Henry,

Jenny's sale of soap I believe you said was 1773.  What other dates do you 
have from Jefferson's Memorandum Book, especially for the 'cash' (?) 
recordings for payments and loans.  I believe (from memory) it was not until 
1794 or so that the United States first minted coins or issued paper 
currency and pre-RW 'paper' currency issued by the colonies was worthless in 
practice.  State/county taxes were first listed in terms of US dollars in 
1796 as I recall, at least in PA where I have ancestral interests.

All of this reminds me of Boyd Crumrine's writings that I summarized about 
ten years ago.  Crumrine had written (during the late 1800's) in the Annals 
of Carnegie Museum, Vol. III, Section VII, pp 208-209, "The Early Currency." 
Possibly this is of some interest to one or two at VA-HIST:

"Per McMaster's History, Vol. I., p 189:  While Congress of the United 
Colonies "issued" paper currency prior to 1776, and throughout the Rev. War 
period, "it had no value in its own coin for it had none" (coinage) --  
until adoption of The Constitution of the United States in 1787.  These 
prior "paper" dollars were "irredeemable according to its own terms."  The 
Confederacy, as well as some of the Colonies and States, did sometimes issue 
notes or bills of credit in "dollars" but these were in terms of the Spanish 
dollar and its equivalents.  Confidence in this prior paper currency 
fluctuated (it depreciated for the most part) to the extent that no new 
issues were made after 1780.  The Congress, in 1780, recognized its dollar 
depreciation and tried to bolster it by offering a new issue to replace the 
old at the rate of 40 for one.  "The old sunk in one day to nothing, and the 
new shared the same fate" per Crumrine."

"Crumrine continues: "the currency of the early days was in Pounds, 
Shillings, and Pence.  Before and during the Articles of Confederation of 
1776, and until the adoption of the Constitution of the United States in 
1787, there was no supreme national authority, and therefore no national 
currency based upon a recognized unit."  In every state there were two units 
of value, the State Pound and the Spanish Milled Dollar.  "Our people having 
been under the English government adopted the English pound, shilling, and 
penney, as the 'name' of its currency..., yet the trade with the Spanish 
colonies in America and the West Indies brought into the country as its only 
coined money the Spanish dollar and its subdivisions.  Thus, the dollar of 
the early day was not the 'Dollar of our Daddies,' but the 'Spanish Milled 
Dollar.' "

"To confuse matters further, the value of the "pound" within the 13 states 
varied.  In PA, MD, DL & NJ  it contained (in silver) 1031-1/4 grains while 
the value varied from 996 grains (NY & NC) to a high of 1547 grains in GA, 
with a value of 1289 grains in VA, MA, RI, CN and NH.  These State pounds, 
and their divisions, _*had no actual existence*_; they were used only for 
keeping financial accounts.  When a debt was to be paid, the debt amount in 
pounds, shillings and pence was converted into dollars (Spanish Milled) and 
its divisions of halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths each of which was 
represented by a Spanish coin (or dollar cutting.)  Due to the difference in 
value of the pound within the various states, to pay off a debt of 7 
shillings and 6 pence in PA you would pay one Spanish Milled Dollar (coin.) 
Conversely, in VA, you paid a "dollar" coin for a debt of only 6 shillings. 
To pursue this with Crumrine, "if 7s, 6d. in PA made one dollar (Spanish) 
then 20 shillings (one PA pound) would be worth $2.66-2/3 (Spanish), a 
little more than 1/2 the English pound sterling.  But if 6s in  VA currency 
made a dollar, then the VA pound was worth $3.33 (Spanish.)"  <--(roughly, 
about 2/3 of an English pound from Veech's approximation.)"

"Crumrine goes on to say the two most common Spanish milled dollar coins (or 
cuttings) were the eighth and sixteenth.  Due to the difference in valuation 
amongst  the states the coins were named differently depending on the state. 
For example, in NY and NC, where 8 shillings = one dollar (Spanish), the 
"eighth" was a "shilling" (12 pence) and went by that name.  But in PA, 
where the "eighth" = 11 pence, this coin was called an "eleven-penney bit" 
or "levy."  Likewise, in NY the Spanish "sixteenth" coin was called a 
"six-pence" where in PA it was a "five-penney bit," or "fip."

I also correct myself here in that debts were usually *not* paid with 
Spanish Milled Dollars, the above explanation was intended to simply show 
how amounts varied amongst the states.  Debt accounts were rather 'paid' by 
barter or by 'adjusting' or 'shifting' financial amounts from one person's 
(or business') account to another which for some was a continuous process --  
a rather complex means of accounting in those days, even moreso for 
inter-state or transatlantic transactions.

Neil McDonald