2 Dollars State of South Carolina

South Carolina's 1872 state notes were issued under Reconstruction-era Republican government, a period when the state legislature was controlled by a coalition of freedmen, northern migrants, and white Unionists. The administration of Governor Robert Scott had already been mired in accusations of fiscal mismanagement, and these notes circulated against a backdrop of genuine public skepticism about state financial instruments — skepticism that was not entirely unfounded given the scale of bonded debt being accumulated at the time.

American Bank Note Company printed for dozens of state and territorial authorities during this period, and the plates were reliable if not distinctive. By 1877, with Reconstruction effectively ended in South Carolina following the election of Wade Hampton, outstanding state paper of this type was largely retired.