BOSTON, MASS.- A twice-signed 1782 promissory note completed entirely in Benjamin Franklin’s hand sold for $484,151 at RR Auction’s Spirit of ’76: America’s 250th Anniversary Auction, which closed July 8. The document bound the United States to repay France 1,500,000 silver livres in Revolutionary War funding.
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Executed on April 10, 1782, while serving as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States in France, the document states in part: “I, Benjamin Franklin, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of North America…promise in its name…to make payment and reimburse the Royal Treasury of His Most Christian Majesty.” Franklin completed the document entirely in his own hand and signed it twice. The promissory note was produced at Franklin's celebrated Passy press outside Paris.
The document records the first installment of the final French loan of the Revolutionary War. It commits the United States to repay the Royal Treasury of Louis XVI with annual interest at five percent. The loan formed part of the financial support negotiated by Franklin after France formally allied with the United States in 1778, loans that helped keep the Continental Army financially solvent during the war.
Dated six months after the American victory at Yorktown and while preliminary peace negotiations were already underway in Paris, the document corresponds to the first of three 1782 receipts later enumerated in the July 16, 1782 agreement between France and the United States, together comprising the final 6,000,000-livre French loan of the Revolution.
"This is the last loan France ever made to the United States during the Revolution,” said Bobby Livingston, Executive Vice President at RR Auction. “We were broke, we couldn't feed our own army, and Benjamin Franklin kept the money coming. It's an extremely important financial document from the founding of this country.”
The Spirit of '76: America's 250th Anniversary Auction realized $1.79 million.
Additional highlights include:
• A complete set of 40 Constitution signers' autographs, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, sold for $190,249.
• A 1766 letter signed by John Hancock and Samuel Adams criticizing British colonial policies and "notorious Violations of their Property," sold for $180,315.
• A 1779 war-dated letter signed by George Washington to Major Benjamin Tallmadge directing Culper Ring intelligence courier routes and referencing spy Abraham Woodhull, sold for $99,850.
• An 1833 Force printing of the Declaration of Independence from William J. Stone's copperplate, sold for $85,560.
• A first edition of the 1791 U.S. Census signed by Thomas Jefferson, sold for $75,020.
• A 1768 Mountain Road lottery ticket signed by George Washington, one of about 25 known examples, sold for $52,805.
• A George Washington memorial portrait pendant containing locks of hair attributed to George and Martha Washington, sold for $33,284.
