Confederate Paper Money $2 Dollar Bill from Richmond, Virginia, June 2 1862
Description: This $2 Confederate note shows two men fighting with swords with an eagle in the center. In the upper left corner of the note is a picture of Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate cabinet member. This note was printed with black ink. There is no design on the back.
Inscriptions: "Six Months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States, The Confederate States of America will pay Two Dollars to bearer/ Richmond June 2,1862/ Receivable in payment of all dues except export duties/ Fundable in eight per cent stock or bonds of The Confederate States/ B. Duncan, Columbia"
Judah Philip Benjamin QC (August 11, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was a lawyer and politician who was a United States Senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English barrister. Benjamin was the first man professing the Jewish faith to be elected to the United States Senate, and the first Jew to hold a cabinet position in North America.
Benjamin was born to Sephardic Jewish parents from London, who had moved to St. Croix in the Danish West Indies at a time when it was occupied by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. Seeking greater opportunities, his family first emigrated to North Carolina and then to Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States. Benjamin attended Yale, and after departing without graduating, moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he read law and passed the bar.
Benjamin rose rapidly both at the bar and in politics, becoming a wealthy slaveowner, and serving in both houses of the Louisiana legislature prior to his election to the Senate in 1852. There, he was an eloquent supporter of slavery, and resigned as senator after Louisiana left the Union in early 1861. He returned to New Orleans, but soon left there when Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him Attorney General. He had little to do in that position, but impressed by his competence, Davis appointed him Secretary of War. Benjamin firmly supported Davis, and the President reciprocated the loyalty by promoting him to the Confederate State Department in March 1862 while Benjamin was being criticized for the rebel defeat at the Battle of Roanoke Island.
As Secretary of State, Benjamin attempted to gain recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France; his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. To preserve the Confederacy as military defeat made its situation increasingly desperate, he advocated freeing and arming the slaves late in the war, but his proposals were not accepted until it was too late. When Davis fled the Confederate capital of Richmond in early 1865, Benjamin went with him, but left the presidential party and was successful in escaping whereas Davis was captured by Union troops. Benjamin made his way to Britain, and became a barrister, again rising to the top of his profession before retiring in 1883. He died in Paris the following year.