Lucky Find

[kevikens]

Today I went into a coin shop looking for US Civil war currency, legal tenders, demand notes, fractional, northern bank notes, that sort of thing. No luck there but the gentleman had a bank of South Carolina note from the Charleston branch. Nice condition, hand signed and dated. I looked at the date closely, April 13, 1861. Just think. At the very moment that note was being signed, out in the harbor, the guns of Sumter were booming away and the sound of the not too distant guns must have been rolling across the water to the Battery. Could the bankers smell the sulfurous black powder? Did their hands tremble as they signed the note?I always try to get artifacts I can place with respect to time and place and it's hard to beat this one. I fear the gentleman behind the counter had no understanding of the significance of the nexus between time and place.