I made a trip to one of the local coin shops this morning to sell some junk silver and buy gold.After completing the transaction i noticed several CSA notes in the display case. One $10 and one $5 note priced at $35 each so I bought the $10. Although i have been collecting US currency for about five yrs this is my first CSA note. My question for the CSA note collectors , The paper feels nothing like standard US paper money(old or new),it's thinner or flimsy in comparison,despite being in fairly decent condition also the cut is sloppy Is this normal,did they use inferior paper stock to print currency? I'm pretty happy with the price and condition (xf no folds)) i just hope i didn't end up with a fake note. Since the price was low i decided to take the risk. One thing i like about this shop is they will give you your change in old bills,today they gave me a crisp Unc 1957 $1 silver cert.
I recall reading something about the Confederate states not having the facilities to produce quality paper currency so they used sub-standard paper and printing equipment. It's feels like plain paper without the cloth used in US currency,if this was the best they could produce i can see why the CSA cause was doomed to fail.
not only did they use flimsy paper, but they often re-used paper. Some notes can find images of other notes on the reverse. I have never liked CGA notes beacuse of the lack or quality IMHO
poor quality is right,one interesting thing,a large # of these notes seem to have survived in xf-au,possibly duo to the fact that they were only in circulation as currency for a few years. I wanted one example for my collection but don't plan to buy any additional one's
Looks real to me. But come on...don't bag the CSA notes Sure they were made of a bit less quality paper but there was a war you know And as for survival of them, I think it's because people bought these and put them away. Then in not too long they were worth nothing so people just left them stored somewhere like us an old newspapers. There are tons of different types, years and denom's available. And with all the great vignette's on them.
Looks good, and as to the paper, yes it seems flimsy but it was actually pretty strong. And if you compare it to most of the pre-1862 banknotes (State, wildcat, broken bank notes etc) you will find that this was the paper quality in common use for paper money at the time. I haven't had the chance to handle the early 1862 - 1870 era Federal notes so I don't know what the paper was like on them. It would not surprise me to find them to be similar. After all some of the notes for both the North and the South were printed by the same printers. We didn't have the BEP or Crane Paper back then.
I just had to do it. I had a recollection of a Sale that I bid on for a lot of Ten-Ten Uncut. Believe it or not I still have the catalog, my invoice along with the prices realized. Lynn Knight Auction Jan. 9-10, 1992 Orlando Fla. These were Gem new. I paid $210.00 for the uncut sheet. Of course, I have long since dispersed the lot in 2002 for a nice profit. BTW If anyone is interested in some old auction catalogs, send me an e-mail. I also have some posted in the classified section , here. More than nine million of these $10.00 notes were printed. In the 1950'S Dealers were buying these for 12-15 Cents a piece.
@Duke- I really like that $500 CSA note. What is the condition and value on it? (I mainly collect older silver bullion bars, rounds and ingots, but I have always wanted a good graded CSA note)
The poor paper and sloppy cutting have reasons to them: I remember watching a show a while back that mentioned that the confederate currency was printed on rice paper (hence, different feel) and was also cut by hand (not always straight, as you can see.)
I have a few but that one has the best red color from the ink. It's maybe a xf and I'd guess @ $600 but it's the one of mine I like the best of the $500's.
