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Remembering a basic point of numismatics

I’m sure somewhere down the line these last three years I must have shown you all, perhaps at one of our wonderful show-and-tell sessions, my favorite piece of paper money. It is an item that I actually bought from an old antique dealer down in Kemah some years back. In all my years of collecting I have not seen another like it, even though the item or items, I’ll explain later, are relative common.

Go back with me to about one hundred and forty plus years ago. We are talking about near to the end of the American Civil War, or the War of Northern Aggression as my Mississippi kin folk called it. The Confederate States of America was on the way out as; we see in retrospect, had to be the case. Things of a fiscal nature were sinking fast. The Confederate States was deeply in debt. There were no coins to be found. Whatever silver, gold, bronze, copper, etc. which could be found went into the war effort in some way or another. In order to keep things going the Confederacy issued millions of dollars in paper money. The most common of these notes are the fifty cent, five dollar, ten dollar and twenty dollar notes of 1864. Most any collector can purchase these individually, in great shape, at less than thirty dollars a piece, even today.

Another abundantly produced paper item was the Confederate postage stamp. By 1864 there were tons of five and ten cent stamps, which featured, on the five cent, the face of Jefferson Davis and on the ten cent President Davis’ profile. These common stamps can be found today in the range of five to ten dollars each. Obviously these are not at all uncommon.

Now back to my favorite item, one that I believe to be nearly unique. It is a common Confederate States twenty dollar note of 1864 which has been torn completely in half from top to bottom right at the center. The patch on the back is a block of six five cent Confederate stamps. When I examine the piece I can tell that the two parts have been together for quite a while. I can picture someone in the Southern states of 1864 deciding how to doctor a damaged twenty dollar bill. It was more cost efficient to loose the value of six stamps than the value of a twenty dollar bill.

In the numismatic world today there is much discussion about value, condition, investment potential and the like. I suppose that such is a rational and even natural process. Sometimes I worry that the hobby has lost some of its wonder. What I mean by that is we forget why folks start collecting in the first place. It isn’t value gained because if this is the goal then the purchaser certain is setting himself up for potential disappointment. The basic premise of numismatic collecting is to buy what you like, what brings you pleasure from an aesthetic, historical, artistic, or perhaps personally significant standpoint. I personally enjoy the old Confederate note. It tells a story. There is little value, financially speaking, in an old torn bank note and in a block of well used, dirty postage stamps. There is, however, a lot to be gained from exploring the stories that such an item can tell. The old rule applies, “No matter how much money you spend, find that which gives you enjoyment.”

All for now. . . Regards and God Bless . . .Richard