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Surprising Confederate Collectible Can Bring You Money Today

Anyone who knows anything about history is aware that the Confederacy’s money turned to dust financially speaking long before the conclusion of the War Between the States, so much so that southerners resorted to burning it for heat or covering wall cracks with it. Today, however, Confederate currency is highly worth collcting. The Confederacy’s bonds are even collectible–and valuable.

the CSA issued bonds to get money to undergird its efforts.  Southerners and others lent money to the government, which promised to pay them off, with interest, presumably after the war was won and the Confederacy secure.

The end of the war, and the demise of the Confederate States, guaranteed that the lenders never collected on the debt.  The bonds themselves disappeared into trunks and closets.

Nowadays, the bonds that survived these many decades are prized by collectors. And, you can turn around and sell Confederate bonds (and other paper collectibles) on eBay for an excellent profit.

The southern nation’s war bonds may be enjoyed as decorative art (if you frame them, they should be matted using museum type material so as to avoid mishap; non-reflective picture-frame glass is also recommended, even with the additional cost.

Confederate war bonds were put out in various face values. They further differed from one another in terms of the inscriptions and artwork they contained.

From an era in which even a common loan document was often an exercise in extreme ornamentation, Confederate bonds were flush to the metaphorical gills with flourishes, including scenes such as fields and cities, fictional figures, and, of course, generals and other southern heroes.

On my wall in the room where I am writing this, I have a $1,000 face-value CSA bond that I acquired and put in a frame a while back. It is gorgeous, bearing text printed in elaborate italic script and, in its center, a portrait of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. You may recall that General Jackson was killed in the confusion of war, having been shot by one of his own soldiers near Chancellorsville. Being one of the South’s greatest heroes, it was predictable that his portrait would come to grace a Confederate bond.

Southerners were not the only persons to buy Confederate war bonds. Many people across the sea in England, as well as other parts of Europe, did so too. Perhaps they were people whose sympathy in the Civil War rested with the South and its leaders. Or perhaps they were simply wagering on the war’s final outcome.

Buying and selling Civil War bonds has become a big activity inisde the the hobby of scripophily, which refers to collecting old financial instruments (including stock certificates, bank notes and railroad bonds, for instance) for their historic and artistic value.

If you’re a history buff–or if you’re just on the lookout for a different kind of “art” with which to decorate your home–learning about Confederate bonds and purchasing a few carefully chosen examples could transform itself into a fund and affordable pastime.  As well,It is also a great area to look into if you cotton to the idea of earning money by selling “paper”–books, magazines, antique prints and so on.

Now, leave it to an enterprising British woman to become the foremost expert on making money–even earning one’s living–selling pieces of American paper, not only old money and bonds but even pages ripped from old magazines.  You can read more about this woman’s surprising eBay paper selling method here.

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