The first Confederate notes were authorized under the Act of March 9th, 1861 and issued beginning on April 5, 1861, while the capital was in Montgomery Alabama. These notes were printed by the National Banknote Co. out of New York City. When the Federal government prohibited the National Banknote Company from further supplying the Confederacy with its notes, another New York City firm, the American Banknote Company, secretly moved part of its production to New Orleans and continued printing notes as the Southern Banknote Company until the September 2, 1861, issue when the Federal government declared the American Banknote Company was supporting the Confederacy and its equipment was seized.