| Slot: |
November 29 1775 |
| Item: |
Continental Currency
$1 November 29, 1775 Colonial Notes |
| Grade: |
PMG AU 55 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
1135282-002
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| Slot: |
May 9 1776 |
| Item: |
Continental Currency
$4 May 9, 1776 Colonial Notes |
| Grade: |
PMG XF 40 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
1051267-002
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Owner Comments
Boarder reads: The United Colonies... The emblem on the front shows a wild boar charging into a spear with the motto: "Aut mors aut vita decora" (Either death or an honorable life).
The nature print on the back is of skeletonized maple fruit and is identical to to the nature print used on earlier Pennsylvania currency. Paper contains blue threads and mica flakes and has two very clear signatures.... At this time the United States was called the United Colonies and Continental Currency was the first currency printed as a united group. Its initial purpose was to help support the united colonial army.
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| Slot: |
July 22 1776 |
| Item: |
Continental Currency
$8 July 22, 1776 Colonial Notes |
| Grade: |
PMG AU 53 |
| Cert #: |
1076062-007
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| Slot: |
November 2 1776 |
| Item: |
Continental Currency
$6 November 2, 1776 Colonial Notes |
| Grade: |
PMG AU 55 |
| Cert #: |
1076098-001
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| Slot: |
September 26 1778 |
| Item: |
Continental Currency
$40 September 26, 1778 Colonial Notes |
| Grade: |
PMG AU 58 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
1078150-001
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Owner Comments
This is the famous "All Seeing Eye" emblem that has been printed on later currency and has become the source of many stories and conspiricy theories. Here is where it first began. It was included in the Unied States Great Seal that was finalized in June of 1782, along with the unfinished pyrimid that is seen on the $50 bill from this series.
* This "All Seeing Eye" emblem made its first appearance on the April 11th Yorktown issue and was heavily targeted for counterfeiting, so owning an original is a true treasure.
Top and bottom border reads: The United States. Right and left border reads: Continental Currency. The denomination apears at right of the numbering space, "Forty Dollars", inset at right border, and in Roman numerals below the emblem.
The emblem on the front shows the rays of an all seeing eye shining down on what appear to be a sacrifical alter with a flame that is surrounded by thirteen stars, below is the motto: "Confederation". The eye is of God, His favor shining down upon us as our combined Colonies (the thirteen stars) gave great sacrifice by the deaths of many men (the sacrificial alter), as we fought for independence and the creation of a united states (Confederation).
This is the most powerful of all emblems ever used on our curency, as it boldly declares the inner belief that our forefathers had in their minds.
The nature print on the back is of carrot leaves. The paper, made at Ivy Mills in Chester County, Pennsylvania, contained blue fibers and mica flakes. Detector bills were printed on blue paper.
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| Slot: |
January 14 1779 |
| Item: |
Continental Currency
$5 January 14, 1779 Colonial Notes |
| Grade: |
PMG AU 55 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
1016855-007
|
Owner Comments
Border reads: The United States of North America.... The emblem on the front shows a bleeding hand in a thorn bush with the motto: SUSTINE VEL ABSTINE. This is the most difficult emblem in the series to understand.
Benjamin Franklin explained the Continental Currency emblems in a letter published under the pseudonym of Clericus in the Pennsylvania Gazette of September 20, 1775. For the five dollar emblem he explained: "we have a thorny bush, which a hand seems attempting to eradicate. The hand appears to bleed, as pricked by spines. The motto is, SUSTINE VEL ABSTINE; which may be rendered, Bear with me, or let me alone; or thus, Either support or leave me. The bush I suppose to mean America, the bleeding hand Britain. Would to God that bleeding were stopt, the wounds of that hand healed, and its future operations directed by wisdom and equity; so shall the hawthorn flourish, and form an hedge around it, annoying with her thorns only its invading enemies." [B. Franklin, Writings, ed. by J.A. Leo Lemay, 1987, pp. 734-738 on p. 735.].
The nature print on the back is of a feverfew leaf. The paper contains blue fibers and mica flakes and is watermarked "UNITED / STATES" on two lines and oriented to be read from the front.
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