50 Cents State of North Carolina

North Carolina turned to J.T. Paterson & Co. in Augusta because by mid-1862 the state's usual printing options had been severely disrupted. Northern engravers were obviously unavailable, and the few capable Southern firms were already overwhelmed with Confederate government work. Paterson was a practical choice, not an inspired one.

Small-denomination fractional notes like this one circulated hard and fast — coin had vanished almost entirely from everyday commerce by the second year of the war, hoarded by a public that had no faith paper would hold its value. Survival rates for heavily handled 50-cent issues are correspondingly poor.