Pennsylvania pound

It was created as a response to the global economic downturn caused by the collapse of the South Sea Company.

[1] Initially, sterling and certain foreign coins circulated, supplemented from 1723 by local paper money, colonial scrip.

[3] In March 1723, it issued Colonial Scrip, paper bills of credit to the amount of $60,000, made them a legal tender in all payments on pain of confiscating the debt or forfeiting the commodity, imposed sufficient penalties on all persons who presumed to make any bargain or sale on cheaper terms in case of being paid in gold or silver, and provided for the gradual reduction of the bills by enacting that one-eighth of the principal, as well as the whole interest, should be paid annually.

Pennsylvania made no loans but on land security or plate deposited in the loan office, and obliged borrowers to pay 5% for the sums they took up.

The scheme worked so well that, in the latter end of the year, the government emitted bills to the amount of $150,000 on the same terms.