100 Dollars

By 1864, the Confederate dollar had lost so much purchasing power that a $100 note was worth, in practical terms, a few dollars in Union greenbacks — and declining fast. The Richmond government knew it. This issue was part of the February 1864 currency reform that forcibly funded older notes at a discount or rendered them worthless, an attempt to contract the inflated money supply that largely failed.

Keatinge & Ball had relocated to Columbia after Federal pressure on Richmond made logistics increasingly difficult. When Sherman's army burned Columbia in February 1865, the firm's plates and remaining stock were destroyed — which defines the hard terminus on this series.