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 Dollars
| Issuer | Confederate States of America |
|---|---|
| Year | 1864 |
| 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 | Keatinge & Ball, Columbia, S.C. |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain reverse with an intricate guilloche lathe-work pattern in the center, a large '50' numeral at centre, and '50' enclosed in circular guilloche rosettes at each of the four corners. |
| Reverse lettering | FIFTY FIFTY |
| 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 |
By 1864, the Confederate monetary system was in freefall. This note was issued as Richmond struggled with inflation running into the hundreds of percent annually — a direct consequence of financing the war almost entirely through paper emissions rather than taxation or meaningful specie backing. Congress passed the Currency Reform Act of February 1864 specifically to address the glut, forcibly funding older notes into bonds at a discount, but the restructuring did little to restore public confidence.
Keatinge & Ball had relocated to Columbia after Federal pressure on Richmond made supply lines increasingly unreliable. The Columbia facility was destroyed in February 1865 when Sherman's army burned the city, cutting off the Confederacy's primary remaining printing capacity entirely.