Today, the currency of the United States is the U.S. dollar, and is printed on bills in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.

Series 1934 $100,000 bill, Obverse

Series 1934 $100,000 bill, Reverse

Series 1918 $10,000 bill, Obverse

Series 1918 $10,000 bill, Reverse

Series 1918 $5,000 bill, Obverse

Series 1918 $5,000 bill, Reverse

Series 1928 $1,000 bill, Obverse

Series 1928 or 1934 $1,000 bill, Reverse

Series 1928 $500 bill, Obverse

Series 1928 or 1934 $500 bill, Reverse

At one time, however, it also included five larger denominations. High-denomination currency was prevalent from the very beginning of U.S. Government issue (1861). $500, $1,000, and $5,000 interest bearing notes were issued in 1861, and $10,000 gold certificates arrived in 1865. There are many different designs and types of high-denomination notes.

The high-denomination bills were issued in a small size in 1929, along with the $1 through $100 denominations. The designs were as follows, along with their 1929 equivalents in current purchasing power (except for the $100,000 bill, which uses the 1934 equivalent):

• $500: William McKinley, equal to $6,220 in 2008 dollars
• $1,000: Grover Cleveland, equal to $12,440.55 in 2008 dollars
• $5,000: James Madison, equal to $62,202.73 in 2008 dollars
• $10,000: Salmon P. Chase, equal to $124,405.46 in 2008 dollars
• $100,000: Woodrow Wilson, equal to $1,591,521.2 in 2008 dollars

The reverse designs featured abstract scrollwork with ornate denomination identifiers. All were printed in green, except for the $100,000. The $100,000 is an odd bill, in that it was not generally issued, and printed only as a gold certificate of Series of 1934. These gold certificates (of denominations $100, $1,000, $10,000, and $100,000) were issued after the gold standard was repealed and gold was compulsorily purchased by presidential order of Franklin Roosevelt on March 9, 1933 (see United States Executive Order 6102), and thus were used only for intra-government transactions. They are printed in orange on the reverse. This series was discontinued in 1940. The other bills are printed in black and green as shown by the $10,000 example (pictured at right). Although they are still technically legal tender in the United States, high-denomination bills were last printed in 1945 and officially discontinued on July 14, 1969, by the Federal Reserve System.^[1] The $5,000 and $10,000 effectively disappeared well before then: there are only about two hundred $5,000 bills, and three hundred $10,000 bills known, of all series since 1861. Of the $10,000 bills, 100 were preserved for many years by Benny Binion, the owner of Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they were displayed encased in acrylic. The display has since been dismantled and the bills were sold to private collectors.

Circulation of high-denomination bills was halted in 1969 by executive order of President Richard Nixon, in an effort to combat organized crime. The Federal Reserve began taking high-denomination bills out of circulation that year; as of May 30, 2009, there were only 336 of the $10,000 bills in circulation; 342 remaining $5,000 bills; and 165,372 $1,000 bills still being used.^[2] Due to their rarity, collectors will pay considerably more than the face value of the bills to acquire them.

For the most part, these bills were used by banks and the Federal Government for large financial transactions. This was especially true for gold certificates from 1865 to 1934. However, the introduction of the electronic money system has made large-scale cash transactions obsolete; when combined with concerns about counterfeiting and the use of cash in unlawful activities such as the illegal drug trade, it is unlikely that the U.S. government will re-issue large denomination currency in the near future. According to the US Department of Treasury website, "The present denominations of our currency in production are $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. Neither the Department of the Treasury nor the Federal Reserve System has any plans to change the denominations in use today."^[3]

[edit] Fake denominations

Numerous fake large denominations of US currency have been created by various individuals and organizations, including a one million dollar bill.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Large Denominations from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

v • d • e United States currency and coinage Topics Federal Reserve System · Federal Reserve Note · U.S. dollar · U.S. Mint · Bureau of Engraving and Printing  · Mutilated currency Current coinage Penny (1¢) · Nickel (5¢) · Dime (10¢) · Quarter dollar (25¢) · Half dollar (50¢) · Dollar ($1) Paper money $1 · $2 · $5 · $10 · $20 · $50 · $100 · Larger denominations See also Bicentennial coinage · Commemoratives · Modern Commemoratives  · Confederate dollar · Fake denominations · Obsolete denominations · Mill · Coin production · In God We Trust · E pluribus unum · Nicknames

v • d • e Obsolete United States currency and coinage Topics United States coinage · United States dollar · History of the United States dollar · Large denominations of currency Coins Fugio Cent · Half cent · Large cent · Two-cent piece · Three-cent piece · Half dime · Twenty-cent piece · Trade Dollar Gold Coins Gold dollar · Quarter Eagle ($2.50) · Three-dollar piece · Stella ($4) · Half Eagle ($5) · Eagle ($10) · Double Eagle ($20) Currency Colonial scrip · Compound Interest Treasury Note · Demand Note · Federal Reserve Bank Note · Fractional Currency  · Gold Certificate · Interest Bearing Note · National Bank Note · National Gold Bank Note · Refunding Certificate · Silver Certificate · Treasury or Coin Note · Treasury Notes (19th Century) · United States Note