 Colony of the Massachusetts Bay. May 25, 1775. ''Forty'' Shillings. No.2383. Raised Denomination Note from a Fifteen Shillings. Signed by Richmond and Gardner. Revere Copper Plate Note. Printed on laid paper, with lightly visible Arms of the City of London. 165mm by 81mm. An fascinating note indeed! The note is raised from a Fifteen Shillings which is ascertained by the 19mm measurement of the space from the tip of the 'f' in 'of' and the 's' in 'shillings', leaving enough space for the erasure of 'Fiveteen' and the insertion of a engraved die printing the 'Forty'. The plate textual fonts and black outlined details match the Fifteen Shillings note above. The watermark is a match to the Fifteen Shillings note in this sale as well. The note raisers would have loved to perform their work on lower denominations (i.e. six or ten shillings), but the space was too tight on these notes. Creating a forty shillings note added 25 shillings to their exchequer and this was a denomination used on the June 20, 1744 issue. The public may not have become quickly accustomed to the denominations when these notes first saw circulation. Obviously, it is not canceled and is quite a miracle of survival.
Very Fine, split in two on the hard vertical fold with some surface soiling, The right quarter fold is also split completely and both of these have received old time paper strip repairs to restore the face integrity. The paper body is quite excellent. There are some other paper strip repairs on the back, one with Boyd's pencil code 'iryx'. A wonderful note for the Revere note enthusiast. Few probably exist as they would have been seized upon potential redemption by authorities as later series supplanted them.
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