In May of 1776 the Continental Congress approved an emission of paper currency in the sum of $5,000,000. Among the various denominations was this three-dollar bill, whose device depicts an eagle attacking a heron, which, nonetheless, succeeds in fatally wounding the eagle; it was copied from Joachim Camerarius’s Symblorum ac Emblematum Ethico-Politicorum (Mainz, 1702). The accompanying Latin legend reads, “exitus in dubio est” (the outcome is in doubt). Benjamin Franklin explained this image as a warning to both the British and the Americans. The former were advised not to assume they would emerge victorious because of their superior might; the latter were counseled to fight rather than to rely on appeals and negotiations. Among those authorized by the Continental Congress to endorse currency was Benjamin Levy, who signed this bill in red ink. Levy (1726-1802), a native of New York and a person of high social standing, was an ardent American patriot. Like others appointed to endorse currency, his selection probably served as a reward for his pro-American loyalties. He is remembered as the first Jew to settle permanently in Baltimore, though he was not active in its early Jewish community. 

Endorsed by Benjamin Levy; Philadelphia: printed by David Hall & William Sellers, 1776