Minutes of Court of Yohooania County. 209 



But each state in the thirteen composing the confederacy had its 

 own pound. In Georgia, the pound in silver contained 1547 grains; 

 in Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New 

 Hampshire, 1289 grains; in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and 

 Maryland, 1031/4^ grains, while in New York and North Carolina it 

 reached the minimum of 996 grains. These State pounds, and their 

 divisions into shillings and pence, had no actual existence ; they were 

 used only in keeping accounts, but when debts were to be paid and 

 received they were turned into dollars and their divisions, halves, 

 quarters, eighths, and sixteenths, each represented by a silver coin. 

 Thus it was that in New England and Virginia, six shillings, or 

 seventy-two pence, made a dollar ; in New York and North Carolina 

 eight shillings, or ninety-six pence ; in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Delaware and Maryland, seven shillings and six pence, or ninety 

 pence, and in South Carolina and Georgia four shillings and eight 

 pence, or fifty-six pence. And hence, though accounts were kept in 

 pounds, shillings, and pence in all the states, yet to pay or receive a 

 debt in the coin dollars in circulation, eight shillings were required in 

 New York, for instance, six shillings in Virginia and seven shillings 

 and six pence in Pennsylvania. See McMaster's "History of the 

 People of the U. S.," Vol. I., p. 23. 



Observe : If 7s. 6d. in Pennsylvania currency made one dollar 

 (Spanish) then 20 shillings (or one pound) would be worth $2.6673, 

 a little more than one half the English pound sterling. And if six 

 shillings in Virginia currency made a dollar, then the Virginia pound 

 was worth $3.33. 



" Fifty years ago the silver pieces which passed from hand to hand 

 under the name of small change was largely made up of foreign coins. 

 They had been in circulation long before the War for Independence, 

 had seen much service and were none the better for the wear and tear 

 they had sustained. The two commonest were the eighth and the six- 

 teenth of the Spanish milled dollar, and these, taking the country 

 through, passed under seven names. In New York and North Caro- 

 lina, where eight shillings made a dollar, the eighth was a shilling 

 (twelve pence), and went by that name. From New Jersey to Mary- 

 land (including Pennsylvania) the same coin was nearly equaled by 

 eleven pence, and was there called the eleven -penny bit, or the levy, 

 but became for a like reason nine pence in New England. In the 

 same way the sixteenth of a dollar was called six-pence in New York; 



