My birthday was yesterday 2/17. I’m now 85 and in virtually perfect health. I still don’t know why I retired, but I did.
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The so called “Civil War,” or more correctly called, “The War of Northern Aggression,” began on April 12, 1861, with the North shelling Ft. Sumpter, after being warned not to do so. That fort was in a harbor owned by South Carolina, who had seceded from the Union. In recorded history, even before the invention of the printing press, all national governments have issued worthless currencies, falsely believing they are ‘helping’ their citizenry, but in reality are harming and bankrupting them, and helping themselves, by trying to get out of their economic blunders.
The National Bank Note Company of New York, printed more than two billion dollars worth of Confederate currency during the War Between The States. Sound like a lot of money? This was matched by the endless issues of individual states, counties, cities, railroads, merchants and business houses of all kinds. In addition to those, millions of counterfeits and souvenir bills were run off of presses to add to the storm.
That hideous war, which killed 612,000 Americans and wounded millions, ended on April 9, 1865, with the signing at Appomattox, Virginia. It was the worst four years in our history. The Confederate Cabinet met at Richmond on March 18, 1865, and vetoed an eighth issue of Confederate currency to the tune of eighty million dollars. President Jefferson Davis, said that approval of the issue, “Would be accepted as a proof that there is no limit to the issue of Treasury notes.” (Then as today).
These Confederate bank notes began life with a promise that within a year they would be redeemed, with interest, of a cent per day on each hundred dollars. A following issue offered payment within two years after a treaty of peace with the North was signed. A third issue, just after the victory at “First Manassas,” or “Bull Run,” July 21, 1861, cut the time to six months. The ‘third issue,’ was printed just three months after the war started! Interest also rose later, to two cents daily. By 1863, Confederate dollars were worth thirty three cents, and by Appomattox, were worth 1.6 cents to the dollar. By May 1st, less than a month after the signing, they were handled in bales, 1,200 for a dollar.
The printers and engravers who turned out the flood of money, significantly, insisted on being paid in gold. Confederate bills, were burned for heat, insulation, and even wallpaper. So many disappeared, that today, a genuine one is worth its face value in U.S. dollars, or even more. It seems as though, to quote an old saying, “History always repeats itself,” at least the issuing of eventually worthless currencies is concerned. The U.S. dollar has done pretty well by comparison with Confederates, but still, in the last hundred years, the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power. The very idea of A 12 ounce Pepsi-Cola for a nickel, sounds preposterous, I realize, but when I was a kid, the radio jingle, “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot, twelve ounces, that’s a lot. Twice as much for a nickel too, Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you,” was played so often that it was even on quiz shows, and almost made the “Hit Parade.”
It all boils down to the simple fact that history always indeed does seem to repeat itself, and while the buck may be repeating history slower than others, a 95% loss in a hundred years, to me anyway, means it’s dumb to save surplus assets in a continually debasing currency. Dollar denominated items, be they savings accounts, bonds, or hiding them under a mattress, doesn’t stop the devaluation. As long as you are in dollars, no matter how you save them or in what media, they automatically lose value. You should no more save in dollars than expose yourself to a dreaded disease. The producers of Confederate currencies, wisely wanted gold as payment for their efforts. Gold has always been real money. You could, I suppose, save in Pepsi or genuine Confederate bills, but gold is much more durable and acceptable around the world. don@coloradogold.com.