I wish the info on Phillip Mossman's book cited in the Kraljevich article could have appeared a few months ago. The reason: I just presented an illustrated community talk in which I covered the confusing mixture of coins and paper money that might have resided in the pockets and tills of our colonial Americans during the century of years starting in 1690. I finished with examples of the first new coinage of the newly constituted United States and how they were born from Thomas Jefferson's original proposal.

While obtaining high quality projectable images of the subjects of my overview was time consuming, the greater challenge was sorting out the mélange of coins and paper with which the colonists had to deal, their varying relative values, and the problem of accounts kept in the English system but usually settled in other monies. I suspect that Mr. Mossman's book would have been a real time saver in researching those 100 colonial years, a check on the information secured elsewhere, and a source of many additional and interesting facts.

So, better late than never, I'm considering purchase of a used copy of Money of the American Colonies and Confederation (for at least $50), and I wonder whether any readers can attest to John Kraljevich's glowing recommendation of Mr. Mossman's volume before I lay out the dough?