Confederate States’ “Medlar Montgomery” Surfaces

By J.W. Hilton

Certainly the finest known and perhaps the most storied of the Confederate States’ Montgomery issues – long associated with past owner and noted San Antonio numismatist Robert E. (Bob) Medlar – recently surfaced in a private sale for only the sixth verifiable occasion over the past sixty years. This $1,000 Montgomery note (Criswell Type 1, Slabaugh 4) was issued under the March 9, 1861 Act of the Confederate government and bears serial number 55 out of 607 notes issued. Boldly printed, brightly colored, fully bordered and totally original, this magnificent piece – “the nicest ever seen, bar none” – is a flawless example of this great Confederate rarity.

The sale took place at the Pasadena (TX) Coin Club Show in Houston in November, 2001, between dealers Don Higgins of McAllen, TX, representing the seller, and Crutchfield Williams of Kemah, TX, representing the purchaser. The exact purchase price was not disclosed, although Williams revealed that it “ranged between $60,000 and $80,000, undoubtedly the highest price ever paid for a Confederate note.”

The Montgomery issues ($1,000, $500, $100 and $50 denominations), along with the $5 Indian Princess (Criswell Type 35) and $10 Shield and Eagle (Criswell Type 27) examples, represent the rarest and most sought after of the seventy types of currency issued by the Confederate government. The $1,000 Montgomery is particularly valued for its uniqueness, being the Confederacy’s only $1,000 denominated issue, and its rarity, with only 112 specimens known to have survived the Civil War.

The $1,000 Montgomery was printed in New York on high-quality paper with red silk fibers by the National Bank Note Company, whose plates were seized by federal authorities barely after the notes were printed. This note bears the hand-written date of May 23, 1861 and possesses penned signatures of Alex B. Clitherall as Register and E. C. Elmore as Treasurer of the Confederate government. Like all Montgomery issues, this note bore interest and is endorsed on the reverse with an issue date of June 17, 1861 by A. J. Guirot, Assistant Treasurer, at New Orleans.

Few notes in numismatics can claim a more varied, colorful or controversial past than this beauty, which first surfaced in a Barney Bluestone auction in April, 1945. The honest but conservative Bluestone, who catalogued and sold the legendary Albert A. Grinnell paper money collection in a series of eight catalogues from 1944 to 1947, was nevertheless sufficiently impressed with this note to describe it as:

“Uncancelled. Uncirculated. Crisp beauty with good margins. Low No. 55.

A gem of the first water. Unsurpassed and a great rarity in this condition.”

Bluestone sold this note for $63.00, apparently to Charles W. (“Suitcase Charlie”) Foster of Rushville, New York, a noted collector of Southern States Currency, who consigned it to a January, 1957 auction of Federal Coin Exchange, owned by Michael Kolman, Jr. Kolman, as liberal in his grading as Bluestone was conservative, was reduced to asking a rhetorical question when confronted with describing this note:

“This is note No. 55 of the 607 specimens issued. Crisp uncirculated. In this

superb condition, we value this note and feel it should exceed $300.00. How

many exist today, especially so choice?”

Even the generous Kolman must have been amazed at the $675.00 this note realized, or more than twice his estimate. Kolman is thought to have sold this note to Melvin Edel, a coin dealer in Centralia, a small railroad town in southern Illinois with its share of hard-drinking, high-living, rough and rowdy characters.

Edel soon sold this piece to “Miss Iola” of Centralia, the colorful but controversial owner of The Century Inn, a tavern and antique bottle shop located across the railroad tracks from the depot where local railroad workers and nearby coal miners arrived each Friday for a night on the town. “Miss Iola” was glad to oblige, but was alleged to be dispensing more services than the drinks and entertainment which the law allowed. In the early 1960’s, she was first raided by local law enforcement authorities for operating a brothel, but after posting bond she and her girls were soon back at work again.

