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50 Cents Bank of Augusta
| Issuer | Bank of Augusta |
|---|---|
| Year | 1863 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Plain white ground with a simple typeset letterpress layout and no pictorial vignette. Denomination numerals appear in the upper left in black and upper right in red overprint, with a Gothic letter 'B' at top centre serving as a series indicator. The issuer name 'BANK OF AUGUSTA' is set in large display type across the centre, above the promise-to-pay text rendered in italic script; the denomination words 'FIFTY CENTS' are printed in red. A manuscript signature appears above the dotted cashier line at lower right, with the place and date 'Augusta, Ga., Jan. 1, 1863' at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse consists of an overprint applied to a portion of another Bank of Augusta note, in this case a fragment of a Bank of Augusta $4 note, with the underlying printed text and design elements of that host note visible beneath the scrip overprint. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Augusta was one of Georgia's oldest chartered banks, but by 1863 it was operating under severe strain — Confederate requisitions on specie reserves had gutted the state banking system, and fractional notes like this one emerged to fill the void left by the near-total disappearance of small silver coins from circulation. The Confederacy's inability to control subsidiary currency meant that dozens of Georgia banks issued their own fractional paper independently, with no central redemption guarantee.
Augusta was a major Confederate manufacturing hub, which kept its banks nominally functional longer than many Southern counterparts. Redemption after 1865 was, of course, worthless.