There is a particular thrill that comes with holding a piece of Civil War era paper money and realizing that the tiny, intricate vignette printed on its face is not merely decorative. It is a political statement, a propaganda tool, and a historical document compressed into a space smaller than a postage stamp. Among the most striking of these images is the mortar battery scene associated with Fort Moultrie, which appeared on a handful of obsolete banknotes and fiscal paper during the turbulent 1860s. Understanding this vignette means understanding the relationship between the American Banknote Company, the politics of secession, and the competitive world of mid-nineteenth century currency engraving.
Fort Moultrie and the Birth of a National Symbol
Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, carries an outsized place in American military memory. Its palmetto-log walls famously absorbed British cannon fire in June 1776, with the soft wood refusing to splinter, turning what should have been an easy British naval victory into a humiliating retreat. That battle, fought before the Declaration of Independence was even signed, made the fort and the palmetto tree enduring symbols of Southern resilience. By the mid-nineteenth century, the fort had been rebuilt in masonry, and it sat at the entrance to Charleston Harbor as a tangible link between the Revolutionary past and the looming sectional conflict.
When South Carolina seceded in December 1860, Fort Moultrie was briefly garrisoned by Union forces under Major Robert Anderson before he famously moved his small command to the less exposed Fort Sumter in the harbor. Confederate forces then occupied Moultrie, and it became one of the ring of batteries that bombarded Sumter in April 1861. For Southern currency issuers, the fort and its mortar batteries were immediately potent symbols, and banknote engravers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line had already prepared or were quickly preparing plates that would capitalize on the imagery.
The American Banknote Company and Its Vignette Libraries
To understand how a Fort Moultrie mortar scene ended up on 1860s currency, you need to understand how the major security printing firms operated. The American Banknote Company, formed in 1858 through a merger of seven predecessor firms including Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson, maintained enormous libraries of pre-engraved vignettes that could be licensed or sold to any bank or government that ordered notes. These vignettes were cataloged internally and rented out, meaning the same image of an eagle, a riverboat, or a military battery might appear on notes issued by a Massachusetts savings bank, a Georgia railroad company, and a Confederate state treasury warrant, all printed from the same or closely related dies.
The mortar battery vignette in question depicts a crew of soldiers manning a large siege mortar, with the distinctive low profile of a coastal fortification visible in the background. Smoke billows from the barrel, and the composition conveys both action and industrial military power. Variants of this scene were engraved in the late 1850s, almost certainly in anticipation of demand from Southern state banks that were already ordering patriotic Southern imagery. The National Bank Note Company, a competitor formed in 1859, produced closely related plates, and distinguishing between the two firms’ output requires careful examination of micro-lettering at the base of vignettes or the specific style of the surrounding lathe-work borders.
When examining an 1860s obsolete note with a military vignette, use a 5x or 10x loupe to look for the engraver’s imprint at the very bottom of the note face, often in tiny text reading “American Bank Note Co. New York” or “National Bank Note Co.” This attribution is critical for proper cataloging and can meaningfully affect value, particularly for Confederate-issued pieces where provenance matters to specialized collectors.
Specific Notes Featuring the Mortar Battery Scene
Several well-documented note types from the 1860s carry this vignette or close variants of it. Collectors working from the Haxby reference, “Standard Catalog of United States Obsolete Paper Money,” will find relevant listings under the South Carolina section. The Bank of the State of South Carolina issued $1 and $2 notes dated 1861 that feature coastal artillery imagery consistent with the Moultrie-area fortifications, cataloged in Haxby under SC-185 series. These notes were printed before the Northern blockade cut off access to the New York printing firms, making them among the last professionally engraved Southern state notes of the conflict.
Confederate Treasury notes are equally important here. The Criswell catalog, which remains the standard reference for Confederate currency, lists several types with military vignettes that scholars have connected to the Charleston batteries. Criswell Type 12, the $100 note of 1861, is particularly significant. It was printed by the National Bank Note Company in New York on a contract placed before full secession, and its vignettes include martial scenes drawn from the company’s existing library. The irony of the Confederate government relying on a New York printer for its early war currency is one of the great footnotes of Civil War fiscal history.
