I would like to add a couple Confederate Notes to my collection. To be honest, I don't know anything about them...and I want to start to learn. But, for now all I want is to add a couple to my paper money collection...to perhaps plant a seed of interest. I know many of them are common and inexpensive. I would like to find one or 2 that aren't totally trashed but still with a lower price point...perhaps a larger denomination as well. I'm looking for general advice about these. Can anyone give me some basic information and help me avoid fakes?
I'm not a huge currency guy, but living in the south and having a love for history, I picked these up from one of our local coin dealers last year. I think I got a decent price. I know these are fairly common Confedrate Notes, and they're well worn, but I love the designs and history behind these notes.
Curiously I have gotten some original Confederate notes from the 1864 issue in lots that I bought, and probably paid no more than a dollar for them - in the past few months. And yeah, they are collectable still. Myself, I kind of like the 1861 issues, there were a variety of them issued by several different printers with different designs. Unfortunately they are not so cheap anymore. The one thing you will want to familiarise yourself with is those parchment tourist fakes, they are all over the place and there is actually a website that has all or most of the serial numbers in a database you can search.
I found this site a while back. Is this the site you are referring to? http://www.rebelstatescurrency.com/reproductions.html
Does anyone know of a good reference book for Confederate currency...something I can use to begin learning about these?
I've learned a lot from this site. I don't know enough to detect counterfeits so I just read about them online. http://www.csanotes.com/grading.htm
I have had good luck using several Red Book guides as initial reference books for different aspects of this hobby...so I went ahead and ordered this book. Hopefully it will be useful: http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Stat...le_1_sb?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315175228&sr=1-1
I have a small collection of Confederate paper and I am no expert but I know that the kind of paper used is one area to look, also pay attention to the signatures as well as if it is real the ink they used back then will bleed thru and turn a kind of brownish color. also as one poster said pay attention to the serial number as well. Best of luck!
I use Confederate States Paper Money, 9th Edition by Arlie R. Slabaugh as my reference. I believe that there are more recent editions, but this book is so informative that I constantly use it. I have found prices have risen about 25% from those in this edition. You could probably find one relatively cheap through Amazon. I'm with you SM, I like the early editions (1861) more so than the latter. I had a $10 1864 but sold it a few years back. To compensate for the loss, I recently began buying confederate notes again. you'll have to excuse the $10 in the second scan...
