NB & MNON JUNE 22, 1862, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY Salmon P. Chase received a gift from Benjamin Butler, the Union commander in occupied New Orleans—a package sealed in wax with Butler’s own stamp (below). The package contained four engraved steel plates (opposite) used to print Confederate notes, the South’s financial lifeblood. The loss of those plates, seized after New Orleans fell in late April 1862, was a blow to Confederate sovereignty and solvency.
Before the outbreak of war, the Confederacy relied on the National Bank Note Company in New York to design and print interest-bearing notes with values up to $1,000, yet these had proven inadequate to pay troops, purchase weapons, and keep cash circulating in the South. After the conflict began and the Union cut off trade with the South, Confederate Treasury Secretary Christopher G. Memminger found that he could no longer rely on Northern printers. He turned instead to the New Orleans branch of the American Bank Note Company, the only shop in the South with the skilled engravers and printing equipment required to produce high-quality bills that were hard to counterfeit.
Samuel Schmidt, general manager of that New Orleans branch, changed its name to the Southern Bank Note Company and promised to fulfill his contract within fifty days, but his company fell far behind. Schmidt’s loyalty to the South was called into question, and Memminger ordered him to cease work and hand over the job and related materials to a rival company in Richmond. Schmidt paid little attention to that order and forged ahead, intent on honoring the contract and upholding his reputation. On April 12, 1862, less than two weeks before New Orleans fell, he shipped the last batch of 2,760 notes to Memminger. They were of value to the Confederacy, but the precious plates that produced them—and could have been used to print more high-quality currency—fell into Butler’s hands and were sent as trophies of war to Secretary Chase in Washington, D.C. NB & MN
SEALED AND DELIVERED Eager to curry favor in Washington, D.C., General Butler sent these finely engraved plates, used to produce Confederate $5 and $10 bills, to Secretary Chase at the Treasury Department in the envelope above (FIRST IMAGE). Bills printed by the Southern Bank Note Company with these plates (SECOND IMAGE) before they were confiscated by Federal forces in New Orleans are considered among the best ever produced in the Confederacy and are prized by collectors today. Some other Southern companies used lithography to produce notes that were of lower quality and were more easily counterfeited, worsening the financial condition of the Confederacy.
