$252
Estimate: $400 - $600
Auction: July 25, 2023 12:00 PM EDT
Newport (Rhode Island), January 12, 1767. Single sheet, 3 1/4 x 3 3/4 in. (83 x 95 mm) (sight). Autograph document, completely in the hand of Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Rhode Island, William Ellery (1727-1820), authorizing a receipt for two separate transactions: "Reciev'd...of William Ellery Sixty three Pounds, eleven Shillings Old Tenor..."; counter-signed by John Cranston on behalf of his uncle, Stephen Ayrault. Unexamined out of frame, 10 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (273 x 292 mm).
The term "Old Tenor" was a nickname given to the earliest paper currency in the thirteen colonies, and had been in use since the first bills were printed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1690.