10 Dollars

Hoyer & Ludwig were a Richmond lithographic firm with no prior banknote experience when the Confederacy turned to them in 1861 — the scarcity of established Southern printers forced the new government to use whoever had a press. The results were predictably uneven. Lithography rather than intaglio engraving made these notes far easier to counterfeit, and Northern counterfeiters exploited that weakness almost immediately, flooding Confederate markets with convincing fakes.

The watermark was among the few security concessions available given the limited materials and skills on hand. Paper sourced domestically varied considerably in quality across the run.