JULY 19TH AUCTION
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/20/2013
By February 17, 1864, the date of the Confederate Act of Congress which authorized the issuance of War Bonds, the Union Army had already defeated the Confederates at Gettysburg, taken control of the Mississippi River essentially cutting the Confederate in half, and ended the long Rebel siege at Chattanooga. At this point, the Confederates were struggling, and the little supply of tradable assets and hard currency they had were long gone. The Union had cut off all ports to eliminate Southern cotton exports, and the Southerners had little in the way to raise the necessary funds to keep fighting. Needless to say, morale was low among the rank and file. But with this act by the Confederate Congress, they were able to issue 30-year bonds paying an extremely high 6% interest rate. It is unknown how much the South rose via this program, but with the war ending a year later, not many of those coupons were ever clipped and paid. I imagine many investors lost all they invested in these bonds. The certificate and coupons the South issued are quite elaborate. This $100 bond was issued with 60 coupons with three dollars of interest to be paid semi-annually for the next 30 years. These instruments measure 18 3/8” x 26 ¼” and are professionally triple-matted and framed to a dimension of 26” x 41.” On the lower matted area is a plaque describing the tenuous circumstances the Confederacy had in regards to keeping their war machine moving forward. The condition of this piece, including the fragile coupons is extraordinarily strong.
This is a great item which encompasses many genres of collectors, appealing to the Civil War buff, the collector of monetary instruments and to U.S. history collectors. It will make a great display and conversation piece. While many articles of worthless Confederate money has changed hands on the collector market, rarely do we see a full Confederate Bond with all its coupons in such exceptional quality.