STATE OF DELAWARE 393 



wholly worthless, and will be preserved merely as a 

 curiosity of sad memory. Whoever cares to make a 

 collection of this diverse and multiplied money will 

 however get great entertainment from the proverbs and 

 emblematic pictures, and will observe, among other 

 things, how Father Priscian + has been given a rude 

 cuff on the ear. For example, on an 80 dollar note of 

 the year 1779, there stands a tree, between the heav- 

 ens and the waters, with the legend : Et in ssecula 

 sseculorum florescebit. The printing of the paper-money 

 was always done with great circumspection ; the paper 

 was specially prepared and delineated ; sworn persons 

 were present who carefully counted off the sheets, and 

 others signed each note with their names ; and the 

 blocks and letters used were destroyed after every edi- 

 tion. Nevertheless there was a deal of counterfeiting. 

 After the decay of the Congress-money, here in Pen- 

 sylvania and in a few other provinces the State-money 

 and ' Loan-certificates ' kept a certain value. The first 

 is a sort of paper-money, which in Pensylvania was 

 issued in dollars by authority of an Act of Assembly ; 

 and the second, states' bonds for money borrowed of 

 the public, for deliveries made, and other services ren- 

 dered : both are at this time received at the public 

 treasuries in the payment of taxes, but reckoned at 

 half value, the other half to be paid in hard money ; 

 but the certificates are not valid in the payment of civil 

 and military officers, of soldiers, or of sailors. But in 

 the common trade and negotiations neither passes ; and 

 further, there are certain taxes which must be paid in 

 gold or silver, as the lamp, night-watch, street, and 

 poor-tax, as also (according to the phrase of a decree 

 in German) die Fines, wenn einer nicht Exerciren 



