1/2 Dollar 'Continental Currency' - United Colonies

The Continental Currency emissions of 1776 were printed by Hall & Sellers — the same Philadelphia firm that printed the Pennsylvania Gazette — using a press design system devised by Benjamin Franklin, who had developed an anti-counterfeiting technique involving nature prints: impressions taken directly from sage leaves or other botanicals pressed into the casting matrix, making the lacy vein patterns nearly impossible to reproduce by hand engraving. Whether that method was applied to this specific denomination within the CC-6 emission is worth checking against the plate records.

The issuing authority styled itself "United Colonies" rather than "United States" — the Declaration of Independence came later that same year, and notes printed before July carried the older designation. Newman's reference distinguishes the emissions carefully; CC-6 places this half dollar firmly in the pre-declaration print run.