This fiat money held its value for some little time; then it began to shrink and, once started on the downward path, its fall was rapid.

Congress tried to meet the emergency by issuing paper in increasing quantities until the inevitable happened: the paper money ceased to have any value and practically disappeared from circulation.

Jefferson said that by the end of 1781 one thousand dollars of Continental scrip was worth about one dollar in specie.
The States had already issued paper money of their own, and their experience ought to have taught them a lesson, but with the coming of hard times after the war, they once more proposed by issuing paper to relieve the "scarcity of money" which was commonly supposed to be one of the principal evils of the day.

In 1785 and 1786 paper money parties appeared in almost all the States.

In some of these the conservative element was strong enough to prevent action, but in others the movement had to run its fatal course.