Trans-Mississippi Confederate notes

Joined
Oct 8, 2021
The trans-Mississippi area was important the survival of the Confederate States of America. It covered all of Texas, Arkansas, the Indian Territory and most of Louisiana. It was important because it provided the Confederacy with manpower, raw materials and access to Mexico without having to go over water, which was subject the Union blockade.

The Union realized this. One of its goals was to take control of the Mississippi River which cut the Confederacy in two. That was accomplished in 1862. When General Kirby Smith took of that department on March 7, 1863, he noted that there was a serious shortage of cash in the area to pay the Confederate Government's debts. The situation was made worse when the Confederate Congress passed a law on March 23, 1863 that rendered the notes issued previously subject to redemption and obsolescence.

Smith ordered that some old notes, that were available to him, be re-issued with special stamp. There are several varieties of these stamped which "revalidated" these old notes. Here is one of them. The special stamp is in the circle. The "host note" is a variety number, T-26

T-26 Trans 1861 $10.jpg


Here is a normal T-26 note.

T-26 1861 $10.jpg


This idea failed when the Confederate Congress passed a bill that placed a tax on the old notes, which rendered them totally useless. Smith that started issuing interim deposit receipts (IDRs) which indicated that the bearer was entitled to full payments in new money, whenever that arrived in the area. Since my collecting is limited to the Confederate paper money, I don't have an example of an IDR.
 

What you have is a regular 1863 issue Confederate note. Confederate secretary of the Treasury, Meminger, recognized that there was too much Confederate money in circulation, which spurred inflation. His solution was to put a "sundown notice" on the 1863 notes. When they were issued, the notes were stamped with a date. After a year in circulation one had to turn those notes in for Confederate bonds, or, if you held them, they became worthless.

There is nothing rare about the 1863 notes, so a lot of them were not turned in. Here is an example with the date stamp.

T-56 F 1863 $100.jpg


T-56 R 1863 $100.jpg
 
Sorry, my mistake. I caught the fact that yours is a 1863 and mine is a 1864 issue. Just as I was pressing the ''send" button I noticed the different dates. Blame it on poor eyesight.
 
What you have is a regular 1863 issue Confederate note. Confederate secretary of the Treasury, Meminger, recognized that there was too much Confederate money in circulation, which spurred inflation. His solution was to put a "sundown notice" on the 1863 notes. When they were issued, the notes were stamped with a date. After a year in circulation one had to turn those notes in for Confederate bonds, or, if you held them, they became worthless.

There is nothing rare about the 1863 notes, so a lot of them were not turned in. Here is an example with the date stamp.

View attachment 420913

View attachment 420914
Actually my $10.00 note in post #3 is 1862 issue.
 
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