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Auction: 317 - The Collector's Series
Lot: 408

State of North Carolina. Cotton Warrant Bearing 7% Interest. Dated at Manchester, 1st July 1863. No.788. 100 Pounds Sterling. Also denominated in cotton: 12 Bales, 400 lbs. each / 4,800 lbs. Middling Cotton, Liverpool Classification at 5d. per lb. 11" x 17". Ornate border on thick paper. Black printing on fine quality thick paper. Very beautifully executed ornate borders with circular counters in the corners. Printed by William Brown & Co, London. Handsigned by John White, Special Commissioner for the State of North Carolina, and James M. Mason, Commissioner of the Confederacy to the United Kingdom and France between 1861 and 1865 during the American Civil War. Interest paid notations in the upper left margin mention Alexander Collie & Company. Interest of 3 Pounds was paid on Jan. 1, 1864, July 1, 1864 and Jan. 1, 1865. Extremely Fine. Unlisted in Criswell. A similar bond appeared in the 1986 Smythe auction of Douglas Ball's Confederate Collection and realized $1,000.
James M. Mason. While James M. Mason was on his way to Britain and France, the British mail steamer RMS Trent was stopped by USS San Jacinto on November 8, 1861. Mason was brought to Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, resulting in "the Trent Affair" that almost brought Britain into open war with the United States of America.
Alexander Collie was responsible for arranging this cotton loan, He controlled a fleet of sixteen Confederate blockade runners. Due to his involvement in a fradulent speculation, Collie eventually died a pauper in New York.

Sold for
$3,250