Two-dollar note, issued January 26, 1776, typeset, Portsmouth: Daniel Fowle.
This worn and faded two-dollar note, printed in January 1776 by Daniel Fowle (1715–1787) in Portsmouth, displays the practical realities of Revolutionary-era paper currency. Like many surviving examples, it is heavily creased and faded—evidence that it was in circulation for some time and was likely folded inside wallets or pockets. Fowle, who became New Hampshire’s official printer, also produced The New Hampshire Gazette and volumes of state laws. Printer Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society, described Fowle in his book History of Printing in America as “a correct printer and industrious…mild in his disposition, agreeable in his manners, liberal in his sentiments, and attached to the cause of his country.”