“Paid to a Forged Order”: Counterfeit Continental Pay Orders and Their Impact on Veterans in Early Republic Massachusetts

Abstract

Between 1783 and 1800, dozens of Continental Army veterans approached the Massachusetts House of Representatives to petition for their wages, which had been paid out to criminals in possession of forged pay orders. The legislature responded to these requests with direct, individual action, as well as with legislation punishing the forgery of payment certificates. These forgeries are situated within the broader context of an epidemic of counterfeiting in the Early Republic and the intricacies of Continental Army payment. However, due to their overlap in both of these fields, forged orders themselves have not been studied. What has also been overlooked is the impact of counterfeiting on its victims, which has largely been ignored in favor of research into the forgers and falsified documents themselves. Examination of the many petitions which were filed by veterans who fell victim to forged orders, as well as the resolutions that the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed on the matter, reveal the massive scale of counterfeited pay certificates in this period, as well as the devastating impact that such forgeries had on the veterans who lost their wages to forgeries. This article demonstrates the consequences of this pervasive counterfeiting on ordinary Americans whose struggle, despite their service to their new-found nation, has been largely ignored in history