Last Saturday in Verona, at Veronafil, the biggest numismatic fair in Italy, I purchased my first Colonial currency....2 shillings from Pennsylvania, dated October 1st, 1773 (Pick S2540b). Printed by Hall & Sellers on paper containing mica flakes and blue fibers, is signed by Benjamin Marshall, Thomas Leech and Joseph Pemberton. A cast cut of a farming scene is on the back. I know that it's in a low grade, and probably one of the most common...but is my first, and I'm happy :smile I appreciate your opinion about grade and right price. petronius
For you to find one of those in Italy I think is pretty neat. Something looks off on the signatures and the serial number though almost as if someone went over them with a pen to make them darker. Besides the fact that I have never seen any signatures that dark, you can see where part of them are light and the other part is real dark. The ink used to sign these was often diluted or made from acidic berries and tends to be very light to dark brown, never black.
It is a nice note, the most affordable way of owning a non-French Revolution 18th century paper money. I have collected colonial paper since I was a kid - now I am into the really rare stuff, printers, autographs or municipal issuers primarily. So I am going to counter a bit on the above assertion regardings the colour of the ink. I own well circulated notes that have good dark India ink still, and I see them from time to time. What likely happened with the inks that faded or are not as dark is that they were diluted with water to stretch them out - ink was NOT cheap, nor was paper for that matter. So I have to theorise that perhaps the ink on this note was from undiluted ink - like it was supposed to be without water added to get a bit more writing out of it. I do calligraphy from time to time, and have done the same thing not so much to stretch the ink out - but rather to fade the colours for backgrounds. That said, if indeed as the prior poster believes, the signatures and SN were traced over at a later time there would definitely be tell tale ink bleeds - it is not easy to trace using a fountain type pen - and not get bleeds, don't believe me try it. The ink flows naturally as it was originally applied - quickly and without undo hesitation. Here is one of mine from the same issue:
And here is one where someone left the pen nib on the note a bit long - see that big ink bleed in the centre of the note by Samuel Miles signature.
I sent in several Colonial notes to PMG less than a month ago and got the results yesterday. The Connecticut note turned out to be a contemporary counterfeit, though they graded it MS63; the New Jersey note graded MS64 and the New York note graded AU58 PPQ. Not too shabby a result for a novice.
Looks strongly authentic to me. Nice pickup of a circulated but still nice note - be honest, if it looked too uncirculated, it loses character for a note from 1776... Myself, I am trying to get all 13 colonies from 1776 as well as a 1776 Continentla. Seven down, six colonies to go...
