Confederate Money Value

Planet Banknote's Confederate currency guide gives the cleanest tests, and they hold up. Genuine notes above 50 cents were signed by hand, in ink, by clerks. The serial number was also written by hand, usually in the same ink. Sheets were cut apart with scissors, so the margins wander.

A reproduction prints everything. The signatures are part of the design, the serial is printed, and the edges are machine straight. Reproduction batches also reuse serial numbers, so if you have two notes with the same handwritten looking serial, they are copies.

The fakes started during the war. A Philadelphia shopkeeper, Samuel C. Upham, sold facsimile Confederate notes as souvenirs with an advertising line printed in the bottom margin. Buyers trimmed the margin off and spent them in the South. PMG reports Upham claimed 1,564,000 pieces between March 1862 and August 1863. An intact Upham with its margin is now collectible in its own right.

A century later came the souvenir packs. Collectors Weekly readers describe sets sold at historic sites and in cereal promotions in the 1950s for about a dollar. Those are the notes with printed signatures and perfect edges that most families have. They are worth what the paper weighs.

The February 17, 1864 series (types T-64 through T-72) is what most real notes turn out to be. The ranges below are CDN Greysheet CPG retail, from a worn note at the low end to a gem at the high end. A few of the ceilings look strange, such as $4,000 for the $10, because they come from rare varieties within the type, not the common note.

Confederate notes usually turn up in groups: a bundle in a Bible, an envelope of souvenirs, a frame from a grandparent's wall. Sort them before you price anything, because one genuine note in a pile of copies is common, and so is the reverse.

First pass: signatures. Put every note with printed signatures in one pile. Those are reproductions until proven otherwise, and they almost never are. Second pass: dates. Most genuine notes say February 17, 1864. Anything dated 1861 goes in its own pile for a closer look, since that is where the expensive types live. Third pass: condition. Separate notes with no folds from the rest, because those are the only common types where grade moves the price into the hundreds.

Keep the notes flat in paper money sleeves while you do this. Do not tape tears or press out folds. A genuine note with honest wear sells; a repaired one sells for less, and the repair is easy for a dealer to spot.

Greysheet's item pages list PMG graded sales that show where the market actually trades. A T-67 $20 brought $149 in Choice VF35, $119 in AU55, and $159 in CU63. A T-69 $5 sold for $106 in AU58 and $439 in Gem 65 EPQ. A T-68 $10 brought $139 in CU64 and $1,281 in Gem 66.

The pattern is the same across the series: a grade jump from 64 to 66 can multiply the price, while circulated notes stay in the tens of dollars. A worn T-68 with a tear is a $12 to $20 note however old it is. For what the grade numbers mean, see our banknote grading scale.

The first Confederate notes were issued in Montgomery, Alabama in March 1861: interest bearing $50, $100, $500, and $1,000 notes, only $2 million in total. Planet Banknote cites 607 each of the $500 and $1,000 and 1,606 each of the $50 and $100.

Greysheet prices the Montgomery T-1 $1,000 at $12,000 to $42,500, T-2 $500 at $6,000 to $37,000, T-3 $100 at $4,000 to $28,000, and T-4 $50 at $4,000 to $22,000. Other 1861 issues are expensive too: the T-35 $5 runs $5,500 to $42,000 and the T-27 $10 $4,000 to $28,000.

If your note says Montgomery and passes the tests above, stop handling it and contact an auction house. If it says Montgomery and has printed signatures, it is one of the most copied notes ever made.

The grade scale is the same one used for federal notes, from Good through Gem Uncirculated, but the paper was poor and the cutting was rough, so graders allow for things that would count as defects on a modern note. Uneven margins are normal. Ink signatures that have faded to brown are normal.

What still costs money is the usual list: folds, tears, holes, stains, missing corners and pieces trimmed off into the design. The PMG prices above show what that means in practice. A T-69 $5 at AU58, a note with only light handling, sold for $106. The same type in Gem 65 brought $439. Four times the price for a note that looks almost the same to most people.

If you have a note that might be uncirculated, grading through PMG or PCGS is worth the fee for the 1864 $10, $20 and $5 at that level, and for any 1861 note in any condition.

Many notes were cut cancelled when they were redeemed: a series of slits or a cut through the center or the signatures. Pierre Fricke's catalog, the standard reference, prices cancelled notes in their own column below uncancelled ones. They are genuine and collectible, just worth less. Nobody publishes a fixed discount, so get comparable sales for your exact type before you price one.

Common 1864 notes in circulated grades sell well on eBay and to local dealers, usually near the low end of the Greysheet range. Uncirculated notes and anything from 1861 belong at an auction house that runs paper money sales, ideally after grading. Our guide to selling old paper money walks through fees and timing.