The Yankee Dollar Can't Save You This Time

The Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman once noted that wars have provided laboratories to examine the behavior of money, prices, and income (Friedman, 1952). The Confederate experience during the American Civil War is no exception. Between January 1861 and April 1865, the Lerner Commodity Price Index of leading cities in the Eastern Confederacy increased from 100 to over 9000. Price inflation in the South during the Civil War ranks second only to the American Revolution in U.S. history.

A gold dollar in 1861 was 1/20th of an ounce.  So, for a Confederate dollar price of $40 for one gold dollar would

indicate a gold ounce in Confederate money was $800.

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/weidenmier.finance.confederacy.us

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