NOTE ON CURRENCY

British money in the 1770s was given in pounds (£), shillings (s), and pence (d).

A price of 5 shillings and 3 pence might be written as 5/3 or as 5s3d. Five shillings was written 5/. This book uses both the “5/” and “5s” notation styles.

British money was a non-decimal currency. 12 pence = 1 shilling and 20 shillings = 1 pound.

Colonies issued their own currencies, which traded, sometimes at significant discounts, against one another and the pound sterling. In 1774 five shillings in Massachusetts money was worth 3/8 in sterling and £1/6/10 in South Carolina currency. Sources are not always clear about which currency was being used. Currencies are clarified in this book where possible.

Spanish silver dollars were a common method of payment. These traded against pounds sterling. In 1776, Congress and some states issued paper dollars which were supposed to be exchangeable at par with silver dollars. That year, dollar-denominated price controls appeared. This paper currency depreciated in 1777 and onward as Revolutionary authorities printed money. The level of depreciation in 1776 remains unclear.²