Abstracts

Chase provides an overview of the fundamentals of classification and listing of confederate notes. He gives a summary of the types of notes issued by the Confederacy, as well as more detailed information such as the engravers, printers, and features of individual notes. This is followed by descriptions and illustrations of the notes. Chase also describes the counterfeit and facsimile notes that appeared during the War.

Contains a virtually complete listing of the paper money of Confederate States of America, and attempts to list the issues of the Southern states. Includes illustrations.

This guide covers the fundamentals of Confederate money, such as the types of cancellations, the printers and engravers names, signatures, and illustrations that are featured on the notes. The author provides a list of individuals whose portraits were featured on the notes. The portraits are included, along with numerous illustrations showing examples of the various notes issued. Criswell also covers Civil War tokens, which were issued by individual businesses to compensate for a lack of coins.

Dwinell uses political proclamations, speeches, and documents to construct a history of United States money. The documents and speeches originated from people of power within the government, such as Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and many more. For our purposes, the author’s extensive coverage of the documents and speeches that originated from Lincoln are the most relevant. Dwinell discusses extensively the political issues surrounding U.S. currency during the Civil War.

Hepburn seeks to cover all essential facts concerning currency, coinage, and banking, from the Colonial period to the development of the United States Federal Reserve Banks. Within this broad topic, Hepburn provides an historical account of the monetary system during the Civil War. Hepburn examines paper currency, the coinage system, legal tender notes, and the development of the National Banking system separately and in-depth.

Catalog guide to printed United States currency since 1800. Small notes, large notes, national bank notes, U.S. Treasury notes, Civil War substitutions, postage stamp envelopes, and error notes are all catalogued. 600 photos.

Graybacks and Gold details the monetary policy of the Confederate States of America, both on a national level and within individual states. Outlines the evolution of state printed currency, coinage, and treasury notes. Discusses economic, military, and managerial causes of C.S.A.'s failure to establish a satisfactory monetary system.

A publication from the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. Discusses the origin of various U.S. paper and coin currency, treasury notes and certificates, beginning with acts of congress authorizing minting and continuing through the production phase. Provides numerous tables outlining value and quantity of particular types of currency in circulation through the first 100 years of the United States.

Explores the history of the dollar, from the colonial period to the 20th century. The author tries to indicate the political, economic, and psychological factors underlying the monetary history of the United States. It also includes some basic numismatic information.

Reinfeld provides a comprehensive account of the concerns surrounding money during the Civil War. He looks at the consequences of the war on money and its effect on prices. He covers the different types of notes issued during the period, as well as Civil War tokens and encased postage. Reinfeld discusses the reasons why Confederate currency failed and the after-effects of the war that affected future currency.

Contains a catalog of all known Confederate issued currency. Gives detailed information about the history of each bill, as well as related historical details of interest. Includes illustrations.

Contains pictures of US and Confederate paper money and a poem about the worthlessness of Confederate currency written by a Southerner to a Northern friend.

An extreme shortage of gold that threatened to disrupt the activity of the U.S. Treasury and force many banks to close, caused bankers to request, and the Treasury and Congress reluctantly to approve, the issuance of paper money during the American Civil War. "The greenbacks were but the minor and preliminary element of a new and comprehensive fiscal program in which taxes and borrowings were major, the borrowings to be faciliated by a national system of banks whose demand should greatly enlarge the market for government bonds. The program, which in the end filled the Union's empty purse, dealt with both the immediate emergency and eventual needs." Historians of the later 19th century, obsessed with the dangers of paper money and struggling with demands by some contemporaries that such money be used for inflationary purposes, both underestimated the pressing necessity that led to the first issuance of greenbacks and failed to grasp the skill with which that emergency was met.

Alabama "anticipated both the Confederate government and all of the other seceding states in the matter of treasury notes." The author records the history of Alabama's paper money to the end of the war. "Basically unsound as the paper money policy of Alabama was, the 7,542,680.00 [dollar] issue in change bills and treasury notes was a paltry sum compared with the hundreds of millions emitted by the Confederate government." However, they served the purpose for which they were designed. In 1865 the State Convention repudiated all state paper money.

Discusses the numismatic content and quality of the "Mobile hoard," a box of notes uncovered in 1965, dating mostly from the Civil War. Collection includes bank, insurance, and railroad company scrip, as well as state and county government notes. Primary and secondary sources.

Analyzes the inflation in the Confederacy between 1861 and 1865 by constructing money and price indexes, by describing price movements in various parts of the South and the effect of the northern blockade and by discussing the real value of money and wages. The primary causes of the inflation were the increase in the stock of money due to government printing and the decline in real output of goods in the Confederacy. The northern blockade distorted prices, changed the distribution of income and affected changes in the production of goods. As usual during an inflation, the authorities failed to attack the basic causes of the inflation and tried to correct only the high prices in order to placate the population. Under these conditions, Confederate controls soon collapsed entirely.

Examines Louisiana's monetary policy during the Civil War, which reflected the monetary experience of the entire Confederacy. Louisiana entered the war in strong financial shape due to effective banking laws and the important commercial port of New Orleans. The state used bank notes as currency following secession in early 1861, but by September, Confederate Treasury notes had become the new currency. Louisiana began printing its own money in 1862. A growing reliance on the state's paper money and the sale of commodities eventually tooks its toll on Louisiana, which "was only a shell of its former self" by the end of the war.

The absence of a uniform, divisable exchange medium was the most serious impediment to trade in the early Civil War years in the Confederate West. Although the Confederate government issued paper money to pay its expenses, the value dropped quickly and hoarding of coins led to an acute shortage of small change. Scarcely any bills less than five dollars were printed. To remedy the deficiency, individual shopkeepers and merchants in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana issued private paper money called "shinplasters" and alleviated the problem somewhat. State governments in Arkansas and Louisiana also provided paper money. By 1863 inflation had made small denominations virtually useless and the private currencies disappeared.

Demonstrates how the Currency Reform Act of 1864 had unforeseen, negative consequences in the Confederacy west of the Mississippi. The act discriminated against certain denominations and caused hardships for retailers, who "required a highly divisible medium of exchange." The act also failed to provide Trans-Mississippi authorities with adequate amounts of new currency.

Describes the financial problems and policies of the state government from 1861 to 1865 including methods of funding initial war preparations, finances under the two war governers, the impact of Confederate taxation and monetary policy on the state, and state monetary policy during the closing months of the war. Deficit financing, currency depreciation, the requisitioning of slaves for public works, efforts to increase manufacturing, and the overland cotton trade to Mexico were all important issues for the wartime government.

Details the financial difficulties of the Arkansas state government during the Civil War. State warrants and war bonds lost value, as did Confederate currenc, as the war progressed. Little information on state expenditures after mid-1862 exists.