The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-05-14
CONFEDERATE HARD MONEY.
A Few Southern Coins Were Struck
Off Early in the War.


The object in question was time black
ened silver hali-dollar. with the Goddess
of Liberty, the thirteen stars, aud the date
1861. This side." said the owner, was
struck from die found in the New Or
leans mint at the outbreak OF the Civil
War. The reverse bears the American
shield, surmounted by a liberty cap, in
closed by branches of sugarcane and cot
ton in full bloom. The legend, 'Confed-
crate States Of America. half dol runs
round the rim, you observe. The shield
bears seven stars, to represent the seven
seeding States. This piece is genuine
issue of the Confederate Government In
February, 1861, the New Orleans mint
fell into Tire hands of the Confederates.
and among its contents was tha die
for new half dollar which had
been sent from Washington some months
before. The Government, then in session at
Montgomery, ordered the preparation of
die for silver coin. Mr.. Memminger.
the Secretary Of the Confederate treasury,
called for designs in April. This one was
selected. Four coins only were struck. One
was sent to the Government, one to Profess
sOU RiGdell of the University of Louisiana,
one to DR.. c. Ames OF New Orleans and
one was kept by DR.. B. +. Taylor, the chief
cnlner of the Confederate States of
America. There wasn't enough silver to
be had to warrant circulation of coinage,
however, and the mint was closed. This
piece comes from his family. OF the other
three the Government one was in possession
of President Davis on his capture, and was
taken from him, and has not been heard OF
since. The others have also vanished. This
piece, canning from the original die, is worth
say $1,000. But dealer in this city some
years ago had 500 fac SMILES struck off
with die he had made. He used the back
OF half-dellars OF the issue of SOL which
lie had smoothed off. They sold by sub
scrlption for 50 apiece.
There was little other Confederate coin
age than this There we're struck some
copper tokens and one silver one, | be-
lieve. There is a curious story about the
Confederate cent A few years ago there
was produced among numismatists neat
copper coin, the size OF small copper
cent, with liberty cap and legend, and the
Confederate flag on the reverse. After
time the story got out that the die for this
piece had been ordered by the Confeder-
ate Government from weil-knOwn Phil
adelphia engraver and die-sinkeT, Mr. Lo-
vett; that. tempted by a big price. he had
| prepared the necessary dies. but owing to
| the difficulty of transmission these had
| lam in his possession till the war was over,
when, like Othello, their occupation WAS
gone. Mr.. LOyett WAS now, according q he
story, IN possession of very perilous piece
| OF property. He knew not what the Gov
| eminent might do 10 him If it became
aware of his conduct. and so he struck
only few coins from the die previous to
burying it in the ground for safe keeping
Having struck off number, the die,
| it is said, broke. so that dangerous
witness to the disloyaltY of the en-
graver was out OF the way. The struck
coins were subsequently bought up by
Philadelphia dealer. who soon sold out his
stock to collectors at rafting figures. The
story was very diaphanOus one, though
Cents were unknown in tie South Till some
! one exported a few barrels Of them to New
Orleans couple of years ago. The die
was got up for the purpose, and the man
who got it up gained it when the collectors
bought his tokens. And still such pieces
bring considerable prices in coin sales.