MORE ON ENGRAVED CONFEDERATE TREASURY SOUVENIR COINS

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V18 2015 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 18, Number 48, November 29, 2015, Article 11

Regarding his earlier comments on the engraved Confederate treasury souvenir coin discussed in earlier issues, Alan V. Weinberg writes:

It is true that I reported the $4600 sale of the "Confederate dollar" on the basis of my bidding in and monitoring the sale until the final minute, falsely assuming that at $4600 "all in" it could not possibly move any higher. As CNG indicates, all three final bids to $7000+ were in the final seconds of the electronic auction. I could not have conceived that this piece would bring more than $4600. I own quite a number of similar "Confederate" engraved large silver coins so I'm pleased to read this one sold for over $7000.

There is little doubt that E-Sylum's publicity of the approaching CNG auction strongly contributed to the high price. I would not have known of it had I not read in The E-Sylum of its planned auction in a few weeks.

As for "Mack" not being General McClellan...well that obviously was an incorrect assumption on my part. That was his nickname and I'd not heard or read of another Union officer with that nickname who'd have been in a position to distribute such Confederate Treasury coins. For this NOT to be McClellan's presentation, the $7000+ final price is all the more astounding.

When the eight wagonloads from the Confederate Treasury Department left Richmond by rail on April 2nd , 1865, they moved to Danville, Virginia. On April 7th the Treasury left Danville and moved by rail through Greensboro to Charlotte, NC. Along the way, $38,000 in silver coin and two boxes of gold sovereigns (about $35,000) were left behind in Greensboro for the use of President Davis and the cabinet.

General Joe Johnston appropriated the silver coin and ordered it paid out to his Army. The two boxes of gold sovereigns were sent on to the President in Charlotte and they remained intact until the very end (May 19th). Over several days (April 25 to May 1) the widely scattered Confederate Army divided up the coins as best they could and each man ended up with about $1 and change. The point is that at no time did Union forces have any control over any of the Confederate Treasury, much less pay off surrendering Confederate troops with it!

-Ballard, Michael B.: A Long Shadow: University Press of Mississippi: Jackson, MS

-Clark, Capt M.H.: The last days of the Confederate treasury and what became of its specie: Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 9, 542.

-Dunkerly, Robert M.; The Confederate Surrender at Greensboro; McFarland & Company, Publishers; Jefferson, North Carolina; 2013