This is part of a series of blog posts I wrote for a coin collecting site circa ~2015 that seems to have disappeared off the Internet.
DISCLAIMER: The intention of this post will be to discuss the state of certain collectible coins which happen to bear controversial symbols. This is to be done while disregarding any political ideas for or against them. Hobbies such as coin collecting frequently run into this situation. Readers are advised to keep the debate on-topic in their comments.
Now then… Hooo-boy, what a mess! Where to start?
To recap, recent events have prompted many Americans to mount a backlash against the symbol of what they’ve come to call the “Confederate Flag” (we’ll come back to this part). This has led companies like Walmart to remove merchandise with the symbol from their shelf stock, and has prompted online retailers, including Amazon and eBay, to ban such products as well.
Currently as the situation stands, eBay has at least allowed some numismatic items bearing these “Confederate” markings. But only some, presumably anything that’s recognized as standard-issue currency, not collectible medallions or such.
Let’s address our use of scare quotes:
The banner widely popularized in the USA southern states as the “Confederate flag” isn’t really the actual flag at all, if “Confederate” is taken to mean “the banner meant to represent the secessionist Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.” Instead, all of the below images have more right to be called the “Confederate flag”:
Each of them was proposed at one time or another during the conflict, with quite a few rejected. The first series looked too much like the “Yankee flag,” (the official stars and stripes), then the white banner looked too much like a surrender. These things are easy to confuse when on a smoky battlefield with little wind.
Instead, the symbol now popularized is the second Confederate Navy Jack, adapted from the battle flag of the North Virginia Army. It’s popularly called the “Dixie flag,” the Rebel flag, or the Southern Cross. Or the “General Lee,” after the rooftop logo of the car of the same name from the TV series The Dukes of Hazard.
The upshot of all this is that certain numismatic items may have their trade hindered due to bearing a Dixie design. These include the 1936 Battle of Gettysburg commemorative half-dollar as the only “official” US Mint issue, a handful of pennies and half dollars that were test-minted during the 1960s, and may apply to some paper Confederate notes and scrip, even though the actual Dixie pattern doesn’t appear anywhere on it. Should the public decide that all Confederate-affiliated items are ill-favored, items without necessarily depicting the Dixie design, more items might be affected.
What’s the smart thing to do with Confederate-identified metal and paper currency?
Just hang onto it. There’s a panic right now, and after a few months it will die off and cooler heads will prevail. The Dixie pattern is on license plates, book covers, state flags, video and board games, Civil War reenactment cosplay gear, apparel, car decals, tattoos, memorials, monuments, tombstones, and at least one row of cigarette lighters sold in every convenience store right now. They can’t just round it all up and erase it overnight. And coin collectors and dealers have plenty of ground to stand on, as would, say, a book retailer selling Civil War history books.
There are historical precedents to matters like these. For example (and this is NOT to draw comparisons between the two ideologies) German law still allows coin dealers to trade Nazi-issued coins; their laws only forbid modern replicas and memorabilia. Which is a confusing point anyway; the symbol we know today as the Swastika is also considered a good luck sign in ancient Hindu and Buddhist religions – years before Hitler was ever born!
