Other than fractional currency, I didn't think I'll be able to afford very nice US notes from the 1860s. Well, certainly not National Notes, but thankfully there was another fun historic alternative available. I never considered Confederate money at all until now, and for my first note I picked this one... First of all, let me just say how hilariously thin the paper is. The fact that the note is almost see-through to the other side... But the paper wasn't the only thing thing about this note...it was also thin on spending power. In the North a $50 greenback would have gotten you food and housing for your family for an entire month. In the South the $50 CSD would have gotten your family maybe 2-3 days worth of food and not much more. Please feel free to post your Confederate currency.
Even though I qualify as a Union man, I enjoy Confederate notes as well. I wish I owned one, however. I don't even have any Union currency or coins. Congratulations and thanks for all the information.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a Union Forever man myself. But that doesn't mean I can't collect some obsolete currency of a failed short lived breakaway state from our country. It's still cool. I figured it would be a nice addition that compliments my growing collection of US Fractional notes from the same era. It sort of rounds up the history of the period.
A little "off the beaten path" question. Do you think most Americans would rather have say, $50 in coins or Paper money? There! I opened a can of beans. LOL.
Good first one, and your instinct about it being the affordable way into 1860s paper is right, so here is the number under it. eBay sold listings, last 90 days. 33 results came back, I threw 2 out and those 2 are worth naming first because they will bite anyone who searches this: an "1864 50 Cents Note Confederate States 1st Series" at $44.99 and an "1864 Confederate Richmond VA 50 Cent Bill" at $59.95 both land in a search for an 1864 Confederate $50. Fifty cents and fifty dollars are not the same note and mixing them is how a median goes wrong. That leaves 31 clean T-66 and 1864 Richmond $50 sales. Median $75.00, range $24.99 to $235.00. The median is the least useful number in that line though. Split by what the note is sitting in: Raw, no holder: n=21, median $59.99, $24.99 to $102.82 PMG or PCGS: n=10, median $105.46, $77.00 to $235.00 About 1.76x for the plastic on the same type. That part is not surprising. This part was: Raw sold at auction: n=7, median $40.00 Raw sold at a fixed price: n=14, median $62.75 Graded sold at auction: n=5, median $97.00 Graded sold at a fixed price: n=5, median $106.42 The slab is not just adding money, it is deleting the auction discount. A raw T-66 gives up about a third of its money the moment it is an open auction, 1.57x between the two ways of selling it. A certified one barely flinches, 1.10x. Same type, same 90 days. Dated rows you can check yourself: raw auctions at $24.99 on 9/8, $27.88 on 9/7 and $40.00 on 9/8, against graded at $102.36 on 9/17, $106.42 on 9/15 and $123.56 on 9/16, with the high being a PMG 63 at $235.00 on 9/17. The one raw outlier at $102.82 on 9/13 carries a consignment lot code in its title rather than a collector description, so treat it as a house listing. So a presentable raw T-66 is a $50 to $70 note today. Cheap history is exactly what you bought, and the thin paper is the reason there are so many of them to buy. Feb 17 1864 was the last big issue and it was printed in quantity nobody was ever going to redeem. Aunduril, post the T-41 when you get the picture up and I will run the same 90 days on it. The 1862 $100s are a different curve and I would rather pull it than guess at it.
I love these old CSA notes. the Keating & Ball printing plant where most of those notes were printed is in my city and I was involved in renovating the old historic building into a modern grocery store. Also have a little stack of CSA notes that came from my wifes great aunts house when we cleaned it out thirty years ago.
The paper money for both sides was not interchangeable for coins. By 1862 or so, you could not have exchanged a Union paper dollar for 100 Indian cents. That’s why Civil War tokens were used. The southern currency was worth less, and its value decreased as the war continued. There is one Civil War token which has wording to the effect that Union issued cents were worth a 20% premium. I have a few hundred Civil War tokens, and I need four Confederate note varieties to complete a type set. As you might guess, if you are an advanced collector, they are four of the “big six” which are the most expensive Confederate notes. And yes, two of them are the $1,000 and $500, 1861 “Montgomery “ notes, T-1 and T-2. Both of those notes sell for 5 figure amounts. A really nice T-1 can sell for six figures. I’ll post some pictures later in the day.
