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Confederate money

Legal currency of the Confederate States of America.

The Confederate dollar, colloquially referred to as a grayback, went into circulation in April of 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War.

Early on, Confederate money was exchanged and accepted with confidence throughout the South as promissory bills of credit, but were not secured or backed by any assets. The notes were payable in full only upon the ratification of an anticipated peace treaty between the Union and the Confederacy after the war. But as the tides turned against the South as the Civil War progressed, the money's assumed value plummeted. Once the war ended and the Confederacy no longer existed, its currency became completely worthless.[1]

Trail West to Fury: When Bret and Bart Maverick returned to their home town of Little Bend, Texas after the Civil War, they headed immediately to Jessie Hayden's general store, where they had left $1,650 in gold on deposit with Hayden's father before they left in 1862 to serve in the Confederate Army. When they tried to collect their money, Hayden tried to pay them off in Confederate money.[2]