A variety of CSA Type 47 has been discovered by Dale Alberstone, who acquired it in Smythe's April 13 auction of the Western Reserve Historical Society collection.

The visible difference is in the shield next to Liberty's legs at upper center of the note. Alberstone's new find has cross hatching or a checkerboard appearance in the lower portion of the shield rather than the usual vertical bands of alternating light and dark.

So far, even though specialists Alberstone has contacted have been looking through their holdings, only this one example of the new variety has been found.

If you've got one, the CSA collecting and research community would be pleased to hear about it. You can e-mail me at david.kranz@fwpubs.com. An image would be a big plus.

Pierre Fricke, author of Collecting Confederate Paper Money, also reported the find in the news section of his Web site www.csaquotes.com. You can see a photo of the normal T-47 shield at his site, and in the upcoming July editon of Bank Note Reporter.

Alberstone said Fricke, Hugh Shull and George Tremmel plan to list the variety in future editions of their CSA references.

The T-47 note is believed to be some sort of essay or fantasy note rather than a regular issue of Confederate Currency, but since Grover Criswell gave it a type number years ago, collectors have considered it an issue to be collected in the pursuit of a complete CSA set.