Four-pence note, issued May 1, 1777, typeset, Wilmington: James Adams.
In 1777, the Delaware General Assembly authorized the printing of small-denomination bills—three-pence, four-pence, nine-pence, ten-shilling, and twenty-shilling—to boost the local economy. This four-pence note was produced by James Adams (d. 1792), Delaware’s first printer, who had emigrated from Ireland and worked with Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) before establishing his own press in 1761. The design featured the newly adopted Delaware seal on the front and a sheaf of grain on the reverse, along with the stern warning: “To Counterfeit is Death.” To deter forgeries, Adams printed on special paper infused with threads and flakes of mica, a technique he learned from Franklin. These security measures reflected the constant struggle to maintain trust in paper currency during the Revolution.