United States · Colonial paper · Pennsylvania Assembly
2 shillings and 6 pence note, 1773
2 shillings and 6 pence · Pennsylvania · 1 October 1773
Half-crown bill of credit, Fr. PA-165, serial 21251. Black face with a red right border; Hall and Sellers cast-cut farm reverse. Printed date: 1 October 1773.
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- Fr. PA-165
- Serial number
- No. 21251
- Signatures
- Benjamin Morgan; Barnaby Barnes; Samuel Fisher junr (manuscript, in dark ink)
- Condition
- Circulated, unslabbed (private collection)
- Printage
- Hall and Sellers, Philadelphia, 1773. Newman describes paper with mica flakes and blue fibers. The act of 1 February 1773 authorized £150,000 to revive the Loan Office; this record does not invent a printage for the 2s6d or for serial 21251. The 28,318 the portal places beside this denomination is a plate reference, not a census.
Face
Back
The note
The Pennsylvania 2 shillings and 6 pence of 1 October 1773 (Friedberg PA-165) is a General Assembly bill of credit, equal to a half-crown: half of the five-shilling crown of this same issue. The face, black with a red right border, heads Twoshillings and Six-pence and cites an act passed in the 13th year of the reign of George III, dated the First Day of October, 1773. The long s in First is often read as Fifth: the printed date is the 1st, not 5 October. PENNSYLVANIA runs at the top and bottom. HALF A CROWN stands at left; Two Shillings & Six-pence, in red, at right. The ornamental No. field reads 21251. The three manuscript signatures, in dark ink, read Benjamin Morgan, Barnaby Barnes, and Samuel Fisher junr — all three appear on Newman’s signer list for this date. The back shows a cast-cut farm scene — Newman’s term; it is not a leaf nature print — with To Counterfeit is Death and Printed by HALL and SELLERS, plus Two Shillings & Six-pence. It is not the 5 shillings of the same date (Fr. PA-166, serial 9733 in this case), nor the Continental $5 CC-91 of 1779, nor a New Jersey bill of 1776. The collection note, circulated and unslabbed, is shown on a neutral ground.
The 1773 Loan Office
On 1 February 1773 the Pennsylvania Assembly authorized £150,000 in bills of credit to revive the Loan Office. Newman dates the printed issue to 1 October 1773 — Friedberg PA-163 through PA-170 — and places the shop with Hall and Sellers, Philadelphia. The paper carries mica and blue fibers. Three signers authorized each note; Newman notes that one usually signed in red. On this 2s6d the three signatures read in dark ink. Newman does not publish a printage by denomination; the portal’s 28,318 beside the 2s6d is a plate reference, not a census.
On the four highest denominations the face combines red and black; on this 2s6d the red sits in the right border. The back carries the cast-cut farm scene, not the leaf nature print Hall and Sellers later used on the Continentals. This record describes the physical object; it does not assert a plate state or a grading census for serial 21251.
Scarcity and printage
Friedberg numbers the 2s6d of 1 October 1773 as PA-165. Newman’s portal extract does not publish a printage by denomination: the £150,000 figure is the authorization for the whole act, not for this type. This record does not invent a census or an auction rarity for the type or for serial 21251.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for serial 21251 has not been independently verified. The note is shown unslabbed, with no certificate number.
Sources
- Newman Numismatic Portal — Early Paper Money of America / Pennsylvania / 1773 October 1 (opens in a new tab)
Act of 1 February 1773, £150,000; Hall and Sellers; cast-cut farm scene; signer list including Benjamin Morgan, Barnaby Barnes, and Samuel Fisher. The 28,318 beside the 2s6d is a plate reference, not a printage.
- University of Notre Dame — Pennsylvania, 1 October 1773 (opens in a new tab)
Text of the provincial issue of that date, in the same series this case uses for the 5 shillings PA-166 and the Continental of 14 January 1779.
- Greysheet — Oct 1, 1773 2s6d Pennsylvania (Fr. PA165) (opens in a new tab)
Confirms Friedberg PA-165 for this denomination and date. Price columns are not republished.
- U.S. Currency Education Program — History of U.S. Currency (opens in a new tab)
Context for colonial paper before the Continentals of 1775.
- Gemini — research note on the Pennsylvania 2s6d, 1773 (opens in a new tab)
Research conversation for this piece. It does not replace Newman or Friedberg; prices and census figures are not taken from it. The portal’s 28,318 is treated as a plate reference, not a printage.
Related pieces
Other records from the same issuer or era in this case.
