Issue of February 17, 1776

The Greysheet Catalog (GSID) of the Issue of February 17, 1776 series of Continental Currency in the U.S. Currency contains 12 distinct entries with CPG® values between $40.00 and $14,000.00.

$4,000,000 in Continental Currency payable in Spanish milled Dollars was authorized on Feb. 17, 1776. Of this sum $1,000,000 was in fractional dollar denominations. The bills of $1 and over are the same style as the previous issue. The fractional bills are smaller in size. Two sets of twelve fractional bills each were printed on a sheet, a set having three bills of each of the four denominations. Each fractional bill differs from the others of the same denomination by having different border cuts and by the use of plate letters. On the face of each fraction denomination directly under the top border and at the corners of the square enclosing the sundial device there are ornaments, which are keyed to the denominations. Franklin’s sundial rebus and the linked Colonies device were subsequently copied in designing the 1776 Continental Currency dollar coinage and the 1787 Fugio copper coinage. Devices and border cuts of the fractional bills were prepared by Elisha Gallaudet, then of New York City before he moved to Freehold, NJ, just before the British occupied New York City. Counterfeit detection sheets of denominations of $1 to $8 are on blue paper. One signer was used on each fractional denomination and two on each integral denomination. Fractional denominations were signed in either brown or red ink. Identification of signers, emblems, mottoes, and nature prints are subsequently included in this section.