The Confederate States of America Twenty Dollars… (Confederate Currency & Patent Medicine Circular)

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Printed in 1885, this dual-sided circular advertises Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills on one side and features a black-and-white facsimile of a Confederate States $20 bill on the other. The bill reproduces the Tennessee State Capitol with figures and foliage in the foreground, and includes a portrait of Alexander H. Stephens at lower right. The Smithsonian notes:

“Twenty years later when the Civil War had passed out of recent memory and Confederate currency was presumably becoming a curiosity, Comstock printed facsimiles of $20 Confederate bills, with testimonials and advertisements upon the reverse side; it can be assumed that these had enough historical interest to circulate widely and attract attention, although each possessor must have felt a twinge of disappointment upon realizing that his bill was not genuine but merely an advertising gimmick.”

The advertisement side features dramatic Southern testimonials, from Virginia and Arkansas, claiming cures for “sick headache” and “neuralgia,” relief from 45-year gravel, and the expulsion of an 18-inch tapeworm. Distributed by W.H. Comstock of Morristown, New York, the piece targets both Civil War nostalgia and curative appeal.

Price: $35.00