Historians who are also mathematicians: I have been studying the Public Service Claims of Loudoun County, VA and found the following: “Jacob Yandes for 28 day hire of a wagon & team under command of the Marquiss de La Fayette £16-6; for 1 waggon & team of 4 horses into the Contl. service for £30,000 as pr. cert Major Langborn DQM which by the table of depreciation is £200 also for expenses of his wagon returning from Richmond £220-12.” Virginia Publick Claims: Loudoun County. Janice L. Abercrombie. Iberian Pub. Co., Athens, GA n.d. I have looked at these Public Claims lists for several counties and have never seen the equivalency spelled out as was done in this instance. Have any of you? What was the equivalency? Along the same lines, in-as-much as it relates to depreciated currency, I found a petition to the new state of Kentucky by Henry Banks in which he pleaded, “. . . it became absolutely necessary for him either to appropriate a large capital in the purchase of Land Warrants, otherwise a large sum would perish in his hands, being paper money.” [underlining mine]. Upon further investigation, I found Henry Banks was a merchant in Richmond, VA. Maybe he had something to do with the banking industry, too? I know Henry Banks had invested in over 150,000 acres of land in SW Virginia and obviously he had also speculated--or was planning to--in KY land. I either read, or assumed, that he had received this paper money by purchasers of his merchandise and perhaps a large portion of it came from soldier’s pay? Maybe some of the people who had their property impressed had been reimbursed with paper money and were also using it to buy from his shelves? I THINK it was the law that people had to accept paper money as pay, but many were reluctant to do so because it was depreciating so fast. It occurs to me that quite a lot of Kentucky land may have been taken up with this sort of “funny” money. I would like to know more about the depreciation of the money during this period, and it’s effects. Does anyone know of a thesis or book that has been written about this? Netti Schreiner-Yantis ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html