Major Designs of the

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Major Designs of

United States Currency

since the 20th Century

*** A work in progress ***

These are some US Banknotes from my personal collection put together to illustrate some of the design elements that existed in our not too distant past. Certainly our Grandfathers used the larger banknotes, which were about 1/3 larger than our current size US Banknotes. Their designs were often very different than what we are used to now.

Here is an 1899 "Black Eagle" Silver Certificate, which was backed by a dollars worth of silver in the Treasury.

Next up is a 1917 United States Note, also referred to as Legal Tender Notes. These are among the oldest types of circulating U.S. banknotes and were introduced during the Civil War. These were direct obligations of the government and thus were pieces of the national debt. The vignette on the left side of the front is by Charles Schussele and is called "Columbus' Discovery of Land". This vignette is also on the back of the large-size 1914 5 dollar Federal Reserve Note found further down on this page.

Next is a 1918 Federal Reserve Bank note, also called National Currency. A subtype of the Nationals, Federal Reserve Bank Notes were issued by Federal Reserve Banks, but unlike ordinary Federal Reserve Notes, they were direct obligations of the issuing bank, not the U.S. government.

Next is a 1923 Silver Certificate. These were backed by silver coin, and were redeemable for silver at the Treasury. Production of Silver Certificates stopped in 1963, with a deadline of June 24, 1968 imposed for redemption. Silver Certificates still in circulation are no longer redeemable in silver, but remain legal tender. The 1923 is known as a “Horse Blanket” due to the design on the reverse.

Next up is a 1928 Silver Certificate. This is a small-size note that begins to resemble what we use today on the front. The back design is known as a “Funny Back”, incorporating the “Horse Blanket” design of the 1923 Large Size note. The size of all banknotes became smaller beginning in 1928.

In 1934 there was a design change on the front of the $1 bill. Here you can see that the blue Treasury Seal is now on the right and under the word ONE, while the left side has a blue tinted 1 and the redemption clause is shortened. The certificate states at top that "there is on deposit" instead of "there has been deposited", and at the bottom it changed from "One Silver Dollar" to "One Dollar in Silver" . This design lasted only for 1 year.

Even closer to what we are used to today is the next note, a 1935 Silver Certificate. The design of this note added the One Dollar designation under the top right serial number and changed the design of the left numeral 1 under the redemption clause. The reverse still lacks the “In God We Trust” motto we have today.

The next two are oddballs. The first one is a Silver Certificate with “Hawaii’ stamped on the front and back, and a brown seal. This was used during WWII, and the thought was that if Japan seized the islands, the US could quickly render these designs invalid, and keep the Japanese from using them. There were others used in North Africa for this purpose as well, but with a yellow seal and no overprint.

Beginning in 1957 the Bureau of Engraving and Printing began printing the "In God We Trust" motto on the back of the One Dollar notes. Remember that Banknotes aren't dated like coins, and the series dates reflect the last time the notes underwent a design change. So in 1957 the notes were dated series 1935 G. This changeover pair of the series 1935 G Silver Certificates placed the motto over the ONE on the back of the banknote. The change in design weren't on all series 1935 G notes, but they were on all series 1935 H and later notes.

The motto had been introduced on US coins beginning in 1864.

Silver Certificates continued to be issued, But as the price of Silver rose, the government decided to abandon the Silver Certificates, and in 1963 Silver certificates were no longer printed. In 1964 Silver backed currency officially ended in the USA when the Treasury Secretary issued an order to stop redemption of silver certificates for silver, though they were still legal tender for $1. Silver would be removed U.S. coinage production in 1965. The creation of a new Federal Reserve One-Dollar Banknote replaced the older Silver Certificate, and the world kept on spending.

Next is our modern US $1. Federal Reserve Notes. These were first issued in 1914 and are backed by the U.S. government but issued by Federal Reserve Banks, which are required to maintain enough assets to balance all the notes issued. Small-size Federal Reserve Notes have green seals and serial numbers. These are different than the Federal Reserve Bank Notes, which were obligations of the Issuing Federal Reserve Banks. Changes from the Silver Certificates include the denomination with the Treasury Seal is spelled out, front border changes, Federal Reserve seal on the left with letter designations coupled with numbers etc. are quite noticeable.

The following is a Web Press Note. This is a federal Reserve Note that is an experimental issue that used a different type of printing process. These were issued to the public, and were rarely noticed by the common user. The main noticeable differences are the small numbers on the front and back of the banknote.

Here's a red seal United States Note (Legal Tender Note). These notes were actually a direct obligation of the government, not a bank. This particular note was the first money ever earned by my wife's maternal grandmother, Jadwiga Szczepaniak, after she immigrated to the US from Poland after WWII. The ragged condition is no doubt an indication of how hard she had to work in the meat packing plant to earn this.

Below is a cleaner version of the above note. This 1953 note's design was updated with the seal moved to the right, a gray 2 on the left, placement of the series date and the size of the serial numbers. The $2 US Notes were issued until 1965.

Below is the Federal Reserve $2 banknote from 1996. After the US $2 Notes were discontinued in 1965 (with the 1963A series date), no $2 bills were printed again until 1976. In celebration of the nations Bicentennial, the reverse was depicted with a scene of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Next is a $5 Large Sized US Note. The design of this note is a favorite among collectors. This is commonly known as the “Woodchopper”.

Federal Reserve Notes were first issued in 1914, and are the only type of paper money that the United States prints today. All other banknotes issued by the US still remain legal tender, but only the Federal Reserve notes are still in production. This five dollar note was initially printed with red serial numbers and a red Treasury Seal but soon were changed to blue. The Treasury Seal and Serial Numbers changed to green in 1928. Note that the Federal Reserve Seal has both the number and it's designate letter in the center of the seal. This letter was dropped in for the 1928 and 1928A series FRN's and only the number was printed. Beginning with the 1928 B series the letter replaced the number. There are two vignettes on the back of this note. The left one is by Charles Schussele and is called "Columbus' Discovery of Land", the same as the one found on the front of the 1917 large size 1 dollar United States (Legal Tender) banknote towards the top of this page. The vignette on the right side on the back of this note depicts the "Landing of the Pilgrims".

Next up is another $5 US Note, but this time it is a 1928 small sized note. Notice the red Seal, indicating the note is a small size US Note. The size of all banknotes became smaller beginning in 1928.

Here's a 1928 Federal Reserve 5 Dollar note. You'll of course notice that the Treasury Seal on the right is green like our modern notes, and the federal reserve seal has a number instead of a letter. The numbers were printed on the 1928 and 1928A series of notes only. With 1928B series they went to the lettered designation, so this number, 11, would later become K which is, as written on the bottom of the seal, the Dallas, Texas branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. Today, only the One and Two Dollar notes follow the lettered Federal Reserve Seal format, as there is an eagle in the middle of the seal on all other denominations.

Next up is the 1934 Blue Seal Silver Certificate.

Unknown to many people, Silver Certificates, US Notes, Federal Reserve Banknotes, Federal Reserve Notes, and others, overlapped in their issues. Today we only have Federal Reserve notes like the one below from 1934, with a green seal and serial numbers which was issued along with the notes above: the U.S. Note which had red seals and serials and the Silver Certificate with blue seals and serial numbers.

The following 1953 Silver Certificate had some design changes from the 1934, including a gray 5, smaller seal, change in the placement of the placement of the date, etc.

Like the above Silver Cert, the following 1963 US Note had some design changes from the 1934, including a gray 5, smaller seal, change in the placement of the placement of the date, etc.

Issued at the same time as the above, this 1963 Federal reserve note has the familiar green seals and serial numbers.

As time went on, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing decided that the banknotes if the United States needed to be updated with more elements to deter counterfeiting. In 1996 they introduced the new large portrait designs of the 20, 50 and 100 dollar banknotes, and in 1999 the 10 and 5 dollar banknotes were introduced. Here's the 'Big-Head' five introduced in 1999. This design change was primarily done to combat counterfeiting.

Now we move on to the current colorized Federal Reserve $5. Like the big-heads, the colorized banknotes were primarily made to deter counterfeiters. This $5 note issued in 2006 underwent major design changes, including color shifting inks, watermarks, micro-printing and the EURion pattern of 5 rings based on the placement of the starts in the constellation Orion. These rings are disguised as zeroes in the grouping of several yellow 05's on the front left and right reverse. The pattern was developed in 2002 for the Euro banknotes and the word is a combination of Euro and Orion.

Below is a 1934 $10 Federal Reserve Note. You will notice that the seal and serial numbers are lime green color. The greens actually come in Dark Green, Lime (or light) Green and normal green. Depending on how the inks were mixed and how many were printed with that color, some notes can command a premium for collectors.

Below is an example of the larger portrait 10 dollar note issued in 1999. This particular note is also called a 'Star Note' due to the star at the ends of the serial numbers. The star is a designation that the individual note was issued as a replacement for a note that was not issued due to printing errors or other notes that were destroyed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing because they were damaged too worn, etc.

Here's the colorized 10 dollar banknote that followed the big headed issue above. The EURion pattern is disguised in the pattern of yellow 10's that are on the front left and again on the right reverse.

Stepping up into the 20 dollar category, here are a few examples of some we don't see anymore.

Here is the 1929 issue of a National Banknote. National Banknotes were first brought about in 1863 when the National Currency Act authorized banks with $50,000 to become a 'National Bank'. The banks then could issue National Currency with their banks name on it as well as the city and state that branch was in. When the US decided to create smaller currency, the National Banknotes adopted the brown seal and serial number scheme and followed a standard design to fall into a more cohesive look for US Currency. Notice that the Bank and Location are stamped on the left side of the portrait. There are four signatures on this note. The top two are the Register of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Treasury. The bottom two are the local Bank Officers signatures. These banknotes were backed by bonds the banks deposited, which is noted under the National Currency at the top of the banknote. The bold numbers on the left and right are the National Banks Charter Numbers. National Banknotes were discontinued in 1935 when they were slowly removed from circulation.

In the first months of 1933, there was a heavy withdrawal from the Federal Reserve in part due to people holding onto their money personally because many banks were failing. National Banks could not issue more currency, due to limitations based on their holdings to issued notes ratio. This resulted in a shortage of available Federal Reserve banknotes for the public. So on March 09, 1933 Federal Reserve Banknotes (FRBN's) were authorized as an emergency currency to be issued to overcome this shortage of cash.

These emergency notes were printed on unused National Banknotes. There are some obvious differences though, including the overstamp of the bank and location, which was replaced by the Federal Reserve Bank for the district. Instead of leaving the two bottom signatures blank, they Federal Reserve Bank officers signed there (note the two blacked out National Bank titles replaced with appropriate Federal Reserve Bank titles). While National Banknotes were backed by bonds from the National Banks, these FRBN's had the added clause of "Or Like Deposit Of Other Securities" added to conform to actual backing practices for these notes. The Charter Numbers were replaced by the letter designation for the Federal Reserve Bank Branch (A=1=Boston, 8=H=St. Louis, etc.). After two years in service, these notes were removed from circulation by the banks.

Then there's the Federal Reserve Banknote issue. Remember, these $20 all could have been circulating at the same time! While it is unlikely that this particular note below would have met the above, this basic design was issued from 1928 on. This design stayed on until the change to the large headed notes in 1996.

Today's $20 bill's design is drastically different that the ones above. On the reverse even the depiction of the white house changed from the South Facade to the North Portico. Many overt and subtle changes were made, making it much harder for counterfeiters.

Here's a little extra:

Did you know that there were banknotes issued by the US Government in denominations LESS than 1 dollar? They were issued during the civil war during a shortage in coinage, and were called Fractional Currency. Here’s a couple of them.





There is a LOT more that can be shown, but this gives an idea of the types of notes and their designs that were out just since the turn of the century – well, except for those Fractionals.



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