# Oh drat, Confederate money. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298 "2007-03-09T19:25:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/21 "2007-03-10T04:32:28Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] The CSA did **not** issue those coins. They, as your link said, were merely trying to see if coinage would be viable and only a few patterns were made. [/QUOTE] Actually issuing coins would have required having a supply of gold or silver, and using it up to produce coins that would retain their worth. The Confederacy didn’t have a big supply of these precious metals, and didn’t want to spend it on coins, when they could produce paper money instead. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/22 "2007-03-10T06:49:21Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] We currently purchase decent condition Cofederate notes for about $20 each! Usually these are the 1864 issues. When I started in the coin biz in 1971, you could buy Confederate notes for about $2. each. All collectibles related to the Civil War are pretty hot. [/QUOTE] Out of curiosity, how much would you have been paying per bill around 1985? ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/23 "2007-03-10T08:15:10Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] I’ll pay $30 _each_ for your $1 and $2 notes. My email is visible. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Oh crap!! ☹ Years ago a lady gave me a shoe box full of CSA notes of all denominations and there were even a few printed by some railway company which, as far as I can remember, were authorised by the CSA to print. A number of these notes had handwritten notes on them, ie, “worthless” ,“jst bak in?” and a few more I forget. Not being a collector I searched the net and ended up shipping them to an American store in Washington, they paid me the princely sum of about £120 for around $5000 worth of CSA currency. I should mention that most of these notes were in pristine condition altho’ a few were creased and torn. Bugger! ☹☹ ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/24 "2007-03-10T08:20:29Z")
Forgot to mention that these notes were blank on the reverse and some of the serial numbers were hand written. When I say years ago it was about 4-5 years back I sold them. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/25 "2007-03-10T10:04:58Z")
[QUOTE=Northern Piper] I don’t think you ever could turn in Reb cash for Yank cash. That was the point of section 4 of the [XIVth Amendment](http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxiv.html): So I don’t think you could ever turn in Confederate dollars, or redeem state bonds issued by the states in rebellion. As for the effect it had on the Southern economy, well, it’s risky going into rebellion. If you back the wrong horse, there’s consequences. [/QUOTE] So, doesn’t that mean any state that paid off its Confederate veterans was breaking the law? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/26 "2007-03-10T12:29:07Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Miskatonic] Out of curiosity, how much would you have been paying per bill around 1985? [/QUOTE] I’m guessing about $5. Sorry I missed yours, **chowder**. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/27 "2007-03-10T12:39:26Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] I’m guessing about $5. Sorry I missed yours, **chowder**. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Not half as sorry as I am ☹ I’ve got a Stars and Bars flag if you’re interested. Mind you I guess they are easy enough to get over the pond. Oh Oh i’ve also got an Iron Cross 2nd class 1943 and a couple of SS daggers but I’m not certain if the daggers are original or replicas. Plus the creme de la creme…a German officers cap with deaths head insignia, I was offered £200 for this a couple of years ago. Matter of fact I’ve got all sorts of crap lying about the place 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/28 "2007-03-10T15:55:50Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] So, doesn’t that mean any state that paid off its Confederate veterans was breaking the law? [/QUOTE] I don’t think that ever became a problem. 😛 [HIJACK] UNLESS you count things like prosthetic limbs (which according to Ken Burns Civil War documentary accounted for 25% of the budget of the State of Mississippi during one year of the late 1860s) and veterans pensions, which were sometimes masked as “pensions for aged and or infirm white men who were of the age of military service from 1861-1865” (i.e. no actual saying “Confederate pensions”); other times they were flat out “Confederate pensions”. Old slaves of course got no pensions. Confederate veterans were ineligible for pensions, which was a MAJOR hot potato issue in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Editorial after editorial and Congressional speech after sermon denounced the sad state of affairs for pensions for Union soldiers and the “refusal” of the government to do anything about it. (Harriet Tubman, for instance, got $8 per month as the widow of a Union private [she got nothing for her own role as laundress/nurse/spy/leading-troops-on-raids-in-SC], which even then was next to nothing.) The reason the Feds never upped the amount significantly was that almost every Southern/border-state Senator and Rep. blocked and filibustered and railed equally loud _against_ increasing veterans benefits because their own constituents, regardless of whether they served a day or served at every campaign from Ft. Sumter to Bennett Place, received nothing but state pensions and for quite understandable reasons (ethics of the war completely aside) they’d be dead level damned before they’d see their state’s tax monies go to give $4 per month extra to the guys who burned grandma’s house or killed Uncle Roy and cost Big Daddy his arms. [/HIJACK] ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298/29 "2007-03-10T23:58:34Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Not half as sorry as I am ☹ I’ve got a Stars and Bars flag if you’re interested. Mind you I guess they are easy enough to get over the pond. Oh Oh i’ve also got an Iron Cross 2nd class 1943 and a couple of SS daggers but I’m not certain if the daggers are original or replicas. Plus the creme de la creme…a German officers cap with deaths head insignia, I was offered £200 for this a couple of years ago. Matter of fact I’ve got all sorts of crap lying about the place 😃 [/QUOTE] Probably taking this to email is best. samclem [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-drat-confederate-money/395298.md?page=1)