COLONIAL COINS
We hear about bartering and the exchange of valued holdings for other properties and we assume people in the l700’s had currency and coins.
In 1764 the David Cloyd place located in what was then Augusta County, Virginia - now Montgomery, near Blacksburg, was pillaged by Indians. Details of the attack are extant and among those items stolen was
two hundred Pounds of gold and silver coins.. One Indian raider was killed who was carrying 138-Pounds 18 Shillings of the coins. He actually made it thirty miles from the Cloyd farm, but the sheer weight of the money may well have
been the cause of his death.
We know about the exact nature of the money because the recapture resulted in a somewhat bizzare law suit. The militia who recovered the money claimed it belonged to them’ while others thought it belong to
the previous owner David Cloyd. The mlitia divided the money among its members, some of whom returned their share to Cloyd. He sued the head of the militia for 137-Pounds, 19-Shillings remainder.
It is interesting to see the type of coinage early settlers used in their business transactions. The Court Records show the Cloyd’s coins involved in the suit itself, consisted of 137-Pounds, 19 -Shillings and 8-1/2 Pence
with the breakdown being as follows:
“3 Double Loons” - a Spanish coin worth about $7.20.
“36 Pistoles” - a Spanish coin worth about $3.60.
“1 Half Double Loon” - Spanish and worth half of $7.20.
“ 4 Guineas” - an English coin worth, perhaps, $4.66.
“4 Louis-d’or,called loodore” - French - $4.44.
“16 Round Pistoles” - Spanish and one assumes worth $3.60 , the same as the regular postole.
“3 Half Pistoles”. - Spanish and worth half of $3.60.
“2 Half Johannas” (or “Joe”) - a Portugese coin worth $8.00.
Plus 9 “Dollars” and “some small change.“
Try paying for a bag of beans with that selection of coins! Small wonder early business was often conducted with tobacco or whiskey as a means of payment.
By the way, with the help of one of the frontiers’s leading lawyers - Gabriel Jones, David Cloyd won the lawsuit ordering the return of the rest of his money but the ruling was appealed to a higher court and we
don’t know where it went from there!
Watch it, now! Don’t take any wooden piostoles.
A.L.M. Sepember 6, 2002 [c-396wds]
