Confederate States of America -- Authentic or Fake?

One of my best friends found these stuffed in an old book a few decades ago, and they've been banged around in a desk drawer since. He knew I'd appreciate them so gave them to me for Christmas.

If they are authentic, I plan to frame them and hang them up.

Any experts here? Authentic, or beat up old fakes?

Hello,

Not an expert on US paper money, but I know that there have been a lot of reproductions of Confederate banknotes in the past, so you were definitely right to be suspicious. In the 1950s and 60s there was a cereal company in the US that put reproductions of those notes in their products as a promotional gimmick, and they're the source of many fake notes of this sort.

Here's a useful link to start; check their serial numbers:
https://oldcurrencyvalues.com/fake_confederate_money/

Those were also hand signed, like most notes until the 1880s, so check the signatures, if they seem too dark and printed then they're probably fake I'm afraid- here's my 1864 5 dollars, look at the faded signatures and serial number:

exactly the confirmation (unfortunately not the one I wanted) that I needed. All of the serial numbers were on that list, except for the $5, cause it's in the chunk that's missing.

Not a problem, always happy to help.

Just a little observation; the notes' tears seem to be far more deliberate and violent than ones accumulated over time spent in circulation on real notes, so perhaps a previous owner was deliberately mucking them up in an attempt to make them look older and authentic to pass off to a buyer.

Another thing with the copies, is that they were artificially aged, so they will be a yellow-brown shade, or more brownish looking, and often are very rigid and crisp- almost seems they were soaked with tea leaves. Besides the cereal box promotion (think was cheerios), they were sold in packs of 5 or more in souvenir shops (i think they are still producing them for sale in shops/online). I am fairly certain these had the word ‘copy’ on them somewhere, and of course they also had the distinctive very dark facsimile signatures/dating. Although some inks can remain dark after many years, if you compare a copy with a real note, there are differences that should be noticeable- such as the copy with the portions that should be hand-inked, everything will look a solid dark shade overall. The original will have more of an uneven look with main inked lettering/numerals darker, but sort of gradually fading into the paper toward termination of pen stroke.
Here is an example of an original as described above (also note the ink used in the inking of the serial number has faded considerably compared to the signatures) ~
https://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/item/5-1863-confederate-note-6th-series-t60-unc

Hope this information is helpful toward future identification