CERTAIN CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING THE COINAGE 

 OF THE COLONY AND THE PUBLIC BILLS OF CREDIT 

 OF THE PROVINCE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 



By Andrew McFakland Davis. 



Presented June 9, 1897. 



The New England shilling was, aceording to the terms of the Act 

 establishing a Mint,* to be of the just alloy of new, sterling, English 

 money, and for value to be twopence in a shilling of lesser value than 

 the corresponding English coin. It was to weigh three penny-weights, 

 Troy weight. Like the guinea, this, shilling is to-day a mere reminis- 

 cence, yet until a very recent period it held its own in many parts of 

 New England, in the price lists of tradesmen, as the sixth of a dollar. 

 Douglass says : t "At the first settling of the New England Colonies, 

 their medium was sterling coin at sterling value, and barter. When 

 they got into trade a heavy piece of eight passed at 5s. A. 1652, they 

 proceeded to coin silver shillings, sixpences, and threepences, at the 

 rate of 6s. to a heavy piece of eight." There is no reference to the 

 value of the piece of eight in the Act establishing a Mint, but it will 

 be seen that the conversion of the New England shilling into sterling 

 would have been on the basis of exchange at 120, whether the rate be 

 estimated from the corresponding values given in the Act in pence, or 

 from those given by Douglass in pieces of eight. Douglass, however, 

 states elsewhere, $ that the actual value of the piece of eight was only 

 4s. Gd. If this was so, then the New England shilling was from the 

 outset worth only ninepence and the normal rate for the conversion of 

 New England currency to sterling was 133. These are the rates that 

 prevailed during the period of the Province, and the only question is 

 whether the shilling ever did have the value of tenpence according to 



* Mass. Col. Rec, Vol. Ill pp. 261, 262. 



t A Discourse concerning tlie Currencies, etc., p. 10. In addition to the above 

 coins, silver tvvopences were autliorized in 1662. Mass. Col. Rec, Vol. IV. p. 51 

 j: A Discourse, etc., p. 8. 



