Courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
A Modern students are unaware that following the Revolution of 1776 the former Colonies were independently minting their own currencies. The dollar became the basic unit of money through the Coinage Act of 1793 and was copied after the Spanish dollar then being widely circulated in America. Paper dollars were printed as early as 1775 but were considered unreliable.
This arithmetic printed in 1793 gives the value of "FEDERAL and SPANISH DOLLARS, ROUBLES of Russia, RIX DOLLARS of Denmark and Sweden" in "American currencies, Sterling, Irish Money and that of other Nations."
Our chart hints at some of the difficulties in both national and international trade - to say nothing of arithmetic class.
(Reproduced from a copy of "The Federal Arithmetician or the Science of Numbers IMPROVED" written by Thomas Sarjeant and printed in Philadelphia in 1793.)