20 Dollars Central Bank of Virginia

The Central Bank of Virginia was chartered in Richmond and operated branches across the state, but by 1860 it was already financially fragile. The decision to issue higher-denomination notes that year came at precisely the wrong moment — within eighteen months, Virginia's secession and the Confederacy's parallel currency system rendered most Virginia bank paper increasingly difficult to circulate outside the state.

The American Bank Note Company's New York imprint on a Virginia bank note issued on the eve of the Civil War is a small irony worth noting. Once the war began, replenishing worn notes through a Northern printer became impossible, and many Virginia banks exhausted their remaining stock rather than commission replacements.