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8 Dollars - Massachusetts Bay Replica
| Issuer | State of Massachusetts-Bay |
|---|---|
| Year | 1780 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 95 x 75 mm |
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| Obverse description | Typeset letterpress note on laid paper with a decorative border. The text body states the bearer's entitlement to Eight Spanish milled Dollars, redeemable by 31 December 1785 at five percent annual interest per the Act of 5 May 1780. Two manuscript facsimile signatures appear below the "COPY" notation, with interest tables at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted reverse on aged yellowish paper, with ghost show-through of the obverse letterpress text visible against the light ground, consistent with thin laid paper stock used in colonial-era reproduction notes. |
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| Comments |
Massachusetts-Bay issued this denomination as part of its 1780 series, authorized under an act of the General Court to help fund the Continental war effort — a period when state-issued paper was already badly depreciated against specie. The "8 Dollars" denomination is itself an artifact of the hybrid monetary thinking of the period, with dollar-denominated notes issued alongside pound-shilling instruments by the same authority.
This is a replica. Originals from the 1780 Massachusetts-Bay emissions were printed by Paul Revere, who engraved the plates and supplied the distinctive black-on-laid-paper printing used across the series.