2009 Dixie Dollar Jefferson Davis Silver Round

MintAOCS Mint (Frisco, TX)

IssuerDixie Dollar (Cabool, Missouri)

DistributorDixie Dollar (Cabool, Missouri)

CollectionAmerican Open Currency Standard - AOCS

A bust of Jefferson Davis in later life, bearded, in a dark coat and bow tie, turned slightly right. "GOD SAVE THE SOUTH" arches above, with "JEFFERSON DAVIS" along the lower rim.

The Confederate battle flag, its St. Andrew's cross set with thirteen stars, above a panel bearing "FIFTY" in Western lettering. Below: "ONE TROY OUNCE .999 FINE SILVER," "WWW.DIXIEDOLLAR.ORG," and "© 2009 JMD • AOCS APPROVED."

2009 Dixie Dollar Jefferson Davis Silver Round Overview

The 2009 Dixie Dollar Jefferson Davis Silver Round is a one troy ounce .999 fine silver round issued by Dixie Dollar of Cabool, Missouri, a private currency program that set out to give the South its own silver money for voluntary barter. It carries the “AOCS APPROVED” legend of the Frisco, Texas–based American Open Currency Standard, and it is one of two designs the program struck in 2009. Its companion, the 2009 Dixie Dollar Civil War Commemorative Silver Round, pairs the Confederate Great Seal with the same reverse.

The man on the obverse is Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Davis was born on June 3, 1808, in Christian County, Kentucky, and raised largely in Mississippi. He graduated from West Point in 1828, served on the frontier, and later commanded the 1st Mississippi Rifles in the Mexican–American War, where he was wounded at the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847. He went on to serve Mississippi in the U.S. Senate and was Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce from 1853 to 1857, one of the most capable men to hold that office before the Civil War.

When Mississippi left the Union in January 1861, Davis resigned his Senate seat. The seceding states, with the protection of slavery at the center of the secession crisis, organized a provisional government at Montgomery, Alabama, and chose Davis as president; he took the oath on February 18, 1861. He was inaugurated to a full six-year term in Richmond on February 22, 1862, the date carried on the Confederate Great Seal struck on this round’s companion piece. Davis led the Confederacy through four years of war. He was captured by Union cavalry near Irwinville, Georgia, on May 10, 1865, held for two years at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and indicted for treason, but he was released on bail in 1867 and never brought to trial. He spent his later years writing The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) and died in New Orleans on December 6, 1889. His remains were moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond in 1893, and Congress restored his U.S. citizenship in 1978.

The obverse shows Davis as he looked after the war, an older man with a full beard and swept-back hair, in a dark coat and bow tie, turned slightly to the viewer’s right. Arched over him is “GOD SAVE THE SOUTH,” the title of a wartime anthem published in 1861 and sung across the Confederacy as an unofficial national anthem. His name runs along the lower rim. The portrait and the anthem together set the round’s tone: Davis stands for the South as a region with its own identity, the idea the Dixie Dollar program built its currency around.

The reverse is the Dixie Dollar program’s common reverse. The Confederate battle flag fills the upper field, its St. Andrew’s cross set with thirteen stars, the pattern carried by the Army of Northern Virginia and the most recognized Confederate emblem today. Below it, a panel holds the denomination “FIFTY” in tall Western lettering, followed by the weight and fineness, the program’s web address, and the line “© 2009 JMD • AOCS APPROVED.” The “FIFTY” follows the AOCS silver scale of fifty units per troy ounce, the same denomination found on other 2009 AOCS silver rounds. It is a unit of voluntary trade, not a legal-tender claim.

Dixie Dollar described its silver as privately minted currency meant to let Southerners build a sound monetary system outside the banking establishment, and it called its pieces compatible with the Liberty Dollar while stating it was not affiliated with that organization. The Jefferson Davis round was the program’s portrait issue, and it reached buyers in two silver finishes. A standard uncirculated striking was sold in tubes. A proof striking, with deeply mirrored fields behind frosted devices, was sold as a numbered edition: dealers describe each piece as numbered on the rim in the form “38/1000” with a matching numbered certificate of authenticity, and give the edition as 1,000.

