9 6 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



[vol. 50 



of the two latter coins being 12*/, and 6% cents respectively. It 

 will be necessary further on to make frequent reference to the 

 English and Spanish systems, because it was in connection with the 

 coins of those two systems and with colonial bills of credit that 

 there arose the now obsolescent terms which are about to be discussed. 

 Those terms are the shilling, penny, levy, fip, bit, and picayune. 



The monetary conditions which prevailed in the colonies and 

 continued until after the War of the Revolution were extremely 



W&e VoCsefsor ^MBih/ia^ 



&£\WLem^&? 'floney./tyt/ie rc/ayi 

 or 7-cceiyef//o/^ tAc cpSr*/?*^ 



?7?r?2Aj^vy orc/er oftfie yc?ic? ~ru 



50/ 



'/im 



36V 



Fig. 24. — Massachusetts bill of credit for 36 shillings. 



complicated and of uncertain availability for their trade require- 

 ments. Although the colonies had fully adopted the English mone- 

 tary system, comparatively little English money seems to have 

 found its way into their channels of trade. Each colony then 

 claimed, and a part of them somewhat freely exercised, the right to 

 coin money, and the few of those old colonial coins that have been 

 saved from destruction are among the treasures of numismatists. 

 All of the colonies also claimed, and most, if not all, exercised, the 

 right to issue bills of credit. This right continued to be claimed 



