1762 dated Connecticut Continental Pay order signed by John Lawrence and Samuel Comstock - Connecticut - American Revolutionary War

Connecticut Continental pay order for Cap't Samuel Comstock signed by John Lawrence on front and Samuel Comstock on back.

Samuel Comstock (February 6, 1680 – October 26, 1752) was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from Norwalk in the sessions of October 1711, October 1714, May 1720, October 1723, October 1725, October 1726, October 1727, October 1728, October 1729, and October 1730. He was the son of Christopher Comstock and Hannah Platt.

John Laurance (sometimes spelled "Lawrence" or "Laurence") (1750 – November 11, 1810) was a delegate to the 6th, 7th, and 8th Congresses of the Confederation, a United States representative and United States Senator from New York and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York. Laurance briefly served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate in December 1798.

After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Continental Congress began issuing paper money known as Continental currency, or Continentals. Continental currency was denominated in dollars from $1?6 to $80, including many odd denominations in between. During the Revolution, Congress issued $241,552,780 in Continental currency.

The Continental Currency dollar was valued relative to the states' currencies at the following rates:

• 5 shillings – Georgia
• 6 shillings – Connecticut , Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia
• 71?2 shillings – Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
• 8 shillings – New York, North Carolina
• 321?2 shillings – South Carolina

Continental currency depreciated badly during the war, giving rise to the famous phrase "not worth a continental". A primary problem was that monetary policy was not coordinated between Congress and the states, which continued to issue bills of credit. "Some think that the rebel bills depreciated because people lost confidence in them or because they were not backed by tangible assets," writes financial historian Robert E. Wright. "Not so. There were simply too many of them." Congress and the states lacked the will or the means to retire the bills from circulation through taxation or the sale of bonds. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_American_currency

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