North Carolina paper currency, value twenty shillings

North Carolina paper currency, value twenty shillings

Paper money--North Carolina--Specimens

Money--North Carolina--Specimens

Engraved twenty-shilling note issued for North Carolina. Printed from engraved copper plate with stuccowork and leafage border on left edge and prancing unicorn in a circle on lower left corner. Printed inscription: “North Carolina/ XXS Twenty Shillings/ Proclamation Mony [sic] according to Act of / Assembly pass’d the 4th of April 1748.” Bill is numbered in upper right corner “1990.” Signed in ink (barely legible) on obverse: “Eleazer Allen” “Saml Swann”/ “E Moseley” and “John Starkey.” Undecipherable ink inscription on reverse. The note is printed on thin laid paper folded in quarters.
Animal: Unicorn
Although the engraving is unsigned, the printer of the 1748-issue bills is probably James Davis (1721-1785), North Carolina’s first printer. Davis arrived from Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1749 to fill the post of public printer, an office created that year by the Assembly to print a revisal of the colony’s laws. He set up his printing shop in New Bern. His first job was printing currency for the province. The revised laws were not printed until 1751.
The bill was issued in a series of 2,000.

Davis, James

Tryon Palace

Davis, James

1748, April 04

Richards, Nancy

Knight, Dean

Permission to use the photograph must be obtained in writing from Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, New Bern, North Carolina. It must be accompanied by the caption” From the collection of Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, New Bern, North Carolina; North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History.”

This is part of 54-piece gift of North Carolina paper currency issued between 1748 and 1771 from the same anonymous donor.

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English

Money

TP.2000.017.004

North Carolina, New Bern

Money

OH: 2 ½” (6.4 cm); OW: 5” (15.7 cm)