“Miss Iola” was renowned for her zest for life and her love of Confederate money, which she proudly displayed in outrageous paper money exhibits which won “Best of Show” awards at numismatic conventions throughout the Midwest. But her connections to more unsavory characters continued to plague her, as she was later raided by state authorities after local efforts proved fruitless.

In early 1967, when her assets were about to be confiscated after a highly publicized raid, “Miss Iola” announced that the $1,000 Montgomery piece, along with other exceptional Confederate notes, had been misplaced or stolen. A list of the “Stolen Confederate Notes” circulated among a number of dealers in the late 1960’s, but curiously, soon after federal authorities joined state and local efforts in 1973 to shut down her operation for good, “Miss Iola” fled to Texas – and the notes re-appeared just as suddenly as they had vanished.

About 1973 Robert E. (Bob) Medlar of San Antonio made inquiry of several Illinois dealers to ensure that title to the $1,000 Montgomery was clear. Shortly thereafter he purchased it and made it a key part of his vast paper money collection. Medlar became a collector and student of paper money in 1950, becoming a part-time dealer in 1954 and opening a full-time retail store in 1967. A life member of the American Numismatic Association and a charter member of the Society of Paper Money Collectors, Medlar was also a charter member of the Texas Numismatic Association and author of Texas Obsolete Notes and Scrip, the standard reference on the subject. Since his death in January, 1991, Bob Medlar has become a numismatic legend, still remembered for his dissemination of knowledge in numismatics and his love of the hobby.

In 1983 when Medlar’s health began to fail, he consigned the note to up-and-coming Confederate dealer Hugh Shull of South Carolina, current president of PCDA. Shull soon sold the note to Henry Hull, a prominent numismatist and even more famous philatelist of Jacksonville, Florida. Hull exulted in the knowledge that he owned the finest known Confederate specimen for seven years before consigning it to NASCA’s June, 1990 auction at the Memphis International Paper Money Show. Then president of NASCA and today vice president of R.M. Smythe and Company which acquired NASCA in 1985, eminent researcher and cataloguer Douglas B. Ball described the note for the sale in unusually effusive terms:

“Unc, uncancelled, complete borders, certainly a census condition note.

We have handled well over 70 of the [then] extant 100 pieces and this

is the best we have seen anywhere. This is probably the best known;

certainly this is a census condition specimen. We would not be the least

surprised to see a $10,000 or higher price realized.”

Ball was correct. The note sold to dealer Don Higgins for $16,500, a record that stood for Confederate currency throughout the heady economic times of the 1990’s before finally being eclipsed in 1998. Higgins’ client, a Texan like Medlar, admired the note for eleven years before selling it to the current owner in November, 2001.

While the exact sales price of the latest sale was not disclosed, it is safe to assume that the late Grover C. Criswell, Confederate dealer and promoter nonpareil, stated it succinctly when he and his brother wrote on the dust cover of their 1957 Confederate and Southern State Currency, “Save Your Confederate Money Boys.” The South Will Rise Again!

Both dealers in this transaction share a thirty-year-old interest in Confederate and Republic of Texas currency which assured the sale’s ultimate consummation. Additional images of this note and further information about this transaction are available from purchaser’s agent Crutchfield Williams, PO Box 3221, Quinlan, TX 75474, telephone 903-560-0458 or website www.CrutchWilliams.com. Seller’s agent Don Higgins can be reached at PO Box 720785, McAllen, TX 78504 or telephone 956-357-3029.

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Author J. W. Hilton is a retired business owner and freelance writer and can be written at

PO Box 1861, Langley, SC 29834. He is indebted to Douglas B. Ball of R.M. Smythe and

Company (telephone 212-943-1880), Dennis J. Forgue of Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. (telephone

312-609-0016), Confederate dealer Hugh Shull (telephone 803-432-8500,

fax 803-432-9958) and numerous civic and local officials in Centralia, IL for contributions to this article.