US Banknotes

1928-C is one of the more valuable bills in this series. As of 04/2013 approximate retail values are:

Average condition: $10 - $20

Uncirculated: $90 - $100

The red seal indicates that your bill is a United States Note, a form of paper money issued until the mid-1960s

Unless it's a wartime note overprinted for use in Hawaii or North Africa, any obvious damage would reduce it to barely above face value. Enormous numbers of 1935 $1 silver certificates were printed and even today most are only worth $2 to $4.

There's more information at the Related Questions.

No, the U.S. has never printed a $1,000,000 bill. Any you might find are novelties, not worth anything.

The small number in the lower-right corner is called a plate serial number. It identifies which printing plate was used to print each bill. Check various $1 bills and you'll see different serial numbers.

Other marks include a letter/number combination like C7; these are position indicators that identify which row and column the bill occupied on the printing plate. If the position indicator has a tiny "FW" in front of it, that means the bill was printed in Fort Worth rather than Washington.

The first $20 bills issued in 1861-62 carried a picture of Lady Liberty. Alexander Hamilton was the first person depicted on the denomination, starting in 1869.

A number of other portraits followed, including Commodore Stephen Decatur, President James Garfield, Chief Justice John Marshall, President Grover Cleveland, and President George Washington.

The 1928 currency redesign and standardization program replaced Cleveland with Andrew Jackson whose portrait has been on the bill ever since.

The U.S. hasn't printed $1,000 bills since the 1940s.

Alexander Hamilton

Regardless of denomination, silver certificates were a form of currency backed dollar-for-dollar with silver bullion on deposit in the US Treasury.

Please see the Related Question for a more detailed explanation.

You most probably have what's called a flipover error. You'll need to have it examined in person by a dealer or appraiser who handles error notes because values can vary a lot depending on exactly what went wrong. Without seeing the bill a ballpark estimate would be in the $250 to $500 range but it's not possible to be more specific.

To explain a flipover error: US bills are printed in multiple stages, with a separate pass for the seal and serial numbers. Sometimes a sheet of bills is accidentally turned over or rotated horizontally which causes the numbers to be inverted and/or on the wrong side of the bill when it goes through the press.

The US didn't print any bills dated 1986. Please check again and post a new, separate question.

It's still worth $2.

It's still worth one dollar.

It isn't shaped like anything because the US has never printed any bills higher than $100,000. Anything that says $1 million is a novelty item or outright fake.

The vast majority of "Confederate" bills found today are actually replicas sold in souvenir shops or included in memento sets. Those made within the last 35 years or so are required by law to have a word such as COPY, FACSIMILE, or REPLICA printed on them but that's usually absent on older ones.

Most replicas were never intended as counterfeits but a lot have ended up on the market because they are often very difficult to tell apart from the genuine item. Many of the copies are printed on artificially aged paper using photo-lithographs of genuine bills. One check is to look closely at the signatures - the ink is flat and on the surface of a replica, while it is a slightly different color and more deeply impressed on a genuine note.

The Related Link has a list of serial and plate numbers found on the more common copies; you can compare those to the numbers on your bill. If they don't match you should seek out a dealer or appraiser who specializes in Confederate currency and have the bill examined in person.

Yes, but denominations of $500 and up were discontinued in the 1940s.

Banks were still allowed to give them out in payment up till 1969. That July President Nixon ordered banks to stop payment in all denominations higher than $100, in an effort to stop the use of high-value bills in organized crime. $500 and higher bills were never officially recalled but banks are required to hold and exchange any they receive, so they've effectively been out of circulation for many years.

To clear things up, all silver certificates are paper so the bills are simply called "silver certificates". Please see the Related Question for more information.

The U.S. Treasury building is featured on the back of the $10 bill.

No. The U.S. stopped printing denominations above $100 in the 1940s.

No.

The motto wasn't added to $1 bills until near the end of the 1935 series, so it's not an error or anything special.

Most 1935-series $1 bills are only worth a few dollars in average condition, but there are exceptions. Look next to the date to see if there's a small letter. It may be blank or there may be anything from an A to a G. Then check one of the Related Questions below for specific values.

1935-H bills were also printed but all of these have the motto.

Older US bills have essentially no high-tech anticounterfeiting features. Things like watermarks, security strips, and so on weren't introduced until the 1990s. About the best you can do at home would be the following:

> Look for tiny blue and red fibers embedded in the paper. These are tiny bits of very fine thread that were mixed in with the paper because they're difficult for a counterfeiter to reproduce.

> Check the teeth (points) around the Treasury Seal. They should be sharp and evenly spaced.

> Look closely at the engraving of Ben Franklin's face. Again, the lines should be sharp and clear. The image should have a certain amount of apparent depth to it.

Modern US $1 and $2 bills still carry the old-style Federal Reserve seal that includes the district letter and name. It's the large circle on the left side of the bill's front.

However older $1 bills (before 1963) and $2 bills (before 1976) weren't issued by the Federal Reserve System so they don't have any seal or district identifiers.

The value of a 1953 Series 5 bill can vary significantly based on its condition, denomination, and whether it is a star note. Generally, uncirculated notes in pristine condition can be worth more, while those in circulated condition may be valued at their face value or slightly above. For more precise valuation, it's best to consult a currency collector or a reputable price guide.

On average, a 1957 $1 silver certificate is worth about $1.50. Despite being more than 50 years old, it's an extremely common series.