I have been collecting obsolete currency, including Continental Currency, for a while. I have a number of the references. So I was surprised to read in the article “ The Continental Congress – a body of delegates representing the thirteen colonies – began issuing paper money, which included the $1,000 bill, to help finance the revolutionary War,…” Really, news to me.

Eyeballing the Friedbergs’ Paper Money of the United States and Newman’s The Early Paper Money of America doesn’t reveal any $1,000 bills issued by the Continental Congress. In fact the highest denomination I find is $80 authorized January 14, 1779. Perhaps the author was referring to what we call today checks or drafts rather than actual bills or notes? Perhaps he was referring to some colonies that did issue notes greater than $100, including Virginia, which issued notes for $1,000, $1,200, $1,500, and $2,000. Am I missing something??

Under the "history" subtitle is pictured a colonial $1000 bill described as issued by the Continental Congress to finance the Revolutionary War. But the bill pictured is not Continental Currency, whose largest bill was $80. The 1781 $1000 bill pictured is clearly from the Assembly of the state (Commonwealth) of Virginia, as shown in the bottom border that reads VIRGINIA CURRENCY. Two months later Virginia also issued bills for $1200, $1500, and $2000.

The $1,000 Colonial note shown in the scan was issued in Virginia by an act of the Virginia Legislature in 1781 (see Newman, 2008, page 455), not by the Continental Congress The highest denomination note from the Continental Congress was for $80.00 (Newman, page 73). Evidently the curator at the ANS was not very familiar with Colonial currency.