After the war, many wealthy citizens in Newbury port began buying continentals as a kind of charity gesture. They would buy it with using actual goods or hard coins like the things that were actually worth something. Dexter wanted to earn respect among the local elite who never quite accepted him. So he purchased all of his wife's savings and his own and he purchased as much of this worthless currency as he could just to give people something. And then by spending all of his savings, he bought this for a fraction of the penny on the dollar.