Currency

Each colony set its own official value on coins and paper money, so a Massachusetts pound, a New York pound and a Virginia pound were different sums. Writers added currency, or the colony's name, to show they meant local money and not sterling.

The habit outlived independence. Webster's 1913 dictionary still explains New England currency at 6 shillings to the dollar, New York currency at 8, and Pennsylvania currency at 7s. 6d. So Pennsylvania currency in an old deed means that state's money of account, and the dollar value depends on that rate.