PA. April 29, 1780 20s ISLAND MONEY Issue Rarity

Pennsylvania Currency
Payable in "Silver Dollars" Rare April 29, 1780 "Island Money" Pennsylvania 20 Shillings the Finest PCGS Certified
Pennsylvania, April 29, 1780, Twenty Shillings or One Pound, "Island Money" Issue, Text reads: Payable in "Silver Dollars" Bearing 5% Interest Payable, Printed by John Dunlap, PCGS graded Extremely Fine-40.
Fr. PA-228. To our best knowledge this is the finest single example on the entire April 29, 1780 Issue. A very exciting major rarity on this 1780 Revolutionary War Pennsylvania issue. It is well printed having full clear red and brown penned signatures by Daniel Wister and John Miller, with a solid and pleasing appearance. The notes were issued to purchase provisions for the Army and were secured by Land. All were to be returned and redeemed in to the Treasury as "invalid" by January 1, 1793. This superior quality vibrant "Island Money" One Pound note typeset text states its interest is payable in "Silver Dollars." This note is at least the equal (if not better) in quality to the 5th Edition Newman plate note for this issue illustrated on page 358, notes on this issue valued at $3,500 in Very Good and $4,500 in Fine with no values in higher quality listed due to extreme rarity. This current note appears vastly superior to the Ford/Boyd note sold in the Stack's Ford/Boyd Collection Sale, Part XV, October 4, 2006, lot 8629, graded raw Very Good selling then for $3,450. This current note is visibly clean and crisp having the specially watermarked "PENNSL/VANIA" period rag paper. This example with a wide sheet margin at its bottom edge. Its holder states apparent stains; minor mounting remnants on back. The stains are indeed minor at the far upper right corner, more noticeable on the reverse than on its face. No prior mounting is seen. A important rarity with mention of "Silver Dollars". Also, an important "Top Pop" and "Finest PCGS Certified" Colonial Currency Rarity lacking in virtually all collections. Pedigree Ex: Eric P Newman Collection.
John Dunlap (1747 " 27 November 1812). Printer. During the American Revolutionary War, Dunlap became an officer in the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, and saw action with George Washington at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He continued in the First City Troop after the war, rising to the rank of major, and leading Pennsylvania's cavalry militia to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
In 1776, Dunlap secured a lucrative printing contract for the Continental Congress. In July 1776, fighting between the American colonists and the British forces had been going on for over a year.
On 2 July, the Second Continental Congress voted on the Lee Resolution to secede. Two days later, they approved the final wording of a public declaration regarding their decision, which we today call the Declaration of Independence. President of Congress John Hancock signed the fair copy with Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson attesting it. That evening Hancock ordered Dunlap to print Broadside copies of the declaration. Dunlap printed perhaps 200 Broadsides, since known as the Dunlap broadsides, which were the first published versions of the Declaration of Independence.
Dunlap also printed items for Pennsylvania's revolutionary government. In 1777 he took over the printing of the Journals of the Continental Congress from Robert Aitken, but lost the contract in 1779 after printing in his newspaper a letter from Thomas Paine that leaked news of the secret French aid to the Americans.
In 1784, Dunlap's paper became a daily with a new title: the North American and United States Gazette. It was not the first daily in the United States"the Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first in 1783"but it became the first successful daily. Within the same year that Dunlap began printing his daily, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Continuing to serve the changing needs of the government, Dunlap and his partner David Claypoole printed the Constitution of the United States 19 September 1787 for use by the Constitutional Convention, and later published it for the first time in The Pennsylvania Packet.
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