I went on a little bit of a search for more Confederate money to purchase, and I found this one... I like it a lot more than the $50 note I got the other day. The obverse of the bill has a lot more artistic flair with the awesome vignette of the soldiers, and the two portraits. I also like how the name of the "Confederate States of America" is bolder than on the $50 note.
The man is George Wythe Randolph, Confederate Secretary of War. The woman is the First Lady of South Carolina, Lucy Petway Holcombe Pickens. She was a well known socialite and was called by many the "Queen of the Confederacy". As you know, South Carolina was the first state to secede, so in a real way she was the first lady that the Confederacy ever had (at least for a few weeks).
I copied an image of the front of the bill, pasted it directly into Google, and asked who the man and woman are. Two seconds later I got this info.: Man in the lower right: George W. Randolph, the Confederate Secretary of War from March to November 1862 and grandson of Thomas Jefferson. Lady in the middle: Lucy Holcombe Pickens, the wife of South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens. She was known as the "Queen of the Confederacy" and is the only woman prominently depicted on Confederate currency. EDIT: LOL! @Sallent & I posted just seconds apart. But he beat me to the draw!
I am not a paper collector but I do have a fondness for these old CSA notes. The Keating and Ball building where most of these old CSA notes came from is in my city and I was involved in the renovation of that old historic eyesore of a building into a modern grocery store some years back.
In Case You Were Interested....Right after Gettysburg....it took $1,500 in CSA paper to get $100 in gold coin. It took $123 in U.S. Legal Tender Notes (LTN) to get $100 in gold coin. By December 15th, 1863.....it took $2,100 in CSA monies for $100 in gold coin. Ironically, while the CSA paper was at a huge discount to U.S. paper, both suffered relative to gold coin because of distrust of paper and fears of inflation post-war. In January 1864, it took $152 U.S. to buy $100 in gold coins…and after the National Bank Act of 1864, $285 in July 1864. CSA paper was $2,000 in July 1864. These paper discounts led to big usage of gold and silver – esp. Double Eagles – out West in the 1860’s and 1870’s. BTW, it took until 1876 for U.S. paper currency to achieve parity with gold/silver.
