Virginia pound

This article is about the colonial currency. For the actress Virginia Pound, see Adrian Booth.

A £3 Colonial banknote from the Colony of Virginia. Signed by Peyton Randolph and John Blair, Jr..

The pound was the currency of Virginia until 1793. Initially, the British pound sterling circulated along with foreign currencies, supplemented from 1755 by local paper money.^[1] Although these notes were denominated in pounds, shillings and pence, they were worth less than sterling, usually discounted so 1 Virginia shilling = 9 British pence, while 1 British shilling was equal to 12 pence in British pounds, shillings and pence (£sd) duodecimal coinage(12d(pence)= 1s(shilling),20s = £1 (pound), 21s = 1 guinea), in use in the UK until the adoption of decimal coinage in 1971.

In 1645 the legislature of the Colony of Virginia prohibited barter, and valued the Spanish dollar or piece of eight at 6 shillings. The 1655 legislature officially devalued the Spanish dollar to 5 shillings.

The first "official" coinage in British North America was issued by the Province of Virginia in 1775, although they were dated 1773. The reason was that the Virginia House of Burgesses had been requesting the coinage for several years and King George III finally consented in that year.

Five tons of coins were sent to the colony on the clipper ship Virginia and most of the coins were distributed just before the breakout of the American Revolution in April 1775. They are considered to be the most affordable Colonial American coinage.

The State of Virginia issued Continental currency denominated in £sd and Spanish dollars, with 1 dollar = 6 shillings. The continental currency was replaced by the U.S. dollar at a rate of 1000 continental dollars = 1 U.S. dollar.

References

Notes

↑ Newman, 2008, p. 437.

Bibliography

Newman, Eric P. The Early Paper Money of America. 5th edition. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2008. ISBN 0-89689-326-X.

Currencies named pound or similar

Current	Pound sterling: (Alderney pound • Falkland Islands pound • Gibraltar pound • Guernsey pound • Jersey pound • Manx pound • Saint Helena pound) Egyptian pound Lebanese pound South Sudanese pound Sudanese pound Syrian pound Turkish lira

Local alternative currency	Bristol Pound Brixton Pound Lewes Pound Stroud Pound Totnes Pound

Defunct	Anglo-Saxon pound Australian pound Bahamian pound Bermudian pound Biafran pound British West African pound Canadian pound Connecticut pound Cypriot pound Delaware pound Fijian pound French livre French colonial livre Gambian pound Georgia pound Ghanaian pound Haitian livre Irish pound Israeli pound Italian lira Jamaican pound Japanese government-issued Oceanian Pound Libyan pound Livre tournois Lombardo-Venetian pound Luccan pound Malawian pound Maltese pound Maltese lira Maryland pound Massachusetts pound New Brunswick pound New France livre New Guinean pound New Hampshire pound New Jersey pound New York pound New Zealand pound Newfoundland pound Nigerian pound North Carolina pound Nova Scotian pound Oceanian pound Ottoman lira Palestine pound Papal lira Paris livre Parman lira Pennsylvania pound Pound Scots Prince Edward Island pound Rhode Island pound Rhodesian pound Rhodesia and Nyasaland pound Sammarinese lira Sardinian lira Solomon Islands pound South Carolina pound Southern Rhodesian pound South African pound South African Republic pound South West African pound Tongan pound Tuscan pound Vatican lira Virginia pound West Indian pound Western Samoan pound Zambian pound

See also	Dinar Pound sign Troy pound

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Virginia pound

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading