Colonial American Money
Candace Winn
5th Grade
Grade Level: 5th grade
Background Information: Most of the colonies had no cash. They weren’t supposed to
mint it themselves, and England wouldn’t export coins and bills. So the only way money
reached the colonies was when people actually bought and sold things with it.
England had 13 American colonies. England, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden,
and Portugal all thought they owned parts of the colonies. All of the countries had and
used different types of money to purchase items in the colonies. Money wasn’t simple in
colonial times. Every country had its own kind of currency- coins and paper money- just
as they do today. So English coins, Dutch coins, French coins, Spanish coins, and
Portuguese coins were all circulating throughout the colonies. Paper bills weren’t used
much because most people preferred money that was made of metal that had value, like
silver or copper.
Time Required:
60 minutes
Essential Questions:
How does the economic growth drive expansion and change in society?
Objectives:
1. Students will learn about the currency used to purchase goods and services in
the 18th century.
2. Students will learn currency terminology and worth of coins in the 18th
Century.
3. Students will practice skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
division while exploring the British monetary system.
Materials:
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Worksheet A: Denomination of Colonial Virginia Money
Book binding in the 18th Century- Primary Source- 2 pages
Wigmaker in the 18th Century- Primary Source-2 pages
Primary Source Photos of Colonial Money
Primary Source Document from Ben Franklin’s Autobiography
European Coins and their relative value handout
Eighteenth-Century Retail Price List
Ben Franklin Worksheet- Assessment
Setting the Stage:
1. Pose the question: What do the words shilling, pounds, farthing, pence, and
guinea mean to you? Have students discuss term among groups and then
orally share ideas with class. All handouts and materials will be displayed on
Smartboard using notebook software.
Strategy:
Whole Group:
1. Give students the handout displaying denominations of Colonial Virginia
money- Worksheet A: Denominations of Virginia Colonial Money.
2. Review Colonial America money. See background information to share with
class. Discuss that the vocabulary terms are types of money used in the
Eighteenth-Century.
3. Show colonial money, scanned on smartboard, and discuss.
4. Display Eighteenth-Century tradesman and how money was used in Colonial
Williamsburg. Explain that information presented came from primary source
documents.
5. Display Bookbinder- Read and Discuss
6. Display Wigmaker- Read and Discuss
7. Display primary source document from Ben Franklin’s Autobiography. Read
excerpt to students. Discuss what students learned from the document.
Student Activity
1. Provide students with coins and their relative value handout.
2. Give students Eighteenth-Century Retail Price List. Go over items and prices.
3. Allow students to make some suggestions about items Franklin could have
purchased with his money upon arriving in Philadelphia. What are some items
he could and could not purchase?
4. Have students look at list and suggest items with group and then share
responses.
5. Add to a list on smartboard.
Alternate Plan:
*Students will brainstorm possible research questions they may have related to
money in the 18th Century.
*Prepare a keynote presentation on the value of money in 18th century
Williamsburg.
Evaluation/ Assessment:
Students will make calculations to determine the answers to 5 questions related to
how much money Ben Franklin had upon entering Philadelphia. Students will complete
handout- Franklin’s Money.
Works Cited:
*2006 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation CD Rom
Items from the CD include, Eighteenth Century Retail Price
List, Some European Coins and Their Relative Value handout,
Denominations of Colonial Virginia Money.
*Williamsburg Craft Series books: Titles included:
The Bookbinder in 18th Century
The Printer in 18th Century
The Wigmaker in 18th Century
*Ben Franklin: Exerpt from autobiography contained in A History of
Us. Revised Third Edition. By Joy Hakim, Oxford University Press.
Page 112.
*Photos from the 2006 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation CD Rom
Denominations of Virginia Colonial Money
4 farthings = 1 pence (abbreviated as “d”)
12 pence = 1 shilling (abbreviated as “s”)
5 shillings = 1 crown
20 shillings = 1 pound (abbreviated as “£”)
240 pence = 1 pound
21 shillings = 1 guinea
Shilling was an English coin worth one-twentieth of a pound.
In eighteenth-century writing, values of money appear as follows:
7d = seven pence
6/5 = six shillings, five pence
3..4..8 = three pounds, four shillings, eight pence
Music books, volumes of collected pamphlets and
magazines, a “cyphering book”, and dozens of similar items
in the Hunter and Royle daybooks account for only a portion
of custom binding. The book most often bound was the
Bible. Hunter bound a number of Bibles for 6 shillings, but
charged 12 shillings for a “large Church Bible.”