By late 1861, as Northern firms refused or were unable to fulfill Confederate contracts, printing shifted to firms in Richmond, Columbia, and New Orleans. Keatinge and Ball of Columbia, South Carolina, and later Richmond, Virginia, became the primary Confederate printers. Their engraving quality was noticeably cruder than the New York firms, and military vignettes from this period tend to be less detailed and more schematic. Notes printed by Keatinge and Ball carrying mortar or artillery scenes include several varieties of the Criswell Type 39 through Type 46 series, the $1 notes of 1862 to 1863, where a simplified cannon scene appears at left.
Condition grading on Civil War era Southern obsolete notes requires accounting for paper quality that was often inferior even when new. Keatinge and Ball notes frequently show natural foxing and uneven inking that should not be penalized in the same way as post-printing damage. When submitting to PMG or PCGS Currency for grading, the “paper quality” notation on the holder will often reflect this, and savvy buyers look for notes graded VF or better with no mention of repairs rather than fixating on raw numerical grades alone.
The Northern Perspective: Union Patriotic Currency and Military Imagery
The mortar battery and coastal fortification vignette was not exclusively a Southern symbol after 1861. Union currency issuers also embraced military imagery, particularly after the bombardment of Fort Sumter made coastal artillery a household concept across the North. Fractional currency and postage currency issued under the Act of July 17, 1862, used patriotic portrait imagery rather than military scenes, but private scrip and sutler notes of the 1861 to 1865 period frequently incorporated cannon, mortar, and soldier vignettes.
Northern national bank notes issued under the National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 used a standardized vignette program administered through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s predecessor arrangements with the American Bank Note Company. Military themes on these early nationals tend to feature eagles, Columbia, and allegorical scenes of commerce and industry rather than active combat, reflecting both aesthetic preferences and a desire to keep the imagery broadly patriotic rather than specifically martial. The contrast with Confederate notes, which often depicted actual weapons and soldiers in action, is instructive about the different propaganda needs of the two governments.
Why Banknote Designers Used Military Imagery
The deliberate placement of military vignettes on circulating currency served several intertwined purposes. First and most practically, intricate engraving of any kind made counterfeiting more difficult. A mortar crew with eight figures, each rendered in fine cross-hatching, required skilled labor and specialized equipment to reproduce fraudulently. Second, military imagery projected state power and legitimacy. A note bearing the image of an armed force implicitly promised that the issuing government had the physical means to back its currency obligations, a particularly important message when the Confederate government’s long-term viability was in genuine doubt from as early as 1862.
Third, and perhaps most importantly for understanding these notes as collectibles today, the vignettes connected currency to a shared emotional narrative. For a South Carolinian handling a state bank note in 1861, the image of a mortar battery at a recognizable Charleston harbor fortification was an immediate, visceral reminder of the cause for which the new Confederacy claimed to stand. Currency became a form of portable propaganda in a way that earlier American banknotes had rarely attempted so overtly.
Building a thematic collection around Civil War military vignettes is an excellent entry point for new collectors because the field spans a wide price range. A circulated Keatinge and Ball Confederate note with a cannon scene can be purchased for under $50 at most currency shows, while a Choice Uncirculated New York-printed Confederate Type 12 with crisp vignettes might fetch $400 to $800. This range allows collectors to start modestly and upgrade over time as they develop attribution expertise.
Attribution Challenges and Research Resources
One of the genuine intellectual pleasures of collecting Civil War era notes with military vignettes is the attribution puzzle. The same basic mortar battery die, or a very close copy, might appear on a South Carolina state bank note, a Confederate Treasury note, a Georgia railroad bond coupon, and a piece of Northern war scrip, all within a span of four years. Telling them apart requires close attention to border styles, paper composition, ink color variations, and the specific combination of vignettes on a given note face.