2009 Dixie Dollar Jefferson Davis Silver Round Attribution

The only date on the round is the copyright line on the reverse, “© 2009 JMD.” No dated announcement or sales literature from Dixie Dollar has been located to fix an exact release date. The 2009 year rests on that copyright line together with the program’s documented 2009 launch, and it agrees with the Numista catalog entry for this design.

Issuer and distributor are Dixie Dollar of Cabool, Missouri, established by the struck program address “WWW.DIXIEDOLLAR.ORG” and the “JMD” copyright, which the site attributes to Joshua M. Deatherage, the program’s principal (see the Dixie Dollar page). The struck “AOCS APPROVED” legend places the round in the AOCS program, and it is recorded under AOCS Mint (Frisco, TX) on the site’s standard for AOCS-program rounds. No mark on either face names the physical manufacturer; AOCS’s documented production partner for this period was the North American Mint (Rochester, NY), but no direct evidence ties this round to it.

2009 Dixie Dollar Jefferson Davis Silver Round Notes

• The portrait side is the obverse; the denomination side, carrying the weight, fineness, and AOCS Approved line, is the reverse.
• Shares its reverse design with the 2009 Dixie Dollar Civil War Commemorative Silver Round.
• Two silver finishes are documented: uncirculated (sold in tubes) and a rim-numbered proof with a matching numbered COA.
• Proof edition is stated by dealers as 1,000; actual struck quantity is not documented. No mintage is documented for the uncirculated striking.
• A 2010 one-ounce gold “Jefferson Davis” medallion is named in a period dealer’s listing as part of a five-design AOCS gold set sharing a common AOCS gold reverse. It is attributed to this obverse; no photograph of the gold piece has been located.
• Designer is not documented; the struck “JMD” copyright is the only credit on the coin.

2009 Dixie Dollar Jefferson Davis Silver Round References

• Numista, “1 oz Silver (Jefferson Davis $50),” N# 98006
• WorthPoint, “1 oz Silver Coin Jefferson Davis Dixie Dollar Confederate Flag Coin AOCS” — uncirculated, tube stock
• PicClick, “1 oz Silver Coin Jefferson Davis Dixie Dollar Civil War Confederate Silver Coin” — numbered proof, x/1000 with COA
• Archived DixieDollar.org website (Wayback Machine)
• Jefferson Davis, Wikipedia
• God Save the South, Wikipedia
• 2009 Dixie Dollar Civil War Commemorative Silver Round, The Texas Stacker
• Dixie Dollar (Cabool, Missouri), The Texas Stacker
• AOCS Mint (Frisco, TX), The Texas Stacker
• North American Mint (Rochester, NY), The Texas Stacker
• American Open Currency Standard – AOCS, The Texas Stacker
• Documented example examined (this entry)
• Texas Stacker Archives

Continue Exploring

Next →2010 Bill of Rights Silver Ninth Amendment Proof-Like Silver Round

Other Coins in this Collection: American Open Currency Standard - AOCS

2009 Andrew Jackson Proof-Like Silver Round2009 Continental Congress AOCS Silver Round2009 Dixie Dollar Civil War Commemorative Silver Round2009 Free Lakota Bank Proof-Like Silver Round2009 John Galt AOCS Approved Silver Round2009 Ludwig von Mises Institute Proof-Like Silver Round2009 Unite or Die AOCS Silver Round Overview2010 Barter is Better Buy Local AOCS Copper Round2010 Barter is Better Buy Local AOCS Silver Round2010 Bill of Rights Silver Ninth Amendment Proof-Like Silver Round2010 D’Anconia Copper2010 Free Lakota Bank Copper Round2010 Republic of Texas Copper Round2010 Republic of Texas Silver Round2010 Soto Nation of Turtle Island Proof-Like Silver Round2011 (Estimated) Republic of Texas Copper Round2011 Republic of Texas 1/10th oz Gold Round2011 Republic of Texas Half Ounce Silver Round2012 Free Lakota Bank Proof-Like Silver Round2012 Paradime Barter is Better Silver Round

MintAOCS Mint (Frisco, TX)34 coins in the archive

→