There’s a move afoot in the US to do away with the $1 bill. Think it can’t happen? Canada ceased production of $1 notes more than two decades ago.
Yet, there was a time when bills with a face value of less than a dollar were a regular feature of American commerce.
Throughout a good part of the 19th century so-called fractional currency was popular, with notes as small as 3 cents and 5 cents being produced.
Tomorrow, a handful of fractional currency notes produced by the state of South Carolina while it was part of the Confederate States of America will go up for auction.
Four different notes – one 15-cent issue and three 25-cent issues – are part of a currency sale being put on by Heritage Auctions of Dallas between July 3-10.
The notes were issued in February 1863 by the Bank of the State of South Carolina, and each features a Palmetto Tree, offering evidence that the sabal palmetto has been emblematic of South Carolina for at least 150 years.
