Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Cents State of Georgia
| Issuer | State of Georgia Treasury |
|---|---|
| Year | 1863 |
| 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) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Criswell CS#14a |
| Obverse description | Central vignette of three male figures in an outdoor setting, printed by intaglio, flanked by two guilloche medallions each bearing the numeral '50'. A circular red Treasury overstamp is applied to the upper right area, partially overlapping the right medallion. The issuer's name 'THE STATE OF GEORGIA' is set in bold letterpress across the lower portion of the vignette field, with the place and date 'Milledgeville, Ga.' and 'January 1st 1863' inscribed in the upper corners. At bottom center, a small registered vignette of a domed building appears between two manuscript signatures, with printed designations 'for Compt Gen!' and 'for Treasurer' on either side. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Milledgeville, Ga. January 1ˢᵗ 1863 50 50 THE STATE OF GEORGIA Will pay the bearer FIFTY CENTS at the Treasury in Confederate Treasury Notes, when presented in sums of Five Dollars and upwards. REGISTERED Howell. Engraver. for Compt Gen! for Treasurer |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Georgia's wartime fractional notes were a direct response to the collapse of small-denomination coin circulation across the Confederacy by mid-1862. Hoarding had stripped silver from everyday commerce almost entirely, and individual states moved to fill the void without waiting for Richmond. Georgia's Treasury issued from Milledgeville, then still the state capital — a fact that shifted when Atlanta's growth made the old capital feel increasingly peripheral, though the move itself came after the war.
The Howell engraving credit is unusual; most Confederate state fractionals relied on whatever local print capacity survived the Union blockade of outside suppliers. The overstamp security feature was a practical counterfeit deterrent, not a ceremonial one.