Editing Confederate States of America (section)

===Financial instruments===
Both the individual Confederate states and later the Confederate government printed [[Confederate States of America dollar]]s as paper currency in various denominations, with a total face value of $1.5&nbsp;billion. Much of it was signed by Treasurer [[Edward C. Elmore]]. Inflation became rampant as the paper money depreciated and eventually became worthless. The state governments and some localities printed their own paper money, adding to the runaway inflation.<ref>{{cite book |first=William J. |last=Cooper |title=Jefferson Davis, American |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j05vwNRXi-0C&pg=PA378 |year=2010 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday |page=378 |isbn=978-0307772640 }}</ref>

[[File:CSA-T25-$10-1862.jpg|thumb|The 1862 $10 [[Confederate States dollar|CSA note]] depicts a vignette of [[Hope]] flanked by [[Robert M. T. Hunter|R. M. T. Hunter]] and [[Christopher Memminger|C. G. Memminger]].]]

The Confederate government initially wanted to finance its war mostly through tariffs on imports, export taxes, and voluntary donations of gold. After the spontaneous imposition of an embargo on cotton sales to Europe in 1861, these sources of revenue dried up and the Confederacy increasingly turned to [[Government debt|issuing debt]] and printing money to pay for war expenses. The Confederate States politicians were worried about angering the general population with hard taxes. A tax increase might disillusion many Southerners, so the Confederacy resorted to printing more money. As a result, inflation increased and remained a problem for the southern states throughout the rest of the war.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Richard |last1=Burdekin |first2=Farrokh |last2=Langdana |title=War Finance in the Southern Confederacy, 1861–1865 |journal=Explorations in Economic History |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=352–376 |year=1993 |doi=10.1006/exeh.1993.1015 }}</ref> By April 1863, for example, the cost of flour in Richmond had risen to $100 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=100|start_year=1863}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) a barrel and housewives were rioting.<ref>{{cite book |first=John D. |last=Wright |title=The Language of the Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aEJZRIxjDAC&pg=PA41 |year=2001 |page=41 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1573561358 }}</ref>

The Confederate government took over the three national mints in its territory: the [[Charlotte Mint]] in North Carolina, the [[Dahlonega Mint]] in Georgia, and the [[New Orleans Mint]] in Louisiana. During 1861 all of these facilities produced small amounts of gold coinage, and the latter half dollars as well. A lack of silver and gold precluded further coinage. The Confederacy apparently also experimented with issuing one cent coins, although only 12 were produced by a jeweler in Philadelphia, who was afraid to send them to the South. Like the half dollars, copies were later made as souvenirs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pcgs.com/news/confederate-coinage-a-short-lived-dream|title=Confederate Coinage: A Short-lived Dream|website=PCGS}}</ref>

US coinage was hoarded and did not have any general circulation. U.S. coinage was admitted as legal tender up to $10, as were British sovereigns, [[Napoléon (coin)|French Napoleons]] and Spanish and Mexican doubloons at a fixed rate of exchange. Confederate money was paper and postage stamps.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 127, 151–153</ref>