LCP in the News: Meet Ben Franklin‘s Tragic Pal Who Made Pa.’s Paper Money Hack-proof

by Jeanette Lerman, FOR THE INQUIRER

Undivided sheet of Continental Currency, printed on blue paper for use as a counterfeit detector (Philadelphia: Printed by Hall and Sellers, 1776).

Undivided sheet of Continental Currency, printed on blue paper for use as a counterfeit detector (Philadelphia: Printed by Hall and Sellers, 1776).

Franklin’s leaf cuts were used on money right up through the Revolution.

Leaves, rattlesnakes, and a burgeoning nation in need of paper money:

The Library Company’s Jim Green tells the story of Joseph Breintnall and his role in inspiring Benjamin Franklin to use leaf prints as an anti-counterfeiting measure for Pennsylvania’s paper currency– in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Read all about it HERE