United States Confederate Currency
In the April of 1861, two months after the formation of the United States Confederacy, the Confederate States of America Dollar was released into circulation.
The banknotes came in many different designs and were released in $1/10, $1/2, $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1000 amounts. The bills were printed from 1861 to 1865, totaling $1.7 billion. There were 72 different types of notes printed in seven series during this time.
In the beginning, the Confederate money was admitted in the South as valuable, but as the war continued, more paper money was printed and the dates on which it able to be redeemed kept getting longer into the future. Inflation went through the roof and the money's value kept going down. It got so bad that by the end of the Civil War, the money was almost worthless.
Due to the few amount of proficient printers, engravers, and safe places to print in the South, the designs of the early Confederate currency were not correlated to each other very well. Some of the notes had pictures of greek gods and goddesses while other more southern themes showed African-American serfs, state capitols and ships, and people of historical importance, like "Stonewall" Jackson or George Washington. Other people who were pictured on later Confederate States of America money were Alexander Stephens, George Randolph, Jefferson Davis, and Lucy Pickens.
Because of banks and states being able to print their own notes and the many different variations of notes counterfeiting of Confederate currency was very common. These counterfeits were worthless at the time but now they are valuable and can be worth as much as official Confederate States of America paper money.
To prevent counterfeiting, most of the Confederate bills were hand signed by Register Robert Tyler and Treasurer Edward C. Elmore. This did not go on for long as it was impossible for both men to sign each and every note printed at the time. Instead, women were hired to sign for the Register and for the Treasurer and over time both Tyler and Elmore hired 200 women to sign the bills for them.
US $21.52
