Discontinued and Uncommon U.S. Currency Denominations

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Discontinued U.S. currency denominations are banknotes and coins that the federal government no longer produces but that, in most cases, remain legal tender. Uncommon denominations are those still issued in principle but rarely seen in everyday payments, with the $2 bill as the main example. The largest bills in U.S. currency history, the $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes, all fall into the discontinued group. Printing ended in 1945, and the government formally discontinued them in 1969. The $100,000 note was larger still, but it never reached the public.

What “Discontinued” Means for a Banknote

A discontinued denomination is one the Bureau of Engraving and Printing no longer prints (or the U.S. Mint no longer strikes) and that the Federal Reserve no longer pays out to banks. Discontinuation stops new supply. It does not cancel existing notes. U.S. currency issued since 1861 remains legal tender, so a genuine $1,000 bill from the 1930s still settles a $1,000 debt.

A demonetized currency is different: it loses legal tender status after a deadline, and holders must exchange it or lose its value. Several countries have demonetized notes this way. The United States has not done so with its large denominations.

The practical effect of discontinuation shows up when a note enters the banking system. A bank that receives a large-denomination note sends it to the Federal Reserve, which removes it from circulation rather than paying it back out. Over time this shrinks the surviving supply, and that shrinking supply is what drives collector prices.

The Discontinued Large-Denomination Bills

$500 Bill

The $500 note appeared in more than one version. The green-seal design carries a portrait of President William McKinley, and the blue-seal version features Chief Justice John Marshall. The bill is still legal tender, but nearly all surviving examples sit with dealers and collectors. In collector markets it typically sells for more than face value, with the premium depending on series, condition and authentication.

$1,000 Bill

The original $1,000 note showed Alexander Hamilton. Because Hamilton also appeared on another denomination, his portrait was later replaced with Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president. The $1,000 bill was discontinued in 1969 along with the $500 bill, for the same reasons as the other large notes.

$5,000 Bill

The $5,000 bill was first issued in 1918 and bears a portrait of James Madison. Few individuals ever handled one. The note served mainly in large transfers between banks, a job that wire transfers and electronic settlement later took over. It went out with the 1969 discontinuation and remains legal tender.

$10,000 Bill

The $10,000 bill is the largest denomination ever printed for public circulation. It carries Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He is one of the few non-presidents on a modern-era note. First printed in 1918, the bill saw little use, and for most of its life its face value exceeded what a typical household was worth. Only a few hundred authenticated $10,000 notes are known to survive, a scarcity it shares with the $5,000 bill. They remain legal tender, but no one with a genuine example has a reason to spend it at face value.

$100,000 Bill

The $100,000 note, featuring Woodrow Wilson, was a gold certificate rather than a Federal Reserve note. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced it in 1934, during the Great Depression, solely for official transactions between Federal Reserve banks. It was never issued to the public, and private collectors cannot legally own one. Examples are held by institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Museum of American Finance and some Federal Reserve Bank branches, which display them for educational purposes.

Uncommon but Current: The $2 Bill

The $2 bill is the denomination most often mistaken for a discontinued one. It is not. The first $2 notes were printed in 1862 with Alexander Hamilton. Later designs switched to Thomas Jefferson, and the modern reverse reproduces John Trumbull’s painting “Declaration of Independence.”

Apart from a gap from 1966 to 1976, the $2 bill has been printed since the Civil War era, with production continuing through the 2017 series. The Federal Reserve estimated roughly 1.8 billion $2 notes in circulation as of 2025, worth about $3.6 billion. Few people see one because of demand, not because the notes are scarce. Cash registers usually have no dedicated slot for them, businesses rarely request them from banks, and many people who receive one keep it as a novelty. As a result, an ordinary modern $2 bill is generally worth face value. Older series, misprints or notes with unusual serial numbers are the exceptions collectors look for.

