1864
Feb
17
Seventh Issue of notes issued
Fourth Session, First Confederate Congress adjourns
Confdederate submarine Hunley sinks USS Housatonic
Mar 9
Grant becomes Union general-in-chief
Mar 16
CSA Vice President Stephens denounces Davis administraton
May
2
First Session, Second Confederate Congress convenes
May
5-6
Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia
June 7
Lincoln renominated
June
14
First Session, Second Confederate Congress adjourns
Aug
5
Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama
Aug 29
Democrats nominate McClellan for president
Sep 2
Atlanta, Georgia occupied by Union
Oct 19
Union victory at Westport, Missouri
Nov 7
Earliest use of CS11KB and CS12KB
Second Session, Second Confederate Congress, convenes
Nov 8
Lincoln re-elected
Nov 16-Dec 21
Sherman's March to the Sea
December 21
Savannah, Georgia occupied by Union
1865
Feb 17
Fall of Columbia, South Carolina
Mar 13
Confederate Congress authorizes recruitment of slaves into army
Mar 18
Confederate Congress approves an Eighth issue of notes
Final Session of Confederate Congress Adjourns
Apr 2
Fall of Peterburg
Apr3
Fall of Richmond
April 9
Lee surrenders at Appomattox
Apr 14
Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth
May 10
Jefferson Davis captured
May 22
Geniune Confederate stamp usage ends
May 26
Kirby Smith surrenders Trans-Mississippi
Confederate Currency -- Seventh Issue February 17, 1864
First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth
Under the Act of February 17, 1864, a new issue of notes was authorized which was printed in unlimited quantities (probably about a billion dollars). All earlier notes were to be retired after being funded into bonds by certain dates after which any remaining notes were to be taxed out of existence. Apparently this converse effort to reduce circulation was not too successful juding by the number of earlier issues still in existence. By this time the value of the Confederate collar was so low that it didn't matter much whether one redeemed the notes in equally inflated bonds or note. Circulating side by side, one issue was worth as much as the other.
The firm that engraved the 50 cent notes, originally Archer & Daly, was reorganized as Archer & Halpin.
50 cents -- T72 -- Profile of Jefferson Davis. 1,047,212 issued.
The remaining bills were engraved by Keatinge & Ball, with work sublet to Evans & Cogswell, who helped print the $1, $2, $5, and $10 notes.
$1 -- T71 -- Bust of Clement C. Clay. At the time this was being circulated, he was an agent in Canada. Some of this week was sublet to Evans & Cogswell. 598,400 notes issued.
$2 -- T70 -- Large "2" in center, bust of Judah P. Banjamin at right. Some of this week was sublet to Evans & Cogswell. 822,393 notes issued.
$5 -- T69 -- Capital of the Confederate States (Virgina State Capitol) in center. Bust of Treasury Secretary Christopher Memminger at right. Some of this week was sublet to Evans & Cogswell. 5,525,264 notes issued.
$10 -- T68 -- Field artillery. Bust of War Secretary Robert T. Hunter at right. Some of this week was sublet to Evans & Cogswell. 9,135,920 notes issued.
$20 -- T67 -- Tennesse State Capitol, Nashville. Bust of Vice President Alexander Stephens at right. 4,297,004 notes issued.
$50 -- T66 -- Bust of Jefferson Davis. 1,671,444 notes issued.
$100 -- T65 -- "Women of the South" represented by Lucy H. Pickens. Two soldiers at lower left, bust of cabinet member George Randolph at right. 896,644 notes issued.
$500 -- T64 -- Bust of General Thomas T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson at lower right. Confederate flag and seal at left. 150,428 notes issued.
The style of the reverse on the 1864 notes was not nearly so elaborate as that used in 1862 and 1863. This was not the intention. Elaborate backs were ordered in 1863 from S. Straker & Sons in London. These "Chemicographic" plates were made for the $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 and $500 notes. But the blockade runner that carried the
plates from Nassau in the Bahamas to Wilmington, North Carolina was intercepted, and the plates were captured. Instead very plain blue backs were used for these notes, and no backs for the other denominations.
Issue of Feb. 17, 1864 "Blueback" |
"Chemicograph" back |
The Seventh Issue was the last but an Eighth Issue for $80,000,000 to pay the Army was authorized by Congress at its last meeting on March 18, 1865. It was vetoed by President Davis who felt the 1864 issue was to replace older notes and reduce circulation and to authorize another issue would be accepted as a proof that there is no limit to the issue of Treasury notes.
Even without this issue, upwards of two billion dollars in Confederate currency of all issues was produced. The destruction of Columbia, S.C., Confederate printing headquarters, in February 1865, did not entirely stop the deluge. Some equipment was saved and transferred to Anderson, S.C. and Richmond. But by that time it was hardly worth the cost of printing.
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