Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 36.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[32] dollars. The country had been devastated, the property of the planters, in slaves and cattle, carried off; cities plundered, towns burned. The value of the currency had fallen to almost nothing. In December, 1778, one thousand dollars in Continental bills was worth about $150 in hard dollars. In December, 1779, it was worth $38. In 1780 it took $1,000 in Continental bills to buy $25 in hard dollars. The following accounts, copied from original vouchers printed some years ago in the Historical Magazine, will, perhaps, give a better idea of the depreciation of the currency then in use, than could be done otherwise, as they exhibit the real difference in business transactions between Continental paper and specie in 1781:

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The United States