1864 dated Confederate $2 Note - Confederate Paper Money - Confederate States of America

Richmond, Virginia. $2. CR-T70. Confederate Treasury Notes (banknotes) were ultimately issued in 50¢, $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 and $1,000 denominations with a variety of designs, issuers and redeemable obligations. The amount of currency issued under the various acts of the Confederate Congress totaled $1.7 billion. Bills were released in 72 different note "types" in seven "series" from 1861 through 1864. Since there were many types of Confederate notes as well as notes issued by the states of the Confederacy, and since banks could issue their own notes, counterfeiting was a major problem for the Confederacy. Many of these contemporary counterfeits are identifiable today and they can be as valuable to a collector as a real note. Confederate dollars and coins remain the subject of a lively trade, with careful grading of damage and deterioration similar to booksellers' gradings.

The Confederate States dollar was first issued just before the outbreak of the American Civil War by the newly formed Confederacy. It was not backed by hard assets, but simply by a promise to pay the bearer after the war, on the prospect of Southern victory and independence. As the Civil War progressed and victory for the South seemed less and less likely, its value declined. After the Confederacy's defeat, its money had no value, and both individuals and banks lost large sums. The first series of Confederate paper money, issued in March 1861, bore interest and had a total circulation of $1,000,000. As the war began to tilt against the Confederates, confidence in the currency diminished, and the government inflated the currency by continuing to print unbacked banknotes. By the end of 1863, the Confederate dollar (or "Greyback", to distinguish it from the then-new "Greenback" paper US dollar, which was likewise put into circulation during the war) was quoted at just six cents in gold, and fell further still.

The Greyback is now a prized collector's item, in its many versions, including those issued by individual states and local banks. The various engravings of leading Confederates, gods and goddesses, trains, ships and slaves on these hastily printed banknotes, sometimes cut with scissors and signed by clerks, continue to stimulate debate among antique dealers, with even some of the counterfeit notes commanding high prices. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_dollar

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