Finally completed my collection of Southern Bank Note Company types
BillJones
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The Southern Bank Note Company was located in New Orleans during the early part of the Civil War It was the Southern branch of the American Bank Note which was located in New York City. The American Bank Note Company was forbidden to supply paper money to the Confederacy after the hostilities began.
The South Bank Note Company made high quality products. Their notes were quite attractive and harder for counterfeiters to duplicate although Sam Upum in Philadelphia did his best. I finally completed this group of 1861 Confederate notes.
T-5 These were the first notes that were issued after the Confederate Government moved to Richmond, Virginia.
T-6
T-15 This is considered to be one of the most beautiful Confederate notes. It is also expensive. I took the less expensive option and bought one that was cut canceled. This was the last note I needed to complete the Southern Bank Note set.
T-19
Here is an example of the Sam Upham counterfeit of T-19. The Union Government treated this with a wink and a nod. Upham did sign his counterfeit note at the bottom, but it was easy to clip that off and try to pass it as a genuine piece.
T-22
T-31
The Southern Bank Note Company had to cease operations when New Orleans fell to Union forces in April 1862.
Comments
Bill,
After being a fan of your posts and material on the coin side for years now, I had no idea that this was one of your diverse collecting interests.
What a great little type collection this is in so many respects! The Southern Banknote Co. issues (as well as the ABN T1-T4 notes) are the most attractive Confederate notes because they are the highest quality-intaglio produced from engraved steel plates. And your well matched set of high grade circulated examples is a pleasure to view all together.
And I didn't know that Southern Banknote ceased operation in April, 1862 due to the fall of N.O. I'm presuming that they didn't have the engravers there but rather used dies on hand. High quality supplies must have become tougher to obtain, so maintaining the high quality of the earlier issues, especially with increasing demand for currency, became impossible. I think that the bulk of the currency printing had already shifted to other firms by April 1862. But the loss of SBN represented the loss of ability to produce high quality engraved notes at all.
Did you include a counterfeit for the other types for which they are available, like the Indian family or five females? It hard to find these as nice as the one that you illustrate, complete with the Upham imprint.
I have a few counterfeit Confederate notes, but they have not been a prime interest. Whitman published a book on them years ago. Sam Upham is interesting because of the life he had, including the time he spent in California prospecting for gold.
Here is a genuine T-16. This one has been cut canceled, but the colors are bright.
This one is certified and also genuine, but not as bright.
Here is a counterfeit T-16
This counterfeit of the T-65 is well done, except for one problem. The real thing is 19 cm wide. This piece is almost 18.5 cm wide.
Here is an example of the real thing.
I would love to get an example of Types 1 through 4, but the prices scare me off. One dealer had one that was reasonably marked the Summer FUN show, but he would only sell the whole collection, which would have left me with many duplicates. I am into the types only.
I also have a type set of Fractional Currency, which I collected in the 1980s. All of the notes are raw, but it seems that they are not worth getting certified, except for the wide margin Third Issue 15 cent notes I bought back in the day.
Beyond that, my paper money is mostly odds and ends.
Very nice Confederate notes.
Golden said it. Great CSA notes.
Congratulations on completing your set.
That’s a terrific group of CSA notes, well done.
Bill you have a world class collection!
I always enjoy your posts! 👍
Only about a year ago did I buy my first confederate note, obviously the ones I have are easy ones to find but they were nice looking examples and I have enjoyed buying them. I have three total.
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The 1863 notes are interesting. The $5 through $50 notes are stamped with a month and ‘63. The idea was you either spent them or turned them in for a Confederate bond. Otherwise they became worthless. The idea was to the money out of circulation to lower the money supply and combat inflation.
Fabulous!!! Congratulations on completing your set.
Good stuff as always, Bill!
I'm always drawn to the designs of American BNC and in this case, Southern BNC. ABNC probably pulled their dies and equipment out of New Orleans once the Union occupied New Orleans and they were barred from printing CSA notes. "Southern Bank Note Co." did not reappear after the war. Keatinge & Ball did print intaglio Confederate currency and bonds, though not to the standards of ABNC. And as the war dragged on the CSA Treasury looked for ways to cut costs, so more and more securities were printed using cheaper lithographic methods.
Wonderful set -- thanks for sharing!
Very nice set. I couldn’t really find many for sale.
I see the above image has the bottom cut off. I wonder if it’s real?
Above note is a contemporary counterfeit. Not sure if it's an Upham note but there's a good book on these counterfeits.
The above piece is an Upham counterfeit. Compare the background on the figures. I think that they are the same as this piece. If the image was larger, you would see the difference in the faces.
Here is a genuine T-19.
The bottom of the Upham piece did have an advertising note for his store and said "FAC-SIMILE" on it. That was cut off by those who wanted to pass the note as genuine.
There was a store of some cattle raising who accepted a bunch these Upham notes with the bottom clipped.