Massachusetts pound

An 8d note in Massachusetts state currency, issued in 1778. These "codfish" bills, so-called because of the cod in the border design, were engraved and printed by Paul Revere.[1]

The pound was the currency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its colonial predecessors until 1793. The Massachusetts pound used the £sd currency system of 1 pound divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Initially, sterling coin and foreign currencies circulated in Massachusetts, supplemented by pine tree shillings produced by John Hull between 1652 and 1682 and by local paper money as of 1690.

The paper money issued in colonial Massachusetts was denominated in £sd, although it was worth less than sterling. Initially, six shillings were equal to one Spanish dollar. After years of high inflation, in 1749 Massachusetts withdrew its paper money from circulation and returned to specie.

Massachusetts resumed issuing paper money after the American Revolutionary War began in 1775. The state currency depreciated greatly and was replaced by the U.S. dollar in 1793.

  1. ^ Newman, The Early Paper Money of the America, 185–86.