterfeiting must have remained a common threat, looking to the simple printing techniques.


Abhay 

[Quant.Geek]

Yeah, you tend to get used to reading things after a while.  Took so many American history classes where we had to read original documents, we tend to get used to it    It was a common typeset that was used during those times.  Counterfeiting of coins have been going on for a very long time.  Ben Franklin was a huge advocate for paper money but counterfeiting was a huge problem, so he invented several unique methods to prevent this.  He added fibers, leaf prints, designs, etc to make it more difficult to fake the notes...I'll scan my bible pages from King James' second printing of the infamous 1611 bible for more examples....Oh forgot to mention that even though it looks like an 'f', it really isn't as the horizontal strike only has a left piece.  It indicates that the sound is a 'long s' sound in the word.  If I remember correctly, I think it got carried over from Latin, but not sure...

[Quant.Geek]

Here is a bible page from the 1612 edition of the King James Bible.  I actually gifted this particular page to a good friend of mine, so I no longer have this.  But, I do have several other pages from this particular edition of the bible.  This particular page depicts the Crucifixion of Christ as indicated in the Gospel of Matthew.  Notice how the 'long s' is written, especially Christ:

[Abhay]

Ram, Thanks for the explanation.

Sometimes, you learn so much just watching and taking notes of the small things.

Abhay

[cmerc]

Your collection (of coins and bible leaves!) is really awesome!  I saw some of these Colonial currencies in the Smithsonian.  How rare and, dare I ask, expensive are they?

Btw, how many pages of the King James Bible volume do you have?  Curious, because I have heard of some Gutenberg bible pages being sold loose, but not regarding the King James bibles.  Maybe you can post some more pics, even though this is a coin forum...

[cmerc]

P.S.  The highlights at the top of the page is really cool/interesting:
"Judas hangeth himfelfe."  (note the two different 's'-es!)
"Chrift if crucified."

[Quant.Geek]

Your collection (of coins and bible leaves!) is really awesome!  I saw some of these Colonial currencies in the Smithsonian.  How rare and, dare I ask, expensive are they?

Btw, how many pages of the King James Bible volume do you have?  Curious, because I have heard of some Gutenberg bible pages being sold loose, but not regarding the King James bibles.  Maybe you can post some more pics, even though this is a coin forum...

My hobbies are far too many  (and irritates my wife a bit)    I toned down a bit since my childhood days as I no longer collect rocks nor stamps.  As anything else, rarity and condition matters.  Crisp uncirculated notes to XF can go from $200 and upwards.  These notes typically range in the $500 to $600 area.  The Rhode Island notes are somewhat cheaper compared to the other notes and usually you can fetch crisp unc notes for around $200 to $300.  As for the bible pages, I don't have many.  The other pages are from the Acts.  I need to replace the one I gifted.  If you are impressed by the Bible pages, you will be tickled pink by the Palm Leaf Manuscripts that I have (and I have several bundles)

[cmerc]

Truly amazing!  I am sure there is an interesting story behind how you found and acquired this palm manuscript.  What does the text say?  Is it part of either of the Indian epics?  (I know we are going way off topic here...)

[Ukrainii Pyat]

Few people know today, but the issue of currency by the colonial legislatures was one of the causes of the American Revolution.  The British crown was diametrically opposed to local issues of currency as the crown believed that was a privilege only the crown should have had.

And Ben Franklin, I own a couple of notes he printed himself before he brought in David Hall as a partner.  Truly amazing to behold something that he himself touched.

[Quant.Geek]

Truly amazing!  I am sure there is an interesting story behind how you found and acquired this palm manuscript.  What does the text say?  Is it part of either of the Indian epics?  (I know we are going way off topic here...)

Yes, we are going waaay off topic.  I'll post a new thread in the off-topic area about these...


Ram

[FosseWay]

Just to keep this off-topic a bit longer...

There were in the early days of printing two characters for the lower-case s, namely ſ and s. They both represented the same range of sounds as the modern letter s does. Which was used depended on where it was in the word. ſ doesn't generally appear at the end of a word, and double s is generally written ſs, or often with a ligature, ß - which character is still used to write ss in modern German.

As to the origin of the ſ character, I suspect they lie in the manuscript form of the lower case letters as used by monks etc. in the days before printing. There are echoes of the difference in usage with the two forms of the Greek lower case s, σ and ς, where the latter is only used at the end of words. I don't know whether that is just coincidence.

[Ukrainii Pyat]

The long S appears to have disappeared from American documents by the 1830s - the only instance I have seen of one after that was on a death certificate from 1842 in Indiana USA.

[FosseWay]

It survived in handwriting (on the British side of the pond at any rate) a bit later than that. I've seen census returns as late as 1871/1881 with the long s, especially in combination with a normal s to represent ss. This seems to have been the usage that lasted the longest.

[cmerc]

And Ben Franklin, I own a couple of notes he printed himself before he brought in David Hall as a partner.  Truly amazing to behold something that he himself touched.

Please do post pictures.

Just to keep this off-topic a bit longer...

There were in the early days of printing two characters for the lower-case s, namely ſ and s. They both represented the same range of sounds as the modern letter s does. Which was used depended on where it was in the word. ſ doesn't generally appear at the end of a word, and double s is generally written ſs, or often with a ligature, ß - which character is still used to write ss in modern German.

As to the origin of the ſ character, I suspect they lie in the manuscript form of the lower case letters as used by monks etc. in the days before printing. There are echoes of the difference in usage with the two forms of the Greek lower case s, σ and ς, where the latter is only used at the end of words. I don't know whether that is just coincidence.

That's pretty interesting, maybe a linguist among us can help answer...