22 JUN--This Day in US Military History

1775 – Congress lent a fiscal hand to the Revolution and authorized the issue of some $2 million in bills of credit.

In the spring of 1775 colonial leaders, long since tired of the constraining yoke of British rule, had led their forces into the battle against the crown. But, the American revolutionaries encountered a small problem on their way to the front: they lacked the funds necessary to wage a prolonged war.
Though hardly the colonies’ first dalliance with paper notes–the Massachusetts Bay colony issued its own bills in 1690–the large scale distribution of the Revolutionary currency was fairly new ground for America. Moreover, the bills, known at the time as “Continentals,” notably lacked the then de rigeur rendering of the British king; instead, some of the notes featured likenesses of Revolutionary soldiers and the inscription “The United Colonies.” But, whatever their novelty, the Continentals proved to be a poor economic instrument: backed by nothing more than the promise of “future tax revenues” and prey to rampant inflation, the notes ultimately had little fiscal value.
As George Washington noted at the time, “A wagonload of currency will hardly purchase a wagonload of provisions.” Thus, the Continental failed and left the young nation saddled with a hefty war debt. Duly frustrated by the experience with Continental Currency, America resisted the urge to issues new paper notes until the dawn of the Civil War.

https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2005/06/22/june-22/