A few entries from Royle’s daybook during mid-1765:
June 19 Hon. John Blair,
Binding Amelia [County] rent roll.
15 shillings
June 27 Binding Mrs. Ballard’s Prayer Book
3/9
Thomas Jefferson, History of Virginia 8/9
July 3
Aug. 28
Lettering Pope’s Works, 9 Vol. for
Miss Sally Waters
Rev. David Mossom, Binding a Bible
5/-
5/ 7
The Wigmaker in EighteenthCentury Williamsburg was Richard
Gamble. He was a barber and
perukemaker of Williamsburg.
Styles and Prices:
Brown dress bob wigs sold for 43
shillings each. Perukes came in
endless variety and their prices also
differed.
Primary Source from Ben Franklin’s Autobiography:
At age 17, Ben Franklin ran away from Boston. He sold
his books and used the money to get to Philadelphia. In
his Autobiography, Franklin described his arrival in that
city:
I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were
stuffed out with shirts and stockings; I knew no soul
no where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with
traveling, rowing, and want to rest; I was very hungry;
and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch
dollar and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave
the people of the boat for my passage, who at first
refused it on account of my rowing; but I insisted on
their taking it, a man being sometimes more generous
when he has a little money than when he has plenty,
perhaps through fear of being thought to have but
little.
Franklin’s Money
Name _____________________
Use the money Franklin had on his possession at the time he arrived in
Philadelphia to answer the following questions.
1. How many chickens could Franklin have purchased? Show your
calculations.
2. How many pounds of coffee could Franklin purchase?
3. How many pairs of leather breeches could he purchase?
4. Franklin also needs a brown tye wig, how many can he purchase?
5. With the money Franklin has, list 5 items he could purchase with only
a few pence left.
Bookbinding in the 18th Century Williamsburg
There were several men to have been known to
bind books in 18th Century Williamsburg. William
Parks, John Stretch, William Hunter, and Joseph
Royle were known to have bound books in
Williamsburg.
The Binding Business
Hunter’s daybook for the period from July 1750
through June 1752 and Royle’s covering most of 1764
and all of 1765 tell a great deal about the quantity and
variety of binding work the book binders did, the
prices they charged, and a little about the wages they
paid. Hunter, for example, at the end of 1751 entered
payment of 38 pounds 15 shillings against the
bookbinding account “To John Stretch For his Wages
from the 14th of January to this Day.” Thus, from this
source, Stretch earned 15 shillings sixpence a week.
Franklin’s Money
Name _____________________
Use the money Franklin had on his possession at the time he
arrived in Philadelphia to answer the following questions.
Answer the question on the back of this page using complete
sentences.
1. How many chickens could Franklin have purchased? Show
your calculations.
2. How many pounds of coffee could Franklin purchase?
3. How many pairs of leather breeches could he purchase?
4. Franklin also needs a brown tye wig, how many can he
purchase?
5. With the money Franklin has, list 5 items he could purchase
with only a few pence left.
6. How does economic growth drive expansion and change in
society?
Franklin’s Money
Name _____________________
Use the money Franklin had on his possession at the time he
arrived in Philadelphia to answer the following questions.
Answer the question on the back of this page using complete
sentences.
Questions 1-5 are worth 2 points each.
Question # 6 is worth 5 points each.
1. How many chickens could Franklin have purchased? Show
your calculations.
Chickens at 6 pence each. He could purchase 24
2. How many pounds of coffee could Franklin purchase?
A pound of coffee at 1/8 = 20 pence.
He could purchase 21 pounds
3. How many pairs of leather breeches could he purchase?
Breeches at 6 shillings each. He could purchase 2
4. Franklin also needs a brown tye wig, how many can he
purchase?
Brown Tye Wig costs 4 pounds. He only has 12
shillings. He is not able to purchase a wig
5. With the money Franklin has, list 5 items he could purchase
with only a few pence left.
Accept possible answers.
6. How does economic growth drive expansion and change in
society?
Students may state and discuss the idea of creating business
to support growth of towns, colonies, and states.
The growth of industry leads to jobs and therefore creates
expansion of trade between people and other countries. Supply
and demand.