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Pennsylvania was always more moderate in its emissions of paper

money than any other of our colonies. Its paper currency,

accordingly, is said never to have sunk below the value of the

gold and silver which was current in the colony before the first

emission of its paper money. Before that emission, the colony had

raised the denomination of its coin, and had, by act of assembly,

ordered 5s. sterling to pass in the colonies for 6s:3d., and

afterwards for 6s:8d. A pound, colony currency, therefore, even

when that currency was gold and silver, was more than thirty per

cent. below the value of £1 sterling; and when that currency was

turned into paper, it was seldom much more than thirty per cent.

below that value. The pretence for raising the denomination of

the coin was to prevent the exportation of gold and silver, by

making equal quantities of those metals pass for greater sums in

the colony than they did in the mother country.