American $20 bill, issued by the Continental Congress, American War of Independence, 1775–1783
Illustration from a history of England published in 1906. Info from wiki: After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Continental Congress began issuing paper money known as Continental currency, or Continentals. Continental currency was denominated in dollars from $1⁄6 to $80, including many odd denominations in between. During the Revolution, Congress issued $241,552,780 in Continental currency.[46] Continental currency depreciated badly during the war, giving rise to the famous phrase "not worth a continental".[47] A primary problem was that monetary policy was not coordinated between Congress and the states, which continued to issue bills of credit.[48] "Some think that the rebel bills depreciated because people lost confidence in them or because they were not backed by tangible assets," writes financial historian Robert E. Wright. "Not so. There were simply too many of them."[49] Congress and the states lacked the will or the means to retire the bills from circulation through taxation or the sale of bonds.[50] Another problem was that the British successfully waged economic warfare by counterfeiting Continentals on a large scale. Benjamin Franklin later wrote: The artists they employed performed so well that immense quantities of these counterfeits which issued from the British government in New York, were circulated among the inhabitants of all the states, before the fraud was detected. This operated significantly in depreciating the whole mass.[51] By the end of 1778, Continentals retained from 1⁄5 to 1⁄7 of their face value. By 1780, the bills were worth 1⁄40 of their face value. Congress attempted to reform the currency by removing the old bills from circulation and issuing new ones, without success. By May 1781, Continentals had become so worthless that they ceased to circulate as money. Franklin noted that the depreciation of the currency had, in effect, acted as a tax to pay for the war.
Size: 3599px × 2000px
Photo credit: © Historical Images Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: $20, 20, 1775, 1775–1783, american, badly, bill, bills, british, congress, continental, continentals, counterfeited, currency, depreciated, dollars, early, facsimile, gave, illustration, image, independence, issued, large, phrase, rebel, revolutionary, rise, scale, twenty, war, worth, year
