Confederate Four Dollars Bond Coupon

By: Handini

Recently I was at a yard sale and I found a movie poster for one of the Marx Brothers movies protected in a poster frame. While the frame was in rough shape the poster was in pristine condition and there was no date on it so I couldn't tell if it was an original or a replica. Because of my uncertainty, I set it down and inquired about a painting which had the signature of a famous artist as the name sounded familiar. As I was told that it was a replica, a guy looked at the poster and told the lady "I'll pay you five bucks for it."

Although I was hesitant to pay the $5 for the poster and he wasn't, I asked him if he knew much about movie posters, which he didn't. In talking to him however I found out that he and his wife go to yard sales and find stuff to put in their booth at a local antique store, one which I didn't know existed before that day. This was something they did as a hobby together as he had a full time job also.

Needless to say, after we were done with the 4 or 5 yard sales that were listed in the newspaper on that chilly winter morning we went to the antique store where I found the following CSA bond coupon from a $100 CSA bond. Coupons were attached to bonds and cut off one by one over time. This one is in the amount of $4 from the Confederate States Loan of August 19, 1861 and payable on January 1, 1867.

$4 CSA Bond Coupon (1861)

Image Contribution: Handini

Although the coupons themselves wouldn't be as rare as the bond since each bond had several coupons attached, the book Confederate Bonds And Certificates lists the bond (their catalog number is AD-30) as a rarity of 3 on their 12 point scale with 1 being the most common and 12 assigned to the rarest of the rare.

Fortunately for the collector, not the investor though, the price of bond coupons hasn't changed much over the past few years (The bonds themselves on the other hand . . . ). These coupons can be purchased anywhere between $3 and $8 each so are inexpensive relics from the Civil War. While I managed to hold on to a $5 bill when I considered the movie poster, I was unable to hold onto it when I decided to purchase this bond coupon (Note: I really paid via credit card to get points). The only difference is that people don't charge sales tax at a yard sale but they do in antique shops.