I have no idea what this is. If I had to guess I would say a Confederate Bank Note. My Grandfather gave it to me and he was as clueless about it as I am. Any assistance with identification would be greatly appreciated. The note reads: Bank of Chattanooga Pay Bearer Three Dollars in Confederate Treasury Notes when presented in sums of Fifteen Dollars, or its multiple. Chattanooga, Tenn., August, 1862. A $1 and $2 bill are printed on the back.
Sorry I can't help you with the identification, I'm sure someone can come along and will help. I just have to say that that is a realllly cool note!
i too cant help much, as i know very little about CSA notes. i will say that it was common for the confederate folks to print new notes on the backs of unused notes and bonds.
Curious piece. I wonder why it's cut in half, the back seems that way but the front design doesn't seem lopped off. I really like the big curly decorative "1" emblazoned on that big American Shield too.
I just ran a few simple keyword searches in Google... You can find references on these notes all over the web. Here's some to get started until someone here swings by with further insight: Fractional Currency of 1862 "As the war continued copper coins as well as silver coins were hoarded because they were worth more than the rapidly inflating paper currency. By the time these fractional notes were issued in September of 1862 it took 25 Confederate dollars to buy one $10 U.S. gold coin3. Starting in 1862 fractional currency was printed in quarter and half dollar denominations to fill the need for small change. These notes shown in figure 21-22 have a harp and book vignette in the top center. Varieties of these types were printed on un-issued Bank of Chattanooga notes." www.schafluetzel.org/.../Bank%20of%20Chattanooga%20Article5.pdf more here: www.schafluetzel.org/.../Bank%20of%20Chattanooga%20Article1A.pdf from: http://www.northstamp.com/RETAIL/COINS/obsolete_currency.htm
Thanks for that krispy. After a little searching myself I came across a few in the HA archives. Interestingly enough, not all were printed on the backs of $1 and $2's, a few were printed on the backs of $3 and $5's. HA Archives
I just recently bought one of these. They were printed during the Late Unpleasantness, while Chattanooga was unable to get supplies. They printed these bank notes on the back of un-cut, and un-signed Bank of Tennessee currency. This process means that there are no two alike. I have pieces of the 1 and 2 dollar denominations as well as the top edge of a 1,000,000 dollar bill. Hope this helps. Love these notes.
Folks, I am from Chattanooga and can tell you the Bank of Chattanooga was indeed a banking institution in Chattanooga before and during the Civil War. I also have a $2.00 and $3.00 bill, both of which originated from the Bank of Chattanooga. The Bank closed when the Union forces took control of Chattanooga and never opened it's doors again. Your note probably does not have much monetary value due to the condition but it's a great conversation piece. These notes are likely more difficult to find than CSA (Confederate States of America) since there were fewer printed. With all due respect stevenmaggard, these were not printed on the back of Bank of Tennessee notes and I do believe history will show there were no $1,000,000.00 notes printed. Here is a reference to early Chattanooga history: https://books.google.com/books/about/Standard_History_of_Chattanooga_Tennesse.html?id=_R9EAQAAMAAJ For further reference, this provides the best reference I have found online. www.schafluetzel.org/.../Bank%20of%20Chattanooga%20Article5.pdf (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/three-dollar-bill.58293/) reference will provide some great information. Here are scans from $2.00 and $3.00 bills from my father's collection issued by the Bank of Chattanooga, both front and reverse sides.
Drew8048, from the scans your note "seems" to be a Garland #79; from the book The History of Early Tennessee Banks and their Issues by Paul E. Garland, 1983, printed by Multi-Print, Inc. Hampton, Virginia. On page 14 the note is described: "$3-C-Title. Ships in oval above, figure 3 in black to right, GOOD across left in black. R & L - THREE DOLLARS across in black, in a rectangular design with three pyramid shapes over dots(3) at each end of rectangle. Date - August 1862 printed. Imprint - None Reverse - Printed on backs of recycled notes of the Bank of East Tennessee" Note classed as Rarity 3 - 81 to 90 notes known. Also, the note appears to be Haxby G40 (Tennessee, pg 2349), Volume 4.
This is a really cool piece being on the eastern sea board and mid-atlantic I've seen a few when I worked at the local coin shop. In my opinion the two notes that were cut off were from the "broken bank" era circa 1857. Leading up to the civil war a lot of banks literally went broke and the unissued money was no good so when the states broke off and the CSA instituted the unissued notes from the former banks were used and printed the opposite direction as to not cause confusion. After the CW since CSA notes were literally worthless business owners would print advertisemnts for their business and distribute the CSA notes with their ad as a form of advertising. Who doesn't like getting money? The coolest example I've seen was a antique dealer from 1870'sto1880's printed on the back of a either 50 or 100 CSA bill; can't remember which though. That's definitely a keeper in my opinion.
I don't think the member who posted about the $1 million bill is still on the forum. But I suspect what he misinterpreted was a piece of an obsolete note stating the bank's net capital, out of context. If text like "holding capital of $1,000,000" was clipped off to just show the dollar amount it would look impressive to a novice.
