Five-shilling note, issued February 1781, typeset, Westminster: Judah Paddock Spooner and Timothy Green.
Vermont lacked a formal colonial government because its territory was disputed by both New York and New Hampshire. In 1777, a year after the start of the American Revolution, Vermont declared independence as a republic. In February 1781, the Vermont Assembly issued official currency, including this five-shilling note printed in Westminster by Judah Paddock Spooner (1748-1807) on the first press in Vermont which Spooner had purchased from his partner Timothy Green (1737-1796) of Connecticut. The front bears the motto “Vermont Calls for Justice” and shows thirteen linked rings for the original colonies, with a fourteenth ring—symbolizing Vermont—above the others. Vermont remained independent until 1791, when it joined the Union as the fourteenth state.