9

At the start of the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate States of America began to print their own money. Almost immediately it began to lose value due to inflation (except in 1864). By the end of the war it was considered, for all intents and purposes, worthless.

However I am sure anyone now in the year 2019 would love to get their hands on any of these confederate bills as they can garner you anywhere from $100 to thousands of dollars just for 1 bill.

My questions are

  • Since the money was considered worthless at the end of the war, did most people just throw it out?
  • If any was kept, was it kept more as a souvenir of sorts?
  • Is there record of anyone hoarding it all with the assumption it would one day be worth something?
  • And what I'd like to know the most is at what point in history did these bills break even again? Meaning what year did their value increase to the point that they held the same purchasing power as back when they were in use during the war? So for example a confederate $100 bill goes from $100 down to $0 and back up to $100 for a short time before it exceeds $100 in value. About what year did this happen?
Improve this question
4
  • @TomasBy yes in fact that was actually what prompted me to ask this question, however I asked it wrong. I will fix it, thank you.
    – wardr
    Dec 3, 2019 at 13:54
  • The answer might be found in this book by Peter Frick.
    – Spencer
    Dec 3, 2019 at 14:06
  • Possibly related: Lost Cause of the Confederacy. (Collectors are another possibility of course.)
    – Denis de Bernardy
    Dec 3, 2019 at 14:51
  • Confederate money never lost value. After the war a Confederate bill was worth exactly the face value in confederate money, which had no value. So a Confederate one dollar bill was always worth exactly one Confederate dollar. What changed was the value of a physical piece of Rebel paper money in US dollars or other legal tender, which went from zero to valuable collectible decades after the war.
    – MAGolding
    Dec 3, 2019 at 18:54

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5

The value of Confederate money, as a currency has not changed, since the issuer (Confederate States of America) no longer exists.

Many tall tales exist on how the currency was used after the war.

The most amusing one can be seen in episode 1 of the Beverly Hillbillies.

What is true, is that many Confederate Bonds were horded (mainly in Europe) in the vain hope that they would one day be redeemed by the United States.

However, at the close of the war the re-established Federal authorities ignored these foreign bonds, like all the other bonds of the Confederate government, or of state governments under the Confederacy.

The value of an individual Banknotes or Coins have changed based on the conditions common for collecter items

  • quality, rarity, demand

CSA $1.7 billion were issued as banknotes between 1861 and 1864.

Around 23,000 gold coins (using original US die) were believed to have been minted.

10.000 as 1 and 5 dollars, 13,000 in 20 dollars coins.

So around $300,000 in gold coins as compared to $1.7 billion (0.02% in gold coins) in banknotes.

1 May 1865 (last exchange): $1200.00 to $1 in gold.

Since 99.98% of CSA currency was in banknotes, comparisons with possible confederate gold coins is really not relevant.

Sources:

Improve this answer
11
  • thanks but I'm mainly looking for the exact year the value of the notes exceeded the value printed on the note - in US dollars.
    – wardr
    Jan 15, 2020 at 6:40
  • 1
    @‘Mark Johnson’ I’m not really sure where the disconnect is here, but I thought the question was rather clear. Either you don’t understand the question or are just being difficult on purpose to be “technically right”? I’m clearly not looking for whatever you are trying to relay. I’d like to know, in US dollars, when the value of the note broke even and became more valuable than the number printed on the note.
    – wardr
    Jan 26, 2020 at 9:22
  • 1
    @wardr There wer 7 different issues of Confederate Banknotes. So there are 7 different $ 100 notes that differ from each other. As a collectors item each based on rarity and condition of each note will differ radically in price ($20 to $1000). As a currency unit they all have the value US 0.00. In your question you have not made it clear which type of calculation your are asking for. You then downvote an answer that attempts to explain to you the difference. You should ask yourself why this is the only answer. Nobody else knows what you want.
    – Mark Johnson
    Jan 26, 2020 at 9:53
  • 2
    @Mark Johnson: What do you mean, source for my claims? You can quite easily look up market prices for $20 gold pieces on Google or your local coin dealer, showing that they do indeed have value, and that value is not the $20 face value. You seem not to understand the difference between the value of a thing as a good, and the use of particular things such as banknotes that serve as a symbol of value, while having little or no intrinsic value themselves.
    – jamesqf
    Apr 3, 2020 at 18:35
  • 2
    @Mark Johnson: In short, one of us seems to have entirely missed the point of the question. Obviously, Confederate paper money had no currency value after the war, but it slowly gained value as a good - to wit, a collector's item. It's no different from the way collectors pay well above face/currency value for rare US coins & bills.
    – jamesqf
    Apr 4, 2020 at 17:47
5

Mark Johnson answered already (correctly) that Confederate Money has no value, but individual banknotes and coins (and bonds) can have value as collectors' items. This is, however, not due to Federal Authorities IGNORING Confederate Bonds or other claims - a coin or bill is also a claim against the issuer to accept it as payment. On the contrary, they made ACTIVELY sure all who had ever helped the Confederacy with deliveries or services or payments and now held cash or bonds of any Confederate authority would NEVER see any compensation.

Therefore, they passed the 14th Amendment that says in section 4, 2nd sentence: "But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void." That means making Confederate bonds or cash again to money that has worth would require changing the US constitution. This is relatively difficult and without broad unity in US impossible. We can conclude that no people would speculate in those instruments and would be "hoarding it all with the assumption it would one day be worth something", which was asked in the third bullet in the question.

Speculation in other old bonds does happen: After fall of the Soviet-union, I read of speculators buying bonds of Czarist Russia and demanding Russia to honor them, because Russia could otherwise not raise money at some old bond markets in Western Europe. I have not heard that this speculation was successful.

Improve this answer
3
  • There was a flag, but IMHO this serves as an answer and explanation to the third bullet in the question. It might not hurt to clarify that though.
    – T.E.D. ♦
    Apr 3, 2020 at 0:51
  • 1
    Thanks for the comment. I've tried to clarify the answer to the third bullet in the question.
    – Peter T
    Apr 3, 2020 at 7:29
  • 1
    Yes. My Lithuanian great-grandfather invested in some 500 ruble imperial notes that were never redeemable, but are very pretty.
    – Aaron Brick
    Apr 3, 2020 at 14:32
3

The question, as asked, has no objective answer. The collector value of a Confederate banknote is not fixed by anything, and I doubt it is particularly consistent during any given year.

Going from the general behaviour of collectables with no intrinsic utility, the price will depend very strongly on condition, quite probably varying by a factor of ten or more between mint and well-used. Other factors will include location, keenness of the collector and skill of the seller, and variations in rarity. Since there are 72 different types of genuine Confederate banknotes, plus many collectable forgeries, rarity is likely to be the most important factor.

Finally, none of these factors are likely to be strongly linked to the face value of the notes, so even if the question was answerable, the answers would inevitably be different for different denominations.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.