What was confederate money called

Instead, Confederate paper money was like a loan -- a promissory note or promise to pay at a later time. At the start of the war, when southerners expected to win the war, they were willing to trust that their paper dollars would continue to hold value. But as the South started to slide towards defeat, they lost faith in not only their chances of victory but their money as well.

Meanwhile, as governments struggled to meet expenses by printing more and more money, paper money had accumulated far beyond the value of the goods available to be bought. The Confederate army took men from productive farms and jobs and demanded tremendous resources to feed and clothe its troops. The Union blockade meant that importing goods from Europe was nearly impossible.

Too much money, a lack of goods to buy, and a lack of faith in paper money resulted in rampant inflation -- rapidly rising prices of goods. Between late and early , the price of wheat in North Carolina rose percent 17 times. The price of bacon rose percent, and the price of flour rose percent.

As we'll see later in this chapter, inflation made it difficult for some North Carolinians even to feed themselves. Surviving on the home front became almost as difficult as surviving in battle. The drawings and symbols on the money say a great deal about how southerners wanted to think of themselves and their new nation.

As you look at each piece of currency, think about why the symbols were chosen. Like most North Carolina currency, its reverse had no design but simply said "one dollar. Hello, curious kids! Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS theconversation. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Channels: Close. Printers used rice paper. Many different organizations printed banknotes, but the government officially recognized certain printers, including:.

Skip to main content. Shop by Category. Shop by Denomination. See All - Shop by Denomination. Shop by Certification. See All - Shop by Certification. All Auction Buy It Now. View: Gallery View. Grade Ungraded 65 64 63 62 58 55 see all. Buying Format All Listings filter applied. Photo courtesy of Jeffrey S. NEW YORK — Scooby Doo fans will remember the classic TV episode, A Night of Fright is No Delight, where the Scooby gang spends the night in a haunted mansion to collect an inheritance from an eccentric millionaire only to find out at the end that the money is Confederate currency and deemed worthless as a medium of exchange.

While the show made for good entertainment, they got one key point wrong though. Confederate currency is far from worthless and can bring 50 or times its face value today. There were 72 different types of Confederate notes. In nearly all cases, however, these notes were not backed by gold or hard assets, however, only a promise to pay six months after a peace treaty was signed between the North and South.