Currency as used in the Colden Store DayBook
There were several currencies in use at the time of the Colden DayBook including that of the British, notes of the New York colony, as well as coins from Spain and other countries. The accounting however was done in British pounds (as in the Daybook) and all non-British currency was converted into its British value.
The symbol for the British pound is £. It appears frequently in front of the cost of an item.
Examples: £ 0 14 10, £ 0:14:10, £ 0.14.10
Note that the "£" is not entered into the database as it is assumed.
The three numbers following the "£" are Pounds, Shillings, and Pence. There are 20 Shillings in a Pound and 12 Pence in a Shilling. Therefore there are 240 Pence in a Pound. That is why you may see up to 19 Shillings in the second column.
Another shorthand for currency is "12/6" which means 12 Shillings and 6 Pence. If there are no Pence it may be written 12/. Two Pounds is sometimes written as 40/. (40 Shillings = 2 Pounds at 20 Shillings per Pound) This shorthand is often used in the Daybook for "cost per item." Two gallons of rum may sell for "@3/3" which means that each gallon is priced at 3 Shillings and 3 Pence. So the price of that line item should be 0 6 6 (2 x 3/3).
The shorthand for Pence is "d", written of course with the flourish that is common to most of the clerks. Three pounds of sugar at eight pence per pound is written as "3 # Shuger @8d £ 0 2 0" (3 x 8 = 24 Pence = 2 Shillings) See item 004-10-02.
The economy supposedly suffered at this time from a dearth of cash. The stores often acted as a sort of bank to remedy this. Purchases were debits to a person's account. Sales of wheat, hogs, cows, honey, etc to the store were credits. If a person owed someone else in the community, the obligation could be satisfied by making a ledger entry on the store's account from one patron to another.
Credits in this DayBook are often preceded by the word "By" which I assume is a misspelling of the term "Buy." The abbreviation of "Cr" often appears on the same line.