1872 $50 State of South Carolina Revenue Bond Scrip

About This Note

The note you see here is the exact note you will receive.

This 1872 $50 State of South Carolina Revenue Bond Scrip is one of the most historically layered and visually spectacular pieces of 19th-century American fiscal paper. At PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 with Exceptional Paper Quality, it is a virtually perfect survivor of a turbulent chapter in South Carolina's Reconstruction-era history.

The obverse design is a masterwork of American Bank Note Company engraving. At center, a commanding portrait of George Washington anchors the composition. To his left, a detailed vignette of a farmer guiding a horse-drawn plow through a field: the agrarian backbone of postwar South Carolina. To his right, a cotton picker at work, a direct reference to the state's primary cash crop. Bold green "FIFTY" overprints appear at all four corners and across the center, with the text reading: "Revenue Bond Scrip: Receive with as: Fifty Dollars in all taxes and dues: special tax levied to pay: payment of: to the State except: interest on public debt." Dated Columbia, S.C., March 2, 1872, and hand-signed by the State Treasurer.

The reverse tells the story in plain terms. Within an elaborate green lathe-work oval, the text reads: "Issued under an Act to relieve the State of South Carolina of all liability for its guaranty of the bonds of the Blue Ridge Railroad Company, by providing for the securing and destruction of the same: March 2, 1872." The Blue Ridge Railroad: a pre-war project intended to connect the South Carolina Upcountry to the Midwest: had collapsed, leaving the state on the hook for millions in bond guarantees. This scrip was the legislature's solution: issue state revenue scrip acceptable for tax payments, use the proceeds to retire the railroad bonds, and destroy the scrip as it came in.

Serial number 2398, plate position A. The note was never redeemed: it survived intact, and 154 years later it grades PMG 66 EPQ. A gem example of one of the rarest and most historically significant issues in all of South Carolina numismatics.