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| Issuer | Confederate States of America |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Keating & Ball |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States THE CONFEDERATE States of America WILL PAY TO BEARER FIVE DOLLARS. FOR REG. FOR TREAS. FUNDABLE IN Eight Per Cent Stock or BONDS OF THE Confederate States of AMERICA Richmond, Sept.,2nd 1861. RECEIVABLE IN PAYMENT OF ALL DUES EXCEPT EXPORT DUTIES. |
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| Protection description | Some examples bear a papermaker's watermark; issued both with and without watermark. |
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| Comments |
Keating & Ball — originally a jewelry firm in Charleston — pivoted to banknote printing after the Confederacy found itself cut off from Northern engravers and the established security printing houses. Their work is competent but noticeably cruder than the American Bank Note Company output used on earlier Confederate issues, a gap that widened as blockades tightened the supply of quality paper and ink.
The watermark on this series is among the few meaningful security measures the Confederacy managed to sustain. Counterfeiting was nonetheless rampant, much of it originating in the North as deliberate economic sabotage rather than criminal enterprise.