State

Volume XI Number 32 January 3 THE STATE A Weekly Survey of North Carolina Kntertd .1» t'cuml <bhi matter, Juno 1, 1933, at tho Poitoffico at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the Act of March 3, 1879. North Carolina Currency There have been some interesting* develop¬ ments in the coinage of moAey in North Car¬ olina, and Mr. Abernethy takes you baek through some of these stages. IX most respects life is consider¬ ably less complicated than il was a hundred and fifty or two hundred years ago. Great-great-grcat-great- grandfather had no income tax blanks to wrestle with, and the questionnaire was not even an evil name to him. Ration coupons in assorted colors meant nothing in great-great-great- great-grandmother's rather strenuous life, either. In one respect, though, we have the advantage of those several-times-rc- moved grandparents. Today a dollar is a dollar the country over. It may not buy as much as it once did, and we may not have as many of them as we’d like to, but when we do get hold of one of the crisp little green monetary tokens we know exactly what it’s worth. Different in the Old Days It was not thus in great-ctc.-grand- father’s day. When he did manage to corral one of the infrequent hills then in circulation, he never was quite sure just what lie had. About all he could be sure of was that it prolb ably wasn’t worth any¬ where near as much as the amount indicated upon its face, and it might not be worth a penny. At rare intervals he might get hold of a few of the Spanish, English, or French gold and silver pieces then circulating through His Royal By EDGAR ABERNETHY this happened, if he could possibly spare them, lie put them away in tho family sock for hard times. In most cases, though, the money the old gentleman handled was paper money issued by the province, or in later days by the state. In 1729, cur¬ rency was issued in the amount of 40,000 pounds, and in 1735 another issue of 50,000 pounds was put out. From time to lime, other issues were printed : at least five more prior to .1776, when North Carolina was a British colony no longer, hut became a free and independent state. These bills were issued in denomi¬ nations ranging from four pence to five pounds. Some issues were rudely printed; others were handsome ex¬ amples of the engraver’s art. Many Majesty’s Province of North Carolina. When A Spanish Milled Dollar of 1770. The Spanish dollar was the chief coin circulating in North Carolina and the other American colonies. The American dollar was named for it. of thorn bore pictures. And not dull portraits of distinguished and de¬ ceased statesmen, either, hut such charming fancies as butterflies, swans, snails, leopards, helmeted heads, hands brandishing swords, geese swimming, doves bearing olive branches, and similar conceits. These early issues were all known as “Proclamation Money,” and the hills bore that name upon their faces. In common usage this term was usually abbreviated to “Proc.” No matter what these hills were called, or how tastefully ornamented by the engraver's skill, every issue had the same grievous fault : it in¬ variably depreciated rapidly. This was due to the fact that the bills were based upon uothing more sub¬ stantial than tho credit of the province, which in those days was at a very low ebb. In 1739 the paper currency was worth in gold or silver coin only a tenth of its face value. In 1775 the Third Pro¬ vincial Congress, meeting at Hillsboro, authorized issuance of $125,000 in currency, using as a unit the Spanish milled dollar. This was the first currency to he issued by the state as an independent com¬ monwealth, and the dollar unit was chosen both to distinguish from the earlier, much depreciated currency, and because the British terms of “pound’’ and. “shilling’’ wore