Large denominations of United States currency greater than were circulated by the

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...

until 1969. Since then,

U.S. dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

banknotes A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

have only been issued in seven denominations: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.

Overview and history

Large-denomination currency (i.e., banknotes with a face value of or higher) had been used in the United States since the late 18th century. The first note was issued by

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

, authorized by legislation dated May 10, 1780.

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

quickly followed suit and authorized the printing of and notes on October 16, 1780 and notes on May 7, 1781. High-denomination treasury notes were issued, for example during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

($1,000 notes authorized by an act dated June 30, 1812). During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

Confederate currency included and notes. The earliest (1861) federal banknotes included high-denomination notes such as three-year interest-bearing notes of , , and , authorized by Congress on July 17, 1861.United States Congress. Act of July, 17 1861 Chapter V. Washington D.C.: 1861
/ref> In total, 11 different types of U.S. currency were issued in high-denomination notes across nearly 20 different series dates. The

obverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ...

designs of United States banknotes generally depict either historical figures,

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

figures symbolizing significant concepts (e.g., liberty, justice), or a combination of both. The reverse designs range from abstract scroll-work with ornate denomination identifiers to reproductions of historical art works.

Public vis-à-vis institutional use

Series 1934

gold certificate Gold certificates were issued by the United States Treasury as a form of representative money from 1865 to 1933. While the United States observed a gold standard, the certificates offered a more convenient way to pay in gold than the use of coin ...

s ($100; ; ; and ) were issued after the

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from th ...

was repealed and gold was compulsorily confiscated by order of President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

on March 9, 1933 (see

United States Executive Order 6102 Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States." The executive order was m ...

). Thus the series 1934 notes were used only for intragovernmental (i.e.,

Federal Reserve Bank A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve ...

) transactions and were not issued to the public. This series was discontinued in 1940. The series 1928 gold certificate reverse was printed in black and green (see

History of the United States dollar The history of the United States dollar began with moves by the Founding Fathers of the United States of America to establish a national currency based on the Spanish silver dollar, which had been in use in the North American colonies of the Uni ...

Passive retirement

Although they are still legal tender in the United States, high-denomination bills were last printed on December 27, 1945, and were officially discontinued on July 14, 1969, by the

Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after ...

due to "lack of use". The and bills had effectively disappeared well before then. The Federal Reserve began taking high-denomination currency out of circulation and destroying large bills received by banks in 1969. , only 336 bills were known to exist, along with 342 remaining bills and 165,372 remaining bills. As to "cereal boxes" as a repository for ill-gotten

bribes Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...

compare " Little Tin Box" in the musical ''

Fiorello! ''Fiorello!'' is a musical about New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, a reform Republican, which debuted on Broadway in 1959, and tells the story of how La Guardia took on the Tammany Hall political machine. The book is by Jerome Weidman an ...

''. Due to their rarity, collectors pay considerably more than the face value of the bills to acquire them, and some are in museums in other parts of the world. For the most part, these bills were used by banks and the federal government for large financial transactions, which was especially true for gold certificates from 1865 to 1934. However, the introduction of

electronic money Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...

systems has made large-scale cash transactions mostly obsolete, and along with concerns about

counterfeiting To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

and the use of cash for unlawful activities (such as

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalati ...

and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdicti ...

), it is unlikely that the U.S. government will reissue any large-denomination currency in the foreseeable future. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury website, "The present denominations of our currency in production are , , , , , and . The purpose of the United States currency system is to serve the needs of the public and these denominations meet that goal. Neither the Department of the Treasury nor the Federal Reserve System has any plans to change the denominations in use today."

High-denomination banknote issuing data

Table of banknotes

The National Numismatic Collection at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

contains (among other things) the

Bureau of Engraving and Printing The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) is a government agency within the United States Department of the Treasury that designs and produces a variety of security products for the United States government, most notable of which is Federal Re ...

(BEP) certified proofs and the Treasury Department collection of United States currency. Using a combination of proofs and issued notes, a nearly complete type set of high-denomination currency was compiled. Notably missing are several types of Compound and Interest Bearing Notes. Printed during the early to mid-1860s on very thin paper, these high-denomination notes are virtually non-existent. Their issuance (1861–65) predates the BEP's responsibility for U.S. currency (1870s), so it is fortunate that any proofs exist in the current archives.

References

Explanatory footnotes

Citations

General bibliography

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External links

Large Denominations
from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
U.S. Department of the Treasury
{{Obsolete U.S. currency and coinage Paper money of the United States