15 Dollars Confederate Loan

The Confederate $15 denomination is an oddity even within the deliberately fractured denomination structure of 1864 Confederate currency. That year's Act of February 17 authorized a sweeping currency reform designed to force holders of older notes to convert or face a mandatory tax on unredeemed paper — an attempt to contract a money supply that had already inflated catastrophically. The $15 face value was part of a coupon-bearing loan certificate structure rather than straight circulating currency, blurring the line between bond and banknote.

Archer & Daly operated in Richmond under extreme material constraints by 1864, sourcing cotton-fiber paper through a blockade that grew tighter each month. Some notes from this period show visible inconsistencies in ink density attributable to diluted printing stocks.