Auction Name: 2026 April 28 - May 1 CSNS U.S. Currency Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 22019

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/3601*22019

T35 $5 1861 PF-1 Cr. 271 PMG Very Fine 25.
The so-called Indian Princess note had its inspiration from a $5 Bank of Charleston plate that the bank donated to the Confederate government during the war. Hoyer & Ludwig retained the so-called Indian Princess vignette at right and the oval 5 counters in the upper left and lower right corners, but reworked the rest of the design including the text and the vignette in the lower left corner of two slaves working with cotton bales under the watchful eye of an overseer. Only 7,160 examples were printed before production was permanently suspended. The reason for such a short run is still a mystery, with the most popular theory being that the lithography stone suffered an early catastrophic failure of some kind that made repairs or refurbishment unfeasible. The T35 $5, which shared an eight subject plate with four T27 $10s, in any case, was quickly replaced by T36 $5s, one of the largest printings made at the time, with over 3,694,000 examples issued. So perhaps the T36 plates were already very nearly complete or complete when the T35 plate failed, leading to the decision to scrap the old design. T35s are notorious for having problems, restorations, repairs, damage, and other impairments. This note is the happy and very rare exception to that rule of thumb, with nice bright paper surfaces, well printed design details and handwritten information, as well as decent margins. It is completely free of repairs, restorations, or any kind of distracting impairments. We most recently offered a comparable example in our 2025 FUN U.S. Currency Signature Auction. When that piece crossed the auction block, it realized $55,200. This example, a new addition to the census, is worthy of inclusion in any Confederate collection.

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