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50 Cents Western & Atlantic Rail Road - Georgia
| Issuer | Western & Atlantic Rail Road |
|---|---|
| Year | 1862 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Cents (0.50) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | No...................... Atlanta, GA, (issue date, 1862) THE WESTERN & ATLANTIC R.R. will pay to the bearer FIFTY CENTS in current Bank Notes whenever the sum of five dollars or upward in these bills is presented. ................................Treas'r ..................................... For Sup't |
| Reverse description | Reverse plain, unprinted, with aged paper surface and no text or vignette. |
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| Comments |
Western & Atlantic Rail Road was a state-owned line — owned by Georgia itself, not a private company — which gave it the unusual authority to issue scrip during the Civil War when small-change coinage vanished almost entirely from circulation. This 50-cent note is part of that emergency fractional currency, intended to keep wage payments and small transactions moving along the line's Atlanta operations when coin hoarding made ordinary commerce nearly impossible.
Railroad scrip of this period was redeemable in theory; in practice, redemption depended entirely on whether the issuing railroad survived the war intact. The W&A did not escape unscathed — Union forces made it a primary target, and the line saw some of the war's most destructive raiding before Atlanta fell in 1864.