I was not going to post on this thread as I had sold my Colonial & Obsolete Currency Collection (as 1 lot) when my numismatic interest changed from currency to error coins & currency. At the same time I also collected Early American Ephemera related to documents, deeds (oldest is 1738 Mass. Deed), Newspapers, Bank Checks, and so on.
After viewing BisonMatt's post
(below, as I don't know how to post Quotes)
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"I'm a little disappointed in this topic after seeing some of your oldest notes. I was guessing that a lot of you would have colonials but now I'm starting to figure that most collectors have only items of value rather than items with more historical value. For me, I started collecting because of the art(Educationals) and began to be fascinated by some of the history behind US currency and then older items from other countries.
But everyone has their own way to collect!! "
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I decided to reach into my ephemera collection and photo the only remaining piece of Colonial Currency I have kept.
When I sold my currency collection, it included a few dozen Colonial & Continental Currency with a few hundred early State & Broken Bank notes. In this collection was a 1770 Maryland 2/3rds of a Dollar that in my opinion had zero numismatic value, but was a nice find for my ephemera collection as it was full of early American history.
This note was quite tattered when someone backed it with a piece of April 1774 newspaper, then was torn into three pieces. After this piece was torn, someone had sewn it together with period thread. When I looked into why someone would sew this together, a fellow early document collector believed back then when girls learned how to sew, they would practice on torn currency as it was in abundance back then. Can this hypothesis be proven, I'm not sure, but it did make sense to me.
This post is geared for the history buff and not your average currency collector.
The newspaper backing on this note contains a April 7,1774 ad placed by one Thomas Price, offering a 10 Pound Reward for Two runaway servants that escaped the day before, their names are John Fogarthy and Charles Sawyer ~ John was from England with short red hair and didn't wear a wig and Charles was a convict.
Since this is about history from this time period, I thought I would include some photos, and for those that want to pursue this type of collecting, I believe it is cheaper then collecting currency, and you can purchase a genuine 1790's newspaper and pre 1776 property deeds for around $50.00 on average.
The signatures are difficult to view and not sure if they are of interest.
Again, this post is for those that like early history, and not about currency itself, as this thread was intended for.














