Thinking of starting a confederate currency collection
Crusty
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I have some basic questions I am hoping forum members can help me out with. Before I decide on pursuing a collection of confederate notes I’d like to get a sense of where the market is now… Is it red hot like US coins? Who are the dealers that specialize in confederate currency? What are the best websites that sell better quality pieces? Do Fricke stickers command a premium when it’s time to sell? What are the best books to get to do research? Is there a resource that has survival estimates? Is there a reliable price guide?
I am asking a lot of questions because I have been focusing on Liberty Seated dollars for the past 7 years and I have very little experience in currency… Thanks in advance for any information you may share with me! Please feel free to reply here or via PM.
Comments
I would start here, at Pierre Fricke’s website. He is considered the expert and could confidently and accurately answer all of your questions and concerns. He’s a super nice guy too. https://www.buyvintagemoney.com/
Personally, I went a different direction collecting Confederate paper money. I have a few authentic Confederate notes, but I love this 1954 Cheerios reproduction collection. This is what Ronnie Romonda wrote about the set - “Cheerios Premium money was issued in 1954. For 25 cents and a Cheerios box top you received nine notes and an album. Cheerios is probably the best of all the older reproductions. Cheerios claims to have issued more Confederate currency then the Confederacy.”
@Steve_in_Tampa - Thanks for taking the time to respond. I will definitely check out his website and reach out to him. I also enjoyed seeing your cheerio set. Had no clue they even made such a thing…. Very cool!
+1 to Steve's above. Just as in coins, do your homework. There are lots of CF notes out there. HA archives will give you the best guide to pricing of confederate notes.
I sent Mr. Fricke an email this morning. I am very excited to get started…. I’m hoping he will be at Long Beach next month. I would love to look through his inventory in person and soak in as much as possible.
Steve… Thanks. I actually went through all the videos on YouTube the other night and learned a crap ton of information. After watching one of the videos I saw his book looked familiar. It turns out I actually bought his book about 8 years ago when I first thought of getting into confederate currency…. but never even opened the book up because I ended up building a Liberty Seated Dollar collection instead. I have been in communication with Mr.Fricke via email and look forward to working with him to build a set.
Hugh Shull is also a name to trust for Confederate and obsolete currency. Not sure how active he is these days, but he and Pierre are both very knowledgeable and fair and will enjoy helping you. And you'll be in good hands.
@sellitstore - Thanks for the tip…. I’ll see if I can look up his sight or information
No website, but here's some old contact information that I'll bet hasn't changed.
https://coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n20a10.html
Another good resource I use often is the Crutch-Williams list of bogus CSA notes. It lists notes by denomination, date and bogus serial numbers. http://www.crutchwilliams.com/BogusCSA_RoTx.html
Thanks Steve…. I appreciate the link and the information. I am planning to do a full blown type set with the highest quality pieces I can afford for each date. It will be a long term project due to cost and from what I can tell the 6 toughest notes will not be easy to locate and definitely won’t be cheap… Mr. Fricke has suggested I start of with an 1864 set first to get my feet wet and learn before I jump in the deep end of the pool. Maybe I’ll start a separate thread that will follow along with the set build as I add pieces.
There are a handful of contemporary counterfeit notes that would not look out of place in a serious Confederate States collection
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
@coinkat
Thanks for the reply. I read last night that some counterfeit notes can be quite expensive…. At this point it’s note a road I plan to go down. But I will try to get a crash course on detecting them at the Long Beach show. I hear that most of them are easily detectable once you know what to look for.
Interesting video. Thanks for sharing.
**https://sites.google.com/view/notaphilycculture/collecting-banknotes **
That part of collecting sounds fun as well
Especially the Havana counterfeits and the Sam Upham facsimiles.
This is an example of a contemporary counterfeit of a fairly difficult note to obtain.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
That's probably wise. Best not to start out with the Montgomery issues...
The earlier pieces come both cancelled and uncancelled with a substantial price difference. Cut cancelled notes are a good value and look OK as none of the paper is missing but I'd avoid cut out cancelled notes which can be cheap but have big holes in them. Small punch cancels on obsolete notes are acceptable to some but nobody like big holes.
Thanks for the information. Very informative for me because I have no clue what other collectors (the market) is like for these issues. I definitely don’t like seeing holes in the notes. Big or small I dont like the idea of a piece missing. Cut cancelled notes are a lot less obtrusive and I can see why the market would appreciate them over cut out cancelled notes. My goal is to acquire uncancelled notes for every issue. I realize there will be a price difference but have not begun to research it. Will likely be a couple of years before I try to tackle one of the big ones. For now I’m really enjoying researching each note . I have a list of favorites but I’m in no rush. I know this will be a long project and I hope to be very selective throughout the set build.
I bought a $500 1864 Confederate note in Unc. from Grover Criswell in 1970 for $19. I sold it a few years back for around $600 or so as I remember.
My one-and-only Confederate note. A common $10 T-68 with R.M.T. Hunter’s portrait. I won an auction that included the Virginia politician’s autograph.
@Steve_in_Tampa
I really like the low serial number…. and the color on your note is very nice. The signature is definitely a cool bonus! Thank you for sharing.
Confederate notes have to be one of the most collected areas of US numismatics.
My most recent numismatic purchase is a Confederate note. All my other ones are 1864 issues and I wanted something earlier. I like the back printing of this one better than the 1864 backs. It looks more like real money, and it was real money to some extent in 1863 before the printing presses ramped up exponentially.