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4 Dollars 'Continental Currency' - United Colonies
| Issuer | Continental Congress |
|---|---|
| Year | 1775-1776 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 4 Dollars |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note with a dense ornamental border of repeating typographic units enclosing the entire field. The upper portion carries the issuer title in bold display type, while the left side bears the authorizing text in italic script, pledging redemption in Spanish milled dollars per the Congressional resolution of November 29, 1775. To the right, a circular nature-print vignette occupies the centre-right field, with the denomination repeated in the lower right corner; two manuscript signatures in iron-gall ink appear below the text block. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE UNITED COLONIES FOUR DOLLARS FOUR DOLLARS THIS Bill entitles the Bearer to receive Four Spanish Milled Dol- lars, or the Value there- of, in Gold or Silver, ac- cording to a Resolution of CONGRESS, passed in Philadelphia Novem- ber 29, 1775. CONTINENTAL CURRENCY FOUR DOLLARS |
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| Comments |
Hall & Sellers printed the Continental Currency series using a nature-print technique developed — and enthusiastically promoted — by Benjamin Franklin decades earlier: actual leaves were pressed directly into the printing matrix, producing vein patterns impossible to replicate by hand engraving. The method was explicitly anti-counterfeiting technology, and Franklin considered it one of his more practical contributions to colonial commerce.
The "United Colonies" designation places this note before July 1776. Congress shifted the wording to "United States" following the Declaration of Independence, making that single phrase a reliable dating shortcut for the entire series.