The essential references are Criswell’s “Confederate and Southern States Currency” (the most recent comprehensive edition), Haxby’s state-by-state obsolete note catalogs, and for Northern material, the Standard Catalog of United States Paper Money edited by Schwartz and Lindquist. The Civil War Token Society also publishes material relevant to sutler scrip and private military-themed currency. Online, the Newman Numismatic Portal at Washington University in St. Louis has digitized significant portions of the Eric P. Newman collection, including many obsolete notes with military imagery, and is freely searchable.
| Series / Type | Issuer or Variety | Approx. Known Examples | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Criswell T-12, 1861 $100 | Confederate Treasury, NBNC printed, mortar/military vignette | 2,000 to 4,000 estimated survivors | Scarce |
| Criswell T-39, 1862 $1 | Confederate Treasury, Keatinge and Ball, cannon at left | 8,000 plus survivors | Common |
| Haxby SC-185 G4, 1861 $2 | Bank of the State of South Carolina, artillery vignette | Under 200 known | Rare |
| Haxby SC-185 G2, 1861 $1 | Bank of the State of South Carolina, mortar scene | 300 to 500 estimated | Scarce |
| Criswell T-45, 1862 $1 | Confederate Treasury, Lucy Pickens portrait variant, cannon scene | 5,000 plus survivors | Common |
| Haxby GA-290, 1861 $5 | Bank of Augusta, coastal battery at right | Under 100 confirmed | Key Date |
| Virginia Torn Note, 1861 $20 | Exchange Bank of Virginia, Richmond, mortar crew vignette | 150 to 250 estimated | Rare |
| Northern Sutler Scrip, 1862 to 1864 | Various Union regimental issuers, cannon vignettes | Highly variable by regiment | Scarce |
Condition, Grading, and What to Pay
Civil War era paper money with military vignettes spans an enormous range of market values depending on condition, issuer, and the specific vignette. At the accessible end, Confederate Treasury notes in circulated grades (Very Good to Fine, PMG 10 to 20) with standard military imagery trade in the $30 to $100 range at most currency shows and online auctions. These are excellent starter pieces because they are genuine artifacts of one of American history’s defining moments, printed on real period paper with the fiscal anxiety of a nation at war baked into every fold.
Moving up the quality and rarity scale, a New York-printed Confederate note from 1861 in Choice Uncirculated condition (PMG 64 or 65) with sharp, fully detailed military vignettes will typically sell in the $350 to $800 range depending on the specific type. The Haxby South Carolina state bank notes with mortar and artillery scenes are considerably rarer and command premiums accordingly: a Nice Very Fine example of the SC-185 G4 $2 note might bring $400 to $700 from a specialized collector, and Uncirculated examples, when they surface, have traded above $1,200 at major auction.
For the rarest pieces, such as the Haxby GA-290 Bank of Augusta notes with coastal battery imagery, expect to pay $800 and up for any gradable example, with AU and Uncirculated specimens achieving multiples of that when they appear in major catalog sales from Heritage Auctions or Stack’s Bowers.
Building a Focused Collection Around This Theme
A thematic collection built around the Fort Moultrie mortar vignette and its related military banknote imagery offers a remarkably coherent historical narrative that can be assembled at almost any budget level. A focused collection might trace the progression from the professionally engraved, New York-printed Confederate notes of 1861, through the declining quality of wartime Southern printing, to the eventual collapse of Confederate currency by 1864 to 1865, all told through the visual language of military vignettes. Pairing these notes with period photographs of Fort Moultrie, Harper’s Weekly illustrations of the Charleston batteries, and printed ephemera from the same years creates a display that is genuinely compelling for both currency specialists and general Civil War enthusiasts.
The Fort Moultrie mortar scene is, in the end, more than a collectible curiosity. It is a window into the way mid-nineteenth century Americans understood power, legitimacy, and the relationship between a government and its money. Every time a Charleston merchant accepted a note bearing that image in 1861 or 1862, they were making a bet on the future, a bet that the government depicted on their currency would survive long enough for the paper to mean something. Most of those bets, of course, did not pay off. But the notes survive, and with them, the complicated, richly human story of a nation at war with itself.
