662

Lot 662: 2 MD Colonial Currency Sight Drafts

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Lot  662: 2 MD Colonial Currency Sight Drafts
<b>¥ Maryland Currency</b><hr><b>Rare, Uncut Pair of Sight Drafts from Maryland</b>

<b>Rare Uncut Pair of Sight Drafts from Maryland</b>
Uncut Pair of Continental Loan Office Sight Drafts Signed, 'F. Hopkinson' as Treasurer of Loans for the United States, May 11, 1781, (Philadelphia), 8'x 8,' Choice Extremely Fine or better. Exchange draft (Anderson US 95, 4A) in the amount of 18 dollars (90 Louis Tournois), payable with interest to Gerrard Alexander, drawn on the American Commissioner at Paris. Countersigned by Thomas Harwood, Commissioner of the Continental Loan-Office in the State of Maryland. Small endorsement by Alexander on the reverse. Printed in light green and black ink, completed in manuscript. These are the third and fourth of four bills, the first two presumed lost. According to William G. Anderson in THE PRICE OF LIBERTY, 'These bills (US94-US103) were issued in an uncut sheet of four and were redeemable in Paris...If the first bill was lost or captured at sea (ship captains had standing orders to weight bills of exchange and throw them overboard if stopped by a British ship of war), the holder would then send the second bill; if it too was lost, he would send the third, and so on.'

Anderson lists these as Low R-7 (7 to 12 known) and these are the first Continental Loan Office Sight Drafts of this type that weÕve ever offered. Thus, the appearance of this uncut pair is of even greater significance.