20 Dollars State of North Carolina

North Carolina turned to J.T. Paterson & Co. in Augusta because by 1862 the Confederate printing infrastructure was already badly strained — Richmond-based firms were overwhelmed with Confederate Treasury notes, and individual states increasingly had to source their own currency production wherever capacity could be found. Paterson was one of the few Southern firms with the equipment and experience to handle state-level contracts at volume.

North Carolina issued substantial quantities of its own currency throughout the war, partly to supplement Confederate notes and partly because the state government was chronically short of specie. Criswell CS#119 falls within a wartime series printed under genuine logistical pressure, not peacetime convenience.