How the Size of a Bill Is Measured

There are three different ways to rank the largest U.S. bill, and each gives a different answer:

1. Largest in circulation today: the $100 bill, featuring Benjamin Franklin. It is also the most numerous U.S. banknote. Federal Reserve data for 2025 counted about 19.9 billion $100 notes, ahead of the $1 bill (about 15.2 billion) and the $20 bill (about 11.0 billion).
2. Largest ever issued to the public: the $10,000 bill.
3. Largest ever printed: the $100,000 gold certificate, which never left the Federal Reserve system.

The United States has never issued $20,000, $50,000 or $500,000 notes, and no $200 note has been issued. Bills with those face values are novelty or counterfeit items with no legal tender status. A seller describing one as rare U.S. currency is describing something that does not exist as official money.

Current Denominations and Portraits

For comparison with the discontinued notes, the denominations printed today carry these portraits:

• $1: George Washington
• $2: Thomas Jefferson
• $5: Abraham Lincoln
• $10: Alexander Hamilton
• $20: Andrew Jackson
• $50: Ulysses S. Grant
• $100: Benjamin Franklin

Why Large Bills Disappeared: An Inflation Example

The large notes were discontinued for lack of use, yet inflation means they would buy far less today than when they were withdrawn. A face value from a past year can be restated in another year’s purchasing power with the Consumer Price Index (CPI):

Equivalent value = Face value × (CPI in target year ÷ CPI in base year)

To ask what a modern $1,000 bill would have bought in 1969, reverse the ratio:

1969 purchasing power of $1,000 today = $1,000 × (CPI 1969 ÷ CPI today)

Hypothetical example: The CPI stood at about 36.7 in 1969. Assume today’s index reading is 330. Then:

$1,000 × (36.7 ÷ 330) ≈ $111

Under that assumption, a $1,000 bill today would buy roughly what $111 bought in 1969. The same arithmetic in the other direction shows why the 1969 notes were so impractical: a $10,000 bill then carried the purchasing power of about $90,000 at a CPI of 330.

Inflation alone would argue for larger notes over time. Other forces have outweighed it. The Treasury has argued that keeping the maximum denomination small makes money laundering and other large cash crimes harder, because moving a given sum takes more bills, more weight and more volume. At the same time, cards and electronic transfers took over the large payments that high-denomination notes once handled.

Discontinued U.S. Coins

The U.S. Mint has ended many coins as they lost value or usefulness:

• Half-cent: 1793 to 1857
• Half-dime: 1792 to 1873, later replaced by the nickel
• Two-cent piece: 1864 to 1873
• Three-cent piece: 1851 to 1889
• Twenty-cent piece: 1875 to 1878, discontinued partly because it was too easily confused with the quarter
• Eisenhower dollar: 1971 to 1978
• Susan B. Anthony dollar: 1979 to 1981, with a final run in 1999

The penny is the most recent addition. In May 2025 the Treasury announced it was winding down penny production after a final order of coin blanks, and the last pennies for circulation were struck on November 12, 2025. Existing pennies remain legal tender and keep circulating, so the change affects supply, not the value of coins people already hold.

What Discontinuation Means If You Hold One

Two values attach to a discontinued note, and confusing them can cost money:

• Face value is what the note is worth as legal tender. A bank will credit you that amount, and after that the note is likely to be retired by the Federal Reserve.
• Collector value is what a dealer or buyer will pay, based on rarity, series, condition, serial number and authentication. For genuine large-denomination notes, this is typically well above face value.

Depositing a genuine $1,000 bill at a bank therefore converts it at the lowest value it can realistically fetch. Holders usually do better having it authenticated and graded by a recognized third-party service and then sold through an established dealer or auction. Because the $5,000 and $10,000 notes survive in only a few hundred examples, counterfeits and altered notes appear in the market, and buyers should expect the price to reflect authentication.

FAQs

The Bottom Line

Anyone holding a genuine $500, $1,000, $5,000 or $10,000 bill should treat it as a collectible first. A bank will credit only face value, and the note will likely be retired, while authentication, grading and sale through an established dealer or auction usually bring far more. For $2 bills and pennies the picture is simpler, since ordinary modern examples are worth face value and remain usable as money.