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Note Details

Set Details
Note Description: Continental Currency
$2 May 9, 1776 Colonial Notes
Grade: VF 20
Country: US
Note Number: CC-32
Certification #: 8068786-004  
Owner: Colonial Valley Collection
Sets Competing: Colonial Valley Collection - Complete Set  Score: 500
Colonial Valley Collection - 1776 Complete Set  Score: 500
Date Added: 5/15/2020
Research: See PMG's Census Report for this Note

Owner's Description

This was the first piece of colonial paper money that I ever saw. This bill was in my Grandpa's collection from when I was in my single digits. I can remember going to the end of the hall in their house, opening the small closet door at the end of the hallway and studying this bill which was sandwiched in a capital plastics Lucite holder. I can remember being in awe at its age, and fearful of how fragile it must be. Every time I look at this bill I have fond memories of the countless hours my grandfather and I spent searching rolls for wheat pennies and silver coins and filling Whitman albums.

When I was in 5th grade my grandfather was suffering from severe emphysema. He was working as a lawyer part time and was always looking for a distraction from his condition. He and I would coordinate when I would get "sick" at school. On the agreed upon date I would go to school and, at around 11 AM, I would feign sickness. The school would call my parents, both of whom worked, and they would call my grandmother and ask her to pick me up from school. On the way to my grandparent's house we would stop by Wendy's and get my grandfather and I Frosties and hamburgers. Conveniently my grandmother had always just secured about $100 in rolled coins, at the request of my grandfather.

We would sort through the coins, and re-roll them so that my grandmother could return them to the bank and get fresh rolls so that we would be ready for my next "sick" day. This went on for months, until my parents became so concerned about my health that they started sending me to see lots of doctors. It was probably after the third or fourth blood draw that I confided in my grandfather that I was about to come clean on our criminal enterprise. That afternoon that my Grandfather laid out the whole scheme to my parents, of course taking full responsibility.

All of those great collecting memories instantly come back to me every time I see this bill. It was the one bill I had to have when my grandfather passed away a few years later. When I started seriously collecting colonials it was the first bill I inventoried, it is my #1 favorite colonial, albeit a pretty ordinary one. This is the one bill that I do not plan to upgrade in this set.

This bill has and image of Grain being Thrashed on the face with the Latin Motto, "Tribulatio Ditat" which translates as, "Affliction Improves It". This bill was signed by John Ord and William Webb.

PMG has graded about twenty five May 9, 1776, CC-32 bills with 40% receiving a grade of AU or better and 10% receiving an uncirculated grade. The May 9, 1776 $2 are the 29th rarest of the 102 bills in the series.

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