Marie's comments are on target. Specie was trusted over paper. Spanish gold was a world standard and came to Spain originally from the Spanish empire in Central and South America. The manifold problems of currency valuation resulted in widespread use of land transactions to settle debts. Land was wealth, and interesting games were played with it too. These problems gave advantage to the educated and the sophisticated, then as now. One of my favorite scams is how Virginia was able to pay off some of it's war debts to Rev War Vets with land grants in territory that became Ohio. This was recognized as legitimate by the U. S. Congress. Don Fehlings In a message dated 10/11/2011 4:24:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Hello Susan, Just a comment re: your earlier post about the Spanish Dollar. I don't know much about it, but it's my understanding that there were many different types of currencies circulating about during Colonial times. Of course there was the British denominations of pounds, shillings and pence. And the Thirteen Colonies also circulated their own versions, however their value varied from colony to colony, and their pounds were always worth less than the British version. There were also many other foreign currencies circulating about, most notably the Spanish Dollar. The Continental Congress issued paper money to pay for military expenses, but unfortunately both state and Continental currency depreciated rapidly. So it's my thought that maybe the price required to pay for a Hessian soldier's freedom was specified as eighty Spanish Dollars was because the Spanish Dollar was a more stable currency and had a very specific value assessed to it, as opposed to the differing values of the pounds of the various Colonies. I guess the Continental Congress had more faith in the value of the Spanish Dollar than their own money they were printing! Anyway, there's more information if you Google a search for Money in the American Colonies. Marie Rasnick Fetzer ----Original Message----- From: Susan King Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011 2:28 PM To: [email protected] ; [email protected] Subject: Re: [AMREV-HESSIANS] Indentures in Frederick, MD Hi Kevin, If you haven't yet read the excellent work Marie Rasnick Fetzer compiled about our Ansbach-Bayreuth Regiment ancestors, you should. She did a fantastic job! (See the link below.) On page 19, she notes, from Conrad Dohla's diary: " 'According to Dohla, on August 27, 1782, Garrison orders were: 'Every prisoner of war who has the desire to remain in this country shall be set free at once and receive a Certificate from the Minister of War permitting him to enjoy the liberties As a native of the country. In this case he must pay the sum of eighty dollars.' Signed" John Wood, Colonel' " http://www.rasnickfamily.org/thehessianbarracks.pdf I have also heard others say it was required to be paid in "Spanish gold." I haven't studied it enough yet to know if that's factual. It's kind of a long story, and not easy to explain briefly, but when I learned of this, it threw out a red flag regarding my ancestor, Johann Christoph (Christopher) Waggoner. Some years later, Christopher was in Allegany Co., MD and was paying cash to the estate of an Edward Wilson. He is the only one to do so and there is no reason listed for the debt. It seemed odd. Edward Wilson and some others in the area, such as Lenox Martin, brother of the famous attorney, Luther Martin, can all be tracked back to Frederick Co., specifically the area around Frederick, the city, in the early 1780's. I feel this is one of the ties that help my case that Christopher in Allegany was indeed the Hessian Johann Christoph Waggoner. So, I was wondering if there were any records kept of the indentures of loans to the Hessians and I knew the awesome people on here may know. Hope this helps. Susan PLEASE CHECK ALL OF YOUR SUBJECTS! ~~~~~~~~~ FOUNDER: John H. Merz 1924-2006 Created 1998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~bonsteinandgilpin ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADMINISTRATOR<Kerri> [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message