Catalog
⅔ Dollar
| Issuer | Convention of Maryland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1776 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | ⅔ Dollar |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note with a decorative typographic border of repeating ornamental units enclosing the central text block. The denomination "TWO THIRDS of a DOLLAR" appears at the head in large display type, followed by the full bearer obligation text in mixed roman and italic letterforms. Two handwritten manuscript signatures appear in red-brown ink in the lower portion of the note, with a manuscript serial number inscribed in the upper right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Protection description | Central oval nature-print impression on the reverse, produced from an actual leaf or plant specimen to deter counterfeiting — a technique employed by colonial American printers of the period. |
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| Comments |
Maryland's 1776 emissions are among the more structurally unusual of the colonial issues — the fractional denomination exists because Maryland pegged its currency to Spanish milled dollars at a rate that made two-thirds a functional unit of account, not an arbitrary fraction. The Convention, rather than the colonial assembly, was issuing this note because Maryland's legislature had effectively been superseded by revolutionary governance; the Convention held executive and legislative authority simultaneously during the transition.
Frederick Green printed from the Annapolis Maryland Gazette office. The nature print border — made from actual leaf impressions pressed into the plate — was a direct counterfeit deterrent, since replicating the precise organic irregularity of a real leaf was beyond most forgers.