US Banknotes

Please check again and post a new question. It can't have a blue seal (rather than "stamp") and it can't be from 1943. The last blue-seal $100 bills were dated 1918, and in any case no US bills of any denomination are dated 1943.

Nearly all countries have both paper money and coins. Coins are used for low-denomination amounts because they get a lot of use and paper bills would wear out too quickly; they're also easier to use in vending machines and to process in counting machines.

Bills are used for higher amounts because coins would be too large and/or it would be too difficult to create enough easily-distinguished sizes and designs to cover all denominations from 1¢ to $100. Because higher denominations tend to get less wear(*), it's more cost-effective to issue them as bills than coins.

(*) The US is unusual among industrialized countries in its reliance on a relatively low-denomination paper $1 bill. Due to inflation the purchasing power of a $1 bill is less than a quarter from the 1970s and a dime from the 1950s. Thus the $1 bill fills the same role as those coins once did in change-making, and must be produced in enormous quantities each year because they wear out in 18 to 24 months. By contrast most other countries now have coins in amounts equivalent to anywhere from US$2 to US$4, with expected life spans of 30 to 50 years in average use.

there are only 10 in the world, so i guess none

Yes, they are real $2 bills with a sticker applied. They avoid the currency defacement law because the sticker can be peeled off without hurting the underlying bill.

Are they worth the $19.95 that they usually cost? Only if you think a sticker is worth $17.95 (the $2 bill you can get from your bank).

High-denomination bills have never been recalled and are technically still legal tender but they haven't been in over 60 years and haven't been available from banks for over 40, so they're effectively no longer in use.

A portrait of William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, appears on the front of the US 500 Dollar bill.

The U.S. didn't print any bills dated 1942. Please check again and post a new, separate question.

No US bills were printed with a 1951 series date. Please check again and post a new question.

Serial numbers are counters and security features, but only affect a bill's value in specific cases. Normally the bill's series date and letter as well as its condition are much more important in determining a value. In this case the double letter in front of the serial number indicates it's a modern bill so it's only worth face value.

However, if the serial number is unusual in some way; e.g. low (00000010) or has an "interesting" pattern such as 13577531 or 12345678, there are collectors who will pay a premium.

As of 06/2011, in average condition it might retail for about $55. Most dealers will only pay face value though because 1977 isn't a rare date for $50 bills.

If you have a nice uncirculated one without any folds or tears, it could go for as much as $65.

The back of a $5 bill has a picture of the Lincoln Memorial which has the names of all 48 states that existed at the time it was built, so of course the image on the $5 bill will show that as well. Of those, either 26 or 27 states are shown, depending on what age it has and what image was used.

Because the state names run all the way around the top of the Memorial it's clearly impossible to show all of them in a single 2-dimensional image. (Unless and until a Harry Potter-style bill is printed where the images can move, LOL!)

Due to inflation the need for $1 bills has increased to the point where they make up 45% of all bills in circulation.

Demand for $2 notes is extremely low but relatively steady; they account for about 1% of all bills.

Please check your bill again and post a new, separate question.

The US didn't print any 1926-dated bills. The closest date would be 1928.

More information is needed to identify your bill. The motto wasn't added to $10 bills until 1963, 101 years after the first tens were printed.

Please post a new, separate question with your bill's seal color, its date, and what letter if any is next to the date.

Ulysses S. Grant's portrait was first used on a $50 bill for the 1913 series of $50 Gold Certificates. It was added to $50 Federal Reserve Notes the next year and has been retained ever since.

His picture replaced that of William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State.

James Madison.

C. Douglas Dillon

The US never printed any bills dated 1955. Please check your bill again and post a new, separate question.

Yes, you can still get 2 dollar bills. Banks should have them as well as coin dealers. You can also get them online.

Only those printed in 1990 and later. Earlier bills had very few anti-counterfeiting measures.

The US printed so-called "fractional" currency during and after the Civil War in an effort to alleviate a shortage of coins caused by a number of factors related to wartime disruption. The smallest fractional note was worth three cents, and was issued from 1864 to 1869.

Other fractional denominations were 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents. Except for the strange 15¢ denomination they matched the most common coins then circulating. Fractional currency was printed until 1876, by which time the coin shortage had been alleviated. At that point fractional currency was redeemed for coins.

It's not clear what's meant by "offset". If the word describes a bill whose image isn't correctly aligned, its value depends on the amount of misalignment. If the entire image is visible and all that's off-center is the border, the bill has no extra value. But if part of another bill is visible it's considered to be a major error; retail values could be in the $200 range depending on how much of the second bill shows. In any case it would have to be examined in person by a dealer or appraiser who specializes in error currency to determine a more-specific price.