When did the US change the dollar bill?

Answer 1

The US $1 bill has been through many redesigns over the years. George Washington's picture has appeared on most of them since the turn of the 20th century.

Up till 1923 US bills were much larger than they are today. The first small-size $1 bills were introduced in 1928. They had a similar front image and simply the word ONE on the back. They were issued as silver certificates so they had blue seals and serial numbers.

The reverse was redesigned in 1935 to look almost like it does today, with the word ONE in between the two sides of the Great Seal of the United States. That design lasted until the 1957 series, which was actually printed into the mid-1960s. The only change was the addition of the motto In God We Trust, starting with bills printed in 1957.

In the early 1960s the price of silver had to be deregulated due to skyrocketing demand. That meant the Treasury could no longer issue silver certificates, so $1 bills were printed as Federal Reserve Notes. The front of the bill was redesigned to be slightly simpler but was still very similar to the arrangement used on silver certificates. The most noticeable difference was of course that FRN's use green seals rather than blue.

Since 1963 there have been only minor "housekeeping"-type changes to the $1 bill. There are no plans to redesign it to add color or a different portrait, partly because of the expense of changing such a low-denomination bill, and partly due to political wrangling over whether the bill should be discontinued in favor of $1 coins.