Confederate $100 T-41 note, 1862

The note

The $100 of 1862 (Pick 45, Criswell and Fricke T-41, Numista N#223639) is the type collectors call “Slaves Hoeing Cotton.” It is not the diffused-steam locomotive T-40, serial 36830, which already has a page in this case. The black face with HUNDRED in red carries a portrait of John C. Calhoun at left, enslaved people working a cotton field at center, and an allegorical female figure at right: the Bank Note Museum calls her Columbia. Plate letter L sits near both side margins. Beneath the vignette, “The Confederate States of America” promises to pay ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS to the bearer with interest at two cents a day — 7.3 percent a year. Above, payment is due six months after ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States. At right: “Receivable in Payment of All Dues Except Export Duties.” The manuscript date reads “Sept 8” beside the printed 1862, that is 8 September 1862, inside the range Numista gives for T-41 (26 August 1862 to 8 January 1863). The manuscript serial in red ink, 11657, repeats on both sides. The imprint is Keatinge & Ball, Columbia, S.C. The back carries no printed design — the note accrued interest and was presented at a depository to collect it — only show-through from the face, the manuscript mark “C-390” in the left margin, to which this record assigns no catalogue meaning, and overlapping interest-paid stamps from Raleigh, North Carolina, which on this photograph appear to refer to 1 January 1863, 1864, and 1865. The manuscript signatures sit over “for Register” and “for Treasurer” and are not identified here. The piece, circulated and unslabbed, has no certificate number. Numista gives the type as 183 × 78 mm; that is not a measurement of this example.

The issue

The Fourth Series — the act of 17 April 1862, amended 23 September — put these hundreds into circulation with interest at two cents a day, 7.3 percent a year, paid when the bearer presented the note at a depository. The underlying clause stayed payment six months after a treaty of peace. Within that series, T-39 and T-40 carry the locomotive; T-41 changes the vignette for the cotton field and the portrait of John C. Calhoun, and Keatinge & Ball printed it. Wikipedia puts the type at about 670,400 notes; Numista publishes 678,600 as the type total, years combined. This record does not choose between those figures or invent a printage for plate L or for serial 11657.

Numista hand-dates T-41 between 26 August 1862 and 8 January 1863. This example’s date, 8 September 1862, falls in that span. Wikipedia’s table places the T-41 printer at Richmond; this piece’s imprint reads Keatinge & Ball, Columbia, S.C., and that is what is published here.

Each interest payment left a stamp on the back: that is why these notes carry no engraved design on the reverse. On this photograph the Raleigh stamps appear to correspond to 1 January 1863, 1864, and 1865; they overlap, and not every line reads with the same clarity. The Confederate defeat left both the principal and the interest worthless; Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment holds debts incurred in aid of rebellion void.

Scarcity and printage

Wikipedia puts T-41 — Keatinge & Ball, Calhoun, and the cotton field — at about 670,400 notes. Numista publishes 678,600 as the type total, years combined. Criswell gives the figure by type and does not break it down by plate letter. This record does not invent a printage for plate L or for serial 11657, or a premium for the interest stamps.

Population

A PMG or PCGS census for serial 11657 has not been independently verified. The note is circulated, unslabbed, and has no certificate number.

Related pieces

Other records from the same issuer or era in this case.

• $100 · Confederate States · 1862
• $20 · Confederate States · 1864
• $5 · Confederate States · 1864