Due to wartime inflation of bills of credit (“Continentals”) during the American War for Independence and the predictable economic effects, an old American colloquialism developed, “not worth a Continental” (although this phrase may have come about much later than the Revolutionary era). This article argues that Continentals only temporarily retained some value largely because of an initial promise of future redemption in gold and silver—a monetary “bait-and-switch.” (Additionally, interventions such as legal tender laws and the acceptance of paper money for tax payments may have offered some temporary support, but these measures were secondary to—and ultimately dependent upon—the original expectation of redemption in gold or silver).