Jefferson Davis' CSA Half

My great great grandfather served in the US Army in the west during the war, he was actually quite old when my great grandmother was born - and she lived until a few years ago - a very long life and may have been one of the last living children of a Civil War vet.

 

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Interesting that "anecdotal evidence" was enough to put that on the holder as a fact.

Not that it matters, but I've read pretty much every book out there on the Confederate Govn's flight from VA to GA and not one has mentioned this coin being around.

I love that the one guy in this thread who knows exactly what he is talking about got the 'I've got more message board posts than you' treatment. Geez.

 

Actually, I bielive it does matter that you have taken the time and shown the interest with your reading. You are a far more informed numismatist than most.

Equally interesting, you will find no mention of the Confederate half dollar in the official mint records from New Orleans. The only "record" of the coin exists in a series of letters written in 1879 by B.F. Taylor who was the head coiner at the mint.

It is with this record and the inconsistencies therein that I take issue. Some of his statements some 18 years after the fact contradict matters contained in official records.

Again, my hat is off to you for your efforts to be informed.

 

Amen!

 

George, it's not unheard of for the Mint Director's or Manager's recollection to contradict official records. After all, record keeping was anything but immaculate prior to the 1970s when auditing became standardized.

In any case, I think you bring up some excellent points that should be addressed by FUN & NGC.

 

Had Lincoln not signed the Emancipation Proclamation, England and France both would have sent soldiers, and the CSA most likely would have won. The Proclamation made the war about slavery, which most Europeans were opposed to.

 

I hate to get off topic, but I felt the need to address this misconception.

If these countries had any plans to send soldiers (or any type of Southern assistance) they would have done it previous to 1863, as they were being lobbied to do so basically from the get go. One of the Confederacy's fatal mistakes (aside from non matching railroad gauge) was their initial assumption that this would happen. By 1863 they were privately pretty well aware that the chances of it being a reality were slim (regardless of anything the publically verbal optimist Davis may have said). Unrealized by the South, these countries had huge stockpiles of Southern cotton and thus no real need to get involved (European blockade runner ports and military and civilian provision sales aside). The huge loss at Gettysburg cemented that there would be no foreign intervention in support of an (at that point) unwinnable war.

 

Agree on the bean, the most banal addition to the promotion they could have possibly made. But at least they didn't put the sticker in front of the coin itself. That probably comes after the next resubmission when the coin comes back in a PF53 holder. Or is a 53 designation not one, but two more submissions away after a stop at XF40??

And I also agree with George Corell, that the entire "story" surrounding the coin is spurious to begin with. Only an idiot would buy-in to the hype behind this coin, especially the assertion that it is a proof. But with so many 21st century lovers of the confederacy still out there, I say let them plunder themselves on this great "rarity", -let their own finances be destroyed like Sherman marching on Atlanta, so that they can continue the legend in their own head that there was something noble about the Confederate cause.

The real shame of it all is that only the winning bidder gets to be ripped-off, instead of every single bidder who raises a paddle card on the lot.

 

You don't have to believe that the Confederate cause was "noble" in order to admire their willingness to fight to the end for what *they* believed in.

 

Everyone is tiptoeing around the elephant in the room.

 

I agree. I agree with Prince of Waldo's post on everything except this part. Soldiers are soldiers, and both sides fought where their leaders told them to fight, and to "protect their homes". There is nothing unnoble about a Confederate soldier, he is neither more or less noble than a northern soldier. The rich and powerful, the ones who owned large amounts of slaves in the south, were not foot soldiers in the Confederacy. These soldiers were poor men who thought they were defending their homes. There is nothing evil about that. If someone wishes to applaud their courage and sacrifices I see no issue, just like I can talk about how my great grandfather served for the North. Soldiers on both sides died heroically, and both sides should be honored.

 

I feel the bean is redundant especially on any great rarity that the coin speaks for itself. But whatever. If I had unlimited finances I'd be chasing this myself a coin I'd love to own. So rare that even Louis Eliasberg didn't have one!!

 

Before the war my family was upper middle class successful farmers near Knoxville tn after the war we were dirt poor farmers with half the men killed in battle and nearly no one left to raise crops

 

You make my point, exactly. But for some reason we seem to have trouble with the idea that Taylor's recollections might be in error.

I have already spoken with NGC on this. Though the gentleman who did the writeup on this tends to agree with me, the official writeup had already been done and sent off for approval to the dealer involved in the sale. The designation of proof in the grade was less than unanimous but went forward anyway, fully aware that the coin was not a true proof. It is based on Bonanno' s recollection that the coin was double struck even though it is known he was not present when the coins were struck! He assumed they were because of the high relief status. I wrote in Coinworld some years ago that the high relief concerns had little to do with die fill, but rather with relief angles. Patterson was not a diemaker, he was a plate engraver.

I would love to attend FUN. But at my age and with my health restrictions on travel I find that show a bit to taxing to attend.

 

To all my new found friends on here and even to those who's sense of connection might be somewhat less than friendly, I wish you all the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years!

 

And a Merry Christmas to you as well and welcome to CT.

If you don't mind my asking, has your CSA research ever uncovered evidence that the Knights of the Golden Circle issued their own money or tokens or perhaps counter stamped US or South American coins? Seems an organization with ideas of secession and empiring would have tried their hand at striking their own money.

 

One hundred and fifty years plus since, and still there remains an undertow of sectional divide apparent amongst many of the comments included herein.

 

i believe that there was a gold token found with the letters "KGC" stamped on it, but it might have been a hoax. saw it on the history channel.

 

I am familiar with the Knights of the Golden Circle. I am familiar with their stashing money and weapons for a future uprising, but know of no attempt to issue or counterexample money. However there is a rumor of a blockade runner sunk by the Union on the Grand Banks that is loaded with counterbalanced doubloons and pieces of eight. The blockade runner was on its way to Halifax to pay for and pickup war supplies purchased from England.

Also, through the SCV I received a report allegedly in a Tennessee newspaper, though I have yet to receive a copy of that article, that dies for Confederate gold coin had been acquired and shipped to the Mint at Dahlonega. Possible I guess, I can place treasury activity in that mint during the war.

In 1980 while living in Dahlonega I was introduced to an old woman from Dahlonega all her life who was well known and highly respected that through her late grandfather, himself a mint employee, that some silver coins were struck there during the war. I believe what she told me. Gramp had no reason to lie about that subject to his then 12 yr. old granddaughter anymore than she had any reason to lie to me. She merely passed on to me a bit of family history.