50 Dollars

Keatinge & Ball operated out of Columbia, South Carolina — a deliberate relocation from Richmond to reduce vulnerability to Union raids on Confederate printing infrastructure. By 1863, the Confederate Treasury was issuing notes faster than any realistic redemption could support, and the public knew it. Inflation was already severe; a $50 note purchased meaningfully less with each passing month, which drove rapid circulation and correspondingly heavy wear on surviving examples.

The firm used locally sourced paper stock as blockades tightened Northern imports, and the inconsistency shows across the series — weight, texture, and ink absorption vary noticeably between print runs of otherwise identical notes.