Interest bearing note

Interest bearing notes refers to a grouping of Civil War era paper money-related emissions of the US Treasury. The grouping includes the one- and two-year notes authorized by the Act of March 3, 1863, which bore interest at five percent per annum, were a legal tender at face value, and were issued in denominations of $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 and $1000.^[1] The grouping also frequently includes the early civil war treasury notes which matured in either sixty days or two years and bore interest at six percent and the seven-thirties which matured in three years and bore interest at 7.3 percent—though both of these latter issues lacked legal tender status.^[2] Reference texts used by currency collectors will also sometimes include compound interest treasury notes and Refunding Certificates in this grouping as well.

$50 three-year interest bearing note (1865), 7.3% interest paid semi-annually (with all coupons still attached).

Denominational set of interest bearing notes

Images are courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution).

Interest bearing notes

Value	Terms	Year	Fr.	Image	Portrait/vignette[nb 1]	Population
$10	One year (5%)	1864	Fr.196a		Salmon P. Chase (Charles Burt);[3] Eagle of the Capitol and Peace (James Bannister);[3]	28 known[4]
$20	One year (5%)	1864	Fr.197		(?); Mortar firing (James Smillie);[5] Abraham Lincoln (Henry Gugler);[6] In God is our Trust	9 known[4]
$50	Two years (5%)	1864	Fr.203		Caduceus (Alfred Jones);[7] Justice with Shield (Charles Burt);[8] America (?)	7 known[9]
$100	Two years (5%)	1864	Fr.204		Farmer and Mechanic; ((Building)); In the Turret	2 known[10]
$50	Three years (7.3%)	1865	Fr.212d		Eagle and motto	6 known (only 2 known with coupons)[11]
$100	Three years (7.3%)	1865	Fr.212e		Winfield Scott	Unknown[12]
$1,000	Three years (7.3%)	1865	Fr.212g counterfeit		Justice with Shield (Charles Burt)[8]
$1,000	One year (5%)	1863	Fr.201 proof		Justice; Liberty
$1,000	Two years (5%)	1863	Fr.206 proof		Guerriere and Constitution; Discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto
$5,000	One year (5%)	1863	Fr.202 proof		The Altar of Liberty (Louis Delnoce)
$5,000	Three years (7.3%)	1865	Fr.212h proof		Justice; New Ironsides (James Smillie)

Footnotes

1. Names in parentheses are artists who engraved the portraits or vignettes used on the notes.