***Auction Highlight*** Continental Currency February 17, 1776 $1/2 Fr-CC21 "Fugio" Design Grades xf+. The ...

***Auction Highlight*** Continental Currency February 17, 1776 $1/2 Fr-CC21 "Fugio" Design Grades xf+. The Fugio sundial on the face with Benjamin Franklin's "MIND YOUR BUSINESS" motto, and the thirteen interlocking chains on the back, each of which names one of the original colonies, lend great historical gravitas to the fractional denomination notes of this third Continental emission. An emission totaling $4,000,000 payable in Spanish milled dollars, or the equivalent in gold or silver, was authorized by the Continental Congress resolution of February 10, 1776. Of this $1,000,000 was reserved for the first national fractional currency. The front design on the fractional notes includes the first use of the "FUGIO" (I fly) legend and sundial as well as the "Mind your Business" legend. The back shows the thirteen linked rings representing the colonies and the legends "We are one" and "American Congress". Eric Newman has discovered these designs were created by Benjamin Franklin (see his indispensable The Early Paper Money of America p. 53). Note that on the fractional bills the dots in the corners of the front design reflect the denomination, with one dot designating a sixth of a dollar, two dots for a third, three dots for $1/2 and four dots for $2/3. Also, fractional denominations come in plates A, B and C. Again it was Newman who discovered the devices and border designs for the fractional bills were cut by Elisha Gallaudet, who also designed the Continental Currency coin. There is one signer, in red ink, on the fractional bills and two signers, using red and brown ink, on the dollar denominations. Counterfeit detectors for the dollar denominations were made on blue paper. The Franklin designs were adopted for the Continental Currency coin made a few months later and for the 1787 Fugio cents. The paper, made at Ivy Mills in Chester County, Pennsylvania, contained blue fibers and mica flakes. Printed by Hall and Sellers in Philadelphia. Denominations printed were the: $1/6, $1/3, $1/2, $2/3, $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7 and $8.