50 Dollars

The Confederate States of America contracted the National Bank Note Company of New York to print its earliest currency — an arrangement that lasted only months before the outbreak of hostilities made using a Northern firm politically and logistically untenable. This note was printed in enemy territory before there was formally an enemy, a situation that underscores how quickly secession outpaced the practical business of establishing a functioning government.

Cotton paper was specified from the outset, a deliberate nod to the Confederacy's agricultural identity and, more practically, an attempt to distinguish its currency from Northern issues. NBNC's involvement ended by mid-1861.