"The pound is the name of an international coin. The pound was a coin used for exchange in different money systems that held value. Vermont soldiers were paid in platinum according to multiple historic references books from VT, Massachusetts, the Smithsonian archives etc.

"The Morris unit was too large for normal business transactions according to George Washington who was a general in the American revolutionary war. John Hanson was the first president of the Continental Congress at the time when VT made its military payments for three years of fighting the British.

"Coinage was created from european designs to manufacture the first american coinage.A coinage committee was created for that purpose. A U.S. colonel described a Russian platinum coin that was given to American officers during the war when he donated his officer pay to the Smithsonian to create the coin collection. Under donors and donations the Smithsonian and the Chicago Coin Club 1841. National Institute.

"A ten thousand dollar transaction in precious metal was valued at 14,400,000 dollars because of a 1440% inflation rate on precious metals. A Spanish silver dollar was the federal unit valued at 1440 continental paper dollars. VT was backed by France, Russia, Spain, Holland as an independent royal colony. VT won the first three battles of the war when George Washington was losing to the British.

"The coin is described in Conant's Vermont 1915. It is also described in Morse's Geography 1804 Boston Massachusetts. A 12 ounce coin with decimal system which was replaced. A federal unit was in platinum and given to the soldiers by the records of the state. I can explain the system of math which includes joes and half joes to read it.

"I know it looks like a Russian medal and I have heard it before. A deception was planned to take this money to back the U.S. when the Continental paper dollar fell 97% in value in 1779. VT produced its coinage in 1781 and delivered in 1782. No dates were required for the coinage before the U.S. Mint in 1792."

Well, this is the first time I've encountered this topic. I'm not aware of a Vermont Pound. I reached out to a couple readers with knowledge of Russian and numismatic research for their thoughts. -Editor

"The piece sure is in Russian, and is actually in pre-Revolutionary Russian before Lenin simplified the language a wee bit and eliminated a couple of letters. The legend reads "For Agricultural Products" and from what I can tell it is a large silver table medal from the Imperial Russian Ministry of Agriculture and State Property and is probably from between 1880 and 1914, but without seeing the other side, I cannot be certain. I don't have a copy of the standard work on Russian medals by Diakov, so could not look it up there. But isn't a platinum medal for Vermont land."

Julia Casey found examples of the medal online. -Editor

"I think "Morse's Geography" is Geography Made Easy by Jedidiah Morse. Morse (1761-1826), known as the "father of American geography" was also the father of Samuel "Morse Code" Morse. Versions of Geography Made Easy from 1790 to 1822 (but not the 1804 edition) are available on HathiTrust."

"There is a 1925 version of Conant's Vermont on HathiTrust, as well as the 1915 publication of A Text Book of the Geography, History, Constitution, and Civil Government of Vermont, by Edward Conant (1829-1903), who was an educator.

"When I searched Conant's books I did not find any references to the "Vermont Pound" coin. Though there are images on page 138 of a 1781 20 shillings / one pound Vermont bill of credit."

The piece is a Russian medal made long after the American revolution, and there is no mention of a "Vermont Pound" anywhere on the Newman Numismatic Portal. Have any of our readers encountered this narrative before? I'm curious as to where it originated. -Editor