The Continental Dollar: How Much Was Really Issued?

Abstract

for helpful comments. He also thanks Kelly Lynn Perkins, Nathan Richwine, and Zachary Rose for research assistance and Tracy McQueen for editorial assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Common Currency versus Currency Union: The U.S. Continental Dollar and Denominational Structure, 1775-1776

“…When Congress acted on 23 June 1775, it adopted what New York had recommended, namely an independent common paper currency issued by Congress and not a union of individual state paper monies (Grubb 2008(Grubb , 2013JCC, v. 2, pp. 105-6).…”

“…By early 1779, some 200 million Continental dollars in face value had been emitted. If held and treated like bonds, the expected redemption of such a volume of bills was now so far in the future that it reduced the value of Continental dollars by 1778 to being small-valued bills in present value terms (Grubb 2008(Grubb , 2011a(Grubb , 2013. At these low present values, they could be easily used as a medium of exchange, especially in terms of making change.…”

The Continental Dollar: What Happened to It after 1779?

“…Most of this currency swap took place between 1779 and 1781. Adding the $41,510,000 issued for currency exchange to the $199,990,000 net new emissions yields $241,500,000 gross emissions or total printings of Continental Dollars (Grubb, , 2008.…”

The Continental Dollar: How Much Was Really Issued?

“…30,. These amounts included bills sent back to the Treasury as part of the currency exchange of the emissions of May 20, 1777 and April 11, 1778 for the emission of January 14, 1779 (Grubb, 2007).…”

“…26 Hamilton's report appears to deliberately exclude for the most part Continental Dollars remitted as part of the currency swap of the emissions of May 20, 1777 andApril 11, 1778 for the emission of January 14, 1779 (discussed above), see fn. 11 above and Grubb (2007). 27 For example, on March 28, 1780 Congress ordered "That all bills of the said emissions not brought in by or before the said first day of January next [January 1, 1781], be afterwards irredeemable."…”