print away our problems?
Well, not really, as the editors at the Richmond Whig understood.
From The New-York Times September 25, 1863:
The following paragraphs are from the [Richmond] Whig, of the 23d: …
PAINFUL SIGHT.
It is nothing unusual to see a stout negro going through the streets of this city with a load of Confedrate treasury notes fresh from the stamping press. He is accompanied by a clerk, who superintends the tranfer of the stamping office to the Treasury. However painful this sight is in a politico-economical point of view, it does not equal the harrowing feeling produced by the never ending sound of the stamping presses at the old Richmond House. When these sights and sounds shall cease, we will begin to look for that good time coming in our financial affairs which we all hope to see. …
I don’t know how big the box of tobacco was in the following story, but it made me wonder given the rampant inflation in the Confederacy.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch September 24, 1863:
Stealing tobacco.
–A white man, named George Turner, was yesterday arrested and lodged in the cage for stealing from the store of Jones & Childrey one box of tobacco, valued at $150.
You can read an interesting overview of the Confederate currency system at mental_floss. Any long term value in the notes was based on a bet that the South would win the war, especially since the money was only redeemable sometime after a peace treaty with the United States. Or … if people did not know the CSA was no longer in existence. As late as 1909 German merchants were still accepting Confederate paper.
People are not sure where Richmond’s cage was, but it might have been Henrico County jail. Here’s an image of the lockup from Wikimedia based on the May 31, 1862 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Son of the South:
Henrico County jail, Richmond
