Twenty-Spanish-dollar note, issued 1776, typeset, three colors, Savannah: printer unknown.
Currency from Revolutionary War-era Georgia is rare. This simple bill, printed only on one side using letterpress type, features a vignette of a snake encircled by the motto Nemo me impune lacessit (No one provokes me with impunity). To deter counterfeiting, three colors of ink were employed. The colony’s official printer since the 1760s, James Johnston (1738-1808), would not print currency because he sympathized with the royal government. The identity of the printer of this bill remains unknown because early official records of the colony were burned during the British capture of Savannah in December 1778.