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Dear List Members:
Does anyone out there have any idea what "York currency," expressed in
L. s. d. form, in a Vermont farmer's diary in the 1820s could mean,
other than the obvious, New York's colonial money of account (8/=$1)?
I ask to satisfy the curiosity of a researcher, an historian without any
training in money matters, who is convinced that the references he sees
must be to, as he puts it, "actual currency." I have tried to explain to
him until I'm blue in the face that a currency of account is a measure
of value and that the farmer could be tendering a $1 bank note but
writing "8 shillings York currency" in his diary. The historian seems
unable to find a transaction that would supply a conversion ratio from
U.S. to York currency. Any help on this matter would be greatly
appreciated.
Robert E. Wright
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