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⅙ Dollar 'Continental Currency' - United Colonies
| Issuer | Continental Congress |
|---|---|
| Year | 1776 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | ⅙ Dollar |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| 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 printing |
| Protection description | Leaf nature-print pattern incorporated into the paper or border as an anti-counterfeiting device, a technique developed by Benjamin Franklin. |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The fractional Continental Currency notes of 1776 exist because the Congress needed denominations small enough for everyday transactions — the larger dollar notes were impractical for minor commerce. Hall & Sellers of Philadelphia, who also printed the Pennsylvania Gazette, produced the Continental series using a nature-printing technique pioneered in the colonies by Benjamin Franklin decades earlier: pressing actual leaves against the plate to create an inimitable texture on the reverse that counterfeiters could not easily replicate. It was a genuinely clever anti-forgery measure for the period.
Continental Currency suffered catastrophic depreciation by 1779, giving rise to the expression "not worth a Continental." The fractional denominations became functionally useless fastest, which is partly why surviving circulated examples in any condition are harder to find than the dollar values.