The largest denomination of U.S. paper money ever produced, the $100