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50 Dollars
| Issuer | Confederate States of America |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| 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 |
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| Obverse description | At left, an allegorical vignette of Tellus, goddess of the Earth, seated and holding a globe surmounted by a dove; at center, a portrait vignette of George Washington. The denomination and issuer inscription are rendered in letterpress within a plain border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, presenting plain paper with only ghosted impressions from the obverse visible through the sheet. A faint allegorical vignette of a female figure, likely a personification of Virginia or Liberty, can be discerned as a through-print from the face. |
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| Comments |
Hoyer & Ludwig were a Richmond lithography firm with no prior banknote experience when the Confederacy turned to them in 1861. The result is exactly what you'd expect from a commercial printer pressed into currency production — lithographed output rather than engraved intaglio, which meant far easier counterfeiting. The Union recognized this almost immediately and organized systematic counterfeit campaigns, flooding Confederate-held territory with convincing facsimiles that accelerated the South's already severe inflation problem.
The watermark is the sole concession to security. By 1864, Confederate currency had lost roughly 90% of its face value regardless.