84

Colonial Currency, New York March 25, 1755 Ten Pounds Note PMG Very Fine-20

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Colonial Currency, New York March 25, 1755 Ten Pounds Note PMG Very Fine-20
New York Currency
March 25, 1755 New York Ten Pounds PMG Graded VF-20 Notes Issued to Finance the First Expedition to Crown Point
Colony of New York. March 25, 1755. Ten Pounds. Fully Signed and Issued. With New York Arms and Warning: “Tis Death to Counterfeit this Bill”. Signed by (Major-General) Oliver DeLancey, PMG graded Very Fine-20.
Fr. NY-130. A boldly printed 1755 French and Indian War period New York Colonial Currency issued note. Only 2,092 notes were printed in 1755 with all notes on this issue officially scheduled to be redeemed by the Treasury to be destroyed by November of 1761. Only a mere handful or so are currently known to exist. Below the seal is a warning against counterfeiting reading: “Tis Death to Counterfeit this Bill”. This lightly circulated note is of extremely high quality for the issue (appears conservatively graded). As shown, it has bold black sharply printed text and designs. All outer designs and border decorations are visible within its margins. All three signatures are clearly readable and well written in brown ink, including; (Major-General) Oliver DeLancey, Nicholas Gouverneur, and John Livingston. Distinct New York Arms vignette at right. Attesting to its quality, there are no negative comments on the PMG holder. EAHA offered another example in our EAHA Auction of April 19, 2013, Lot 459 graded PMG VF-30 selling for $4,537. The Newman reference shows a note graded AU (raw) selling at a New York Auction in May 2004 for $7,762. Currently, now nearly two decades later, this choice quality note is ranked amongst the very finest PMG Certified on this entire March 25, 1755 issue.


Major-General Oliver De Lancey (September 17, 1718 – October 27, 1785) was a New York Merchant and Loyalist Politician and Soldier during the American Revolutionary War.

The son of Etienne Delancey and Anne Van Cortland, De Lancey was born on September 17, 1718, in New York City, Province of New York. The De Lancey family was of Huguenot descent. From 1754 to 1757, De Lancey served as a New York alderman for the Out Ward and was a member of the New York assembly from New York County from 1756 to 1761.

___

Nicolaas (Nicholas) Gouverneur: Nicholas Gouverneur was a New Netherland Descendant

Born about 19 Apr 1713 in New York City, Province of New York and died in Newark, New Jersey, on 20 October 1786 (in his 74th year, so he was 73 years old).

___

John Livingston (1714–1786) the son of Philip Livingston (1686-1749), second lord of Livingston Manor, and Catharine (Van Brugh) Livingston. He was a prosperous New York merchant who married Catharine, the daughter of Abraham De Peyster. An original Portrait Oil Painting by John Wollaston was a gift to the New-York Historical Society from his great-granddaughter. He is sometimes referred to as “The Loyalist,” remaining loyal to the Crown during the American Revolution. His wife grew up at the De Peyster Mansion.

____

During the French and Indian War, he was selected by the New York Assembly, with the support of his brother James, then acting Governor, to provide provisions for New York provincial units. During the war, De Lancey commanded the New York Provincial Militia, 1755–1763, and commanded a provincial detachment in the Ticonderoga campaign of 1758. In 1766, De Lancey was one of the judges in the Pendergast case, in which the alleged leader of the Dutchess County land rebels was convicted and sentenced to death.

De Lancey was a member of the provincial executive council from 1760 until the American Revolutionary War. In 1768, he allied himself with Isaac Sears and the Sons of Liberty. De Lancey spoke out against the Boston Port Act of 1774 but did not support nonimportation. He was one of the persons responsible for the creation of the Committee of Fifty. In 1773, he was appointed colonel in chief of the Southern Military District.

During the war, De Lancey was a senior officer in the Loyalist irregular military hierarchy. He joined Sir William Howe on Staten Island in 1776, and he and his brother raised and equipped the three battalions of DeLancey's Brigade, consisting of fifteen hundred Loyalist volunteers from the Province of New York. He served as the brigade's commanding officer on Long Island. His property was plundered by Patriots in November 1777 and confiscated in October 1779.

De Lancey left New York for England in 1783 and died on October 27, 1785, in Beverley, Yorkshire. He was buried in Beverley Minster, where his grave and memorial can be visited.

The French and Indian War began in 1754 (instigated by Colonel George Washington) and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.