Colonial Currency

I recently acquired two colonial currency notes. How do you tell if they are authentic? (besides looking for the word "COPY")

 

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The paper will be thick.
Real signatures.
Ect...
Or you an post pictures

 

Where did you acquire them? Auction house, eBay, swap meet, a dusty tin box in a hidden panel inside an old piece of Federalist era furniture?

Rather than pictures from a camera, if you can scan both sides of the notes that would be best for paper money. And until you find out if they are authentic or not, do be careful with handling the notes as oils from your hands can transfer to the paper.

If you want to start doing some research on your own, you can read and compare your notes to the notes on this Colonial Currency web site.

 

Someone gave them to me. I'll post scans tomorrow.

 

How thick? I have a caliper I can measure them with.

 

Thicker than the paper money we now use. Calipers should not really come into contact with the note unless they are clean and only used for such things as paper conservation. If used for anything else, keep them away from the note, or any coins you have (if they are not calipers you already devoted for use with coins).

 

My clean calipers said it was 0.035 inches.

 

Well thanks for the detailed specs, however, we don't really use thickness to gauge authenticity of paper notes, but I'm sure if a true suspected counterfeit were examined by those authorities who care about such things, they may include such dimensions in their investigation into a notes legitimacy. Pics are what we need on the forum to help you out, so we shall wait to see what you have.

 

Scan will be up in 5 mins.

 

Kewl!

 

I'm leaning on reproductions with these notes. The color of the paper could just be from acid that transferred to the paper from improper storage over years, but the paper seems too thin showing, the designs through from the other side in your scans.

I'll have to look through that web site to try to compare to known notes and signatures, but the color of signature also seems same as the ink used on the design elements, and often it was red/brown. I'm away from my books for a few weeks more, but Eric Newman's book is among the best there are four early American currency, and could be used to shed some light on yours. Here is a Wikipedia link to some more info on Colonial notes.

Let's see what some others have to say.

 

They are reproductions. They match the serial numbers on the bogus note list at Crutchfield Currency.

http://www.crutchwilliams.com/BogusCSA_RoTx.html#Colonial__Continental_

 

Thanks!

 

plus didnt they use tree leaves on back to make it harder to make fakes.Ithink i read that some place

 

Depends on the note and series. Not all of them were leaf prints.

 

Ok, thanks for the help everyone.

 

Definitely repros based on the serials as well as the paper. They use the thinner "aged looking" paper in modern facsimilies, especially in gift shops of museums.

 

While matching serial numbers for these were a great help, the real answer to the OP will be knowledge. This entire hobby is built on knowledge, and looking at hundreds or thousands of authentic specimens.

I collect ancient coins, and the first question anyone ever asks me is how do you know they are real. I have literally seen thousands upon thousands of authentic coins. After a while you can quickly tell when something is not right. Many times you don't even know what, but you just know something is wrong. This really cannot be done with photos, which is why many times online good coins are labelled fakes. I bet you even if you couldn't have matched up serial numbers of these notes, if you took them to a knowledgable collector or dealer they would have been able to tell you.

I know everyone wants instant gratification that posting a photo can provide, and bill collectors are lucky that they have serial numbers, but sometimes it still does come down to needing an expert to examine something in hand.

Chris

P.S. Btw I was a US collector in my past colelcting life, and have a number of colonial and continental notes, so I am not just ancient collector crashing your guys' party.

 

Benjamin Franklin himself developed the leaf printing technique, but it was used on notes printed by Franklin, then Franklin and Hall and then Hall and Sellers only. Until the Continental currency printed by Hall and Sellers after 1775, the leaf prints had only been used on currency for Pennsylvania and Delaware:



This should give an idea of what the actual colonial era rag paper looks like. It could be brittle when folded, but in reality it is a cotton fibre based composition that will likely outlast mid 19th century paper by many centuries. Notice also the technique of two print colours, necessitating multiple printing passes from different plates.