Benjamin Franklin himself noted:
"Paper money was in those times our universal currency. But it being the instrument with which we combated our enemies they resolved to deprive us of its use by depreciating it; and the most effectual means they could contrive was to counterfeit it. The artists they employed performed so well that immense quantities of these counterfeits which issued from the British government in New York were circulated among the inhabitants of all the states, before the fraud was detected. This operated considerably in depreciating the whole mass, first, by the vast additional quantity, and next by the uncertainty in distinguishing the true from the false; and the depreciation was a loss to all and the ruin of many. It is true our enemies gained a vast deal of our property by the operation but it did not go into the hands of our particular creditors, so their demands still subsisted, and we were still abused for not paying our debts!"
The whole mass was depreciated on purpose. The empire knew exactly what it was doing and intended the very outcome it got. This is a large reason why paper money was a huge controversy during the Constitutional Convention and eventually we had gold-backed money and actual metal money. Hyperinflation caused by a foreign combatant leaves a lasting mark in the minds for generations.