October 16, 1780, Virginia Revolutionary War Colonial Currency Historic "An Act for the more effectual and speedy clothing the Army" Issue, Five Hundred Dollars or One Hundred and Fifty Pounds, PCGS Banknote graded Very Fine-20.
Fr. VA-201. The currency an older General George Washington may have used. Its holder comments, stain, minor edge damage (we agree with the left margin edge central nibbing, yet look closely ... you will not see any stain (the blank reverse is nice and clean). It is well centered with full nice strong brown ink signatures. Printed on very thin rice paper. Serial No. 763. Signed by J. Simmons, J. Hopkins, and B. Webb. Printer uncertain. Uniface, measuring 100mm x 80mm. The important and popular "An Act for the more effectual and speedy clothing the Army." The 5th Edition 2008 Newman reference values a note in Very Fine at $5,000 perhaps as only 1,500 of each denomination was printed and were redeemable into the Treasury by December 30, 1790. A rare high-denomination note on this Virginia issue. Provenance:

Ex F.C.C. Boyd Estate; Stack's sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection,

Part XV, October, 2006, Lot 881.


On October 16, 1780, the Virginia General Assembly passed "An Act for the more effectual and speedy clothing the Army." The act authorized a fund sufficient to buy 1,500 hogsheads of tobacco for the more effectual and speedy clothing of the Army, with tobacco used as the backing commodity since it was Virginia's most reliable store of value amid runaway wartime inflation. In total, £1,125,000 (about $3,750,000) was spent under this Act.

This came at a desperate moment for Virginia's Continental troops when supply shortages had been a chronic problem through 1780, with soldiers repeatedly marched out with inadequate clothing and equipment. The Clothing the Army notes proper are much scarcer than the regular issue. Only 1,500 notes of each of its six denominations were issued, tying directly back to the 1,500 hogsheads of tobacco the Act aimed to purchase.

Because so few of each denomination were printed and the paper itself was thin and fragile, high-grade survivors of this issue are considerably scarcer than collectors often assume condition census pieces command a real premium over the general Oct. 16, 1780 emission notes.
[American Revolution, Revolutionary War, Virginia] [War Finance, Continental Army, Political History] [Currency, Colonial Currency, Numismatics, Exonumia]