E-News - May 2023 - British Numismatic Society

Our next meeting and drinks party – and the link to join it on Zoom

Our next meeting takes place at the Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) on Monday, 22 May, at 6.15pm BST.

This time we move our attention to matters of North American interest, and specifically that of money at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775.

In the years prior to the Revolution, responding to shortages in available coin and paper money, the colonies had established their own currencies, based on the British system of pounds, shillings and pence. Keeping track of how the value of the different colonies’ pounds related to British pound – and to one another – vexed many who traded and travelled among the colonies, and hindered trade between them. Inflation resulting from over-issuance of these bills, and the wide variation in the value of the different colonies’ pounds, finally led Parliament to pass a number of Currency Acts to restrict the issuance of paper money in America. These acts are among the factors that raised tensions between the colonies and the mother country, and it is likely that they contributed to the break with the Crown, as they caused even greater hardship for colonial trade.

Our speaker, Dr Andrew Edwards, is the Lecturer in Early American History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Previously, he served as the Sawyer Fellow in the Empire and Currency: Race, Monetary Policy, and Power project at the New School for Social Research, and as the Career Development Fellow in the Global History of Capitalism at Brasenose College, Oxford. The title of his presentation is Money to burn: the problem of money at the beginning of the American Revolution.

The SAL is located at Burlington House, on the north side of Piccadilly, opposite the Fortnum & Mason department store. Proceed through the archway leading to the House and the SAL is on the ground floor of the west wing of the building, at the far end of the courtyard, entered through a pair of brown doors.

The nearest Underground stations are Piccadilly Circus and Green Park, both 5 minutes' walk away. Those attending meetings in person will be required to sign the SAL's Visitors' Book.

If you are in London that day we look forward to your company, otherwise please join us on Zoom, along with American friends to whom we bid a warm welcome via the portal of the American Numismatic Society. To join the meeting online, please use the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87877560770 and the passcode 040995. Pre-registration is not necessary. If you are using the desktop version of Zoom, please ensure that you employ the most up-to-date version before joining us. The meeting itself will commence with formal business at 6.15pm and the lecture will begin immediately after that.

And don't forget – after the meeting all those present in person are invited to join us for the Society's Spring Reception, a chance to meet old friends and new.

Images courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, and Teacher Resources, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Our lecture on 22 May

In 1775 and 1776 two halves of the British Empire went to war with distinctly different monies or monetary regimes. The main difference between them, as revealed by new evidence from the legal record, is one of time. The American regime was based on temporary monies designed to be burned after several years of circulation – literally money to burn – while Britain’s system relied on ostensibly permanent money with no expiration date. Exploring the contrast between temporary and permanent monies, in turn, suggest new avenues for approaching the problem of monetary heterogeneity in the early modern world and our increasingly complicated monetary present.

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