Coins accepted for paying your Delaware taxes in 1781
November 14th, 2014
In 1781 the state of Delaware passed a law (2 Del. Laws ch. 71) calling for an assessment to pay the debt from the American Revolution. Part of the taxes had to be paid in gold or silver coins, or in new banknotes. The act listed which coins were acceptable for paying the tax, including the Brazilian johannes (commonly called a Joe), the English or French Guinea, the moidore (also minted in Brazil), Spanish pieces of eight, and the Arabian chequin. You could not pay in German coins (probably because they were notoriously debased.)
More information on early coins in America:
- The coins of Colonial and Early America
- Coin and Currency in Early America
- Lasser, Joseph R. The Coins of Colonial America: World Trade Coins of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Williamsburg, Va: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1997.