Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
8 Dollars Colony of Maryland
| Issuer | Colony of Maryland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1774 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 123 × 65 mm |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Nature print |
| Protection description | Nature-printed leaf vignette on reverse, produced by direct impression of an actual plant leaf onto the printing plate, creating an intricate pattern impossible to reproduce by conventional engraving — a method devised by Benjamin Franklin to deter counterfeiting. |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Anne Catharine Green was one of the few women operating a colonial press at this level — she had taken over the Maryland Gazette and the province's official printing contracts after her husband Jonas Green died in 1767, and the Annapolis operation she ran with her son Frederick held the Maryland Assembly's business through the Revolutionary period. Their imprint on colonial currency is rare for its clarity of attribution.
The nature print border — made by inking an actual leaf or plant material and pressing it directly onto the plate — was Benjamin Franklin's anti-counterfeiting innovation, adopted across several colonial emissions precisely because no hand engraver could replicate the cellular structure of a real leaf.