Confederate and Southern States Currency

Scope and content:

The collection of Confederate and Southern states currency is very extensive, consisting of 3329 pieces. Of this total 2601 bills were issued by the national government, and 727 bills were issues of state governments. See also the Raphael P. Thian Papers for a large collection of Confederate and Southern States currency.

The standard catalog for this money is Grover C. Criswell, Jr.'s, Confederate and Southern States Currency. It is the basis for the identification and listing of the bills in this collection. A copy of this catalog is available in the Rubenstein Library. The latest edition available for use in describing this collection was the 1964 edition. The Confederate currency in this collection is divided into three categories:

1. Confederate Currency (Deacidified), 638 items;
2. Confederate Currency (Not Deacidified), 47 items;
3. Confederate Currency (Ball Family Division), 1930 items all of which have been deacidified.

The Ball Family Division was the gift of Mr. Douglas B. Ball and his father, Mr. George W. Ball, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, among whose family possessions this money was found. Mr. Douglas Ball, whose knowledge of Confederate currency is extensive, knew of the large collection at Duke and chose to augment it with the Balls' sizeable collection. Gifts from the Balls also made possible the deacidification work that has been done. Douglas Ball is author of the "Foreword" to the 1972 republication of Raphael P. Thian's Register of the Confederate Debt, a basic source for checking the authenticity of Confederate paper currency.

Douglas Ball had cataloged the Ball Collection in detail, its basic arrangement based upon Criswell. Ball's lists of the currency are filed with it. Ball sometimes deviated from or elaborated upon the listings in Criswell. For example, there are $20 bills, Type 58, Criswell No. 418/1 which Ball has further subdivided into undated, redrawn letters, and maroon letters. His lists also record his evaluations of the variety, rarity, condition and value of the bills. Mr. Ball's extensive cataloging and listing made it especially appropriate to maintain the Ball Collection as a separate division of the Currency Collection. Not all of Ball's lists itemize each bill, citing the number of each note. In these cases, additional lists have been made itemizing each bill and recording its number whenever legible. Thus, some groups of bills have two lists. The checkmarks beside the note numbers on the Ball lists were made by staff of the Rubenstein Library, the marks indicating that those bills are part of the Duke collection. Ball did not always list notes in strict numerical order. For example, among the $20 notes, Type 18, he mixed Criswell numbers as well as note numbers. His lists should always be used with this characteristic in mind.

The Confederate Currency (Deacidified and Not Deacidified) consists of the library's collection that originated from sources other than the Ball family. The Confederate Currency (Not Deacidified) consists of more recent acquisitions and other bills that were not included in the deacidification project and that have to be kept separate from the treated items. The arrangement of the Ball Family Division of Confederate Currency and of the Confederate Currency is the same. The notes are arranged first by denominations: $1, $5, $20, $50, etc. Each denomination is subdivided by Type numbers as listed in Criswell's catalog. Types are bills of different designs. Types are subdivided according to denominations, dates, internal design differences, overprints, etc., each subdivision having been assigned a Criswell number. Thus, Types are subdivided by Criswell numbers, although not always in exact numerical order. The lists record the Type number, Criswell number, denomination, serial letter, note number, condition and value (Ball's lists), and occasional comments.

The numerical count of the denominations of notes in the Ball Family Division is:

1. $1 (6);
2. $2 (15);
3. $5 (569);
4. $10 (662);
5. $20 (514);
6. $50 (106);
7. $100 (53);
8. $500 (4);
9. $1000 (1).

The count for the Confederate Currency (Deacidified) is:

1. 50¢ (20);
2. $1 (24);
3. $2 (94);
4. $5 (116);
5. $10 (190);
6. $20 (85);
7. $50 (45);
8. $100 (58);
9. $500 (6).

Duplicates are numerous, but, of course, no two bills have the same note numbers which, although occasionally printed in early currency, are usually handwritten. The count of the Confederate Currency (Not Deacidified) is:

1. 50¢ (2);
2. $1 (9);
3. $5 (5);
4. $10 (10);
5. $20 (8);
6. $50 (3);
7. $100 (2);
8. $500 (2);
9. (a total of 41 pieces.)

The Southern States Currency is divided into two categories in order to keep separate the deacidified and non-deacidified notes. The non-deacidified notes (549) are from the following states:

1. Alabama (2);
2. Georgia (2);
3. Louisiana (2);
4. North Carolina (518);
5. Missouri (8);
6. Texas (1);
7. Virginia (16).

The deacidified notes (166) are from:

1. Alabama (34);
2. Arkansas (1);
3. Georgia (91);
4. Louisiana (5);
5. Mississippi (28);
6. North Carolina (6);
7. Virginia (1)

The currency issued by the Confederate and southern state governments often features engraving, printing, and decorative vignettes, but these bills in general are not as colorful or varied as those issued during and before the Civil War by the private banks and other businesses. Illustrative vignettes are still common. They include portraits of men and women, public buildings, scenes of white plantation owners, overseers, and enslaved field laborers, American Indians, railroads, steamships and sailing ships, mythological scenes, historical scenes, war scenes, agricultural scenes, places, etc. A notable vignette is a view of the port of Wilmington, N.C., that appears on a $5 bill from N.C. and also on a $100 bill from Mississippi, in the latter case not labeled on the bill.

Using These Materials