Old Money   

The Hammond-Harwood House is pleased to share the news of our latest accession to the collection: an eight dollar bill printed on August 14, 1776, by a member of Maryland’s distinguished family of printers, Frederick Green. The bill is signed by St. George Peale (1745-1778), brother of colonial era painter Charles Willson Peale, and Nicholas Harwood, (1744-1810), son of Captain Richard Harwood and Ann Watkins Harwood.

Today we take our money exchange for granted. But, the American colonies were chronically short of money, which made trade transactions problematic. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, exchanges were made using native wampum, tobacco, and tobacco notes. In 1733 the Colony of Maryland began to issue paper currency in shillings and that was backed by tobacco and securities by the Bank of England. This is not unlike today’s money being backed by the Federal government.

In 1766 the Assembly of the British Colony of Maryland authorized a new unit of monetary exchange and in 1767 began issuing currency called dollars, instead of shillings. They were initially printed by Jonas Green with engravings by Annapolis silversmith Thomas Sparrow. Each note has its equivalent value in sterling units, for example: $1/9th equaled 6 pence. Our eight dollar bill states on the back that it is “Equal to Thirty-six shillings sterling.” When Green died, his wife, Catharine Hoof Green and her three sons took over the printing business and continued as Maryland’s official printers.

Our eight dollar bill is a bit worn due to its use and age, but the print is visible and it’s fun to see the signatures of the men associated with the Hammond-Harwood House and the city of Annapolis. Unfortunately, after the American Revolutionary War, this bill and all others like it lost their value on the market, but it certainly has merit as a visual artifact of our history.

Source: https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/mdoc

Lucinda Dukes Edinberg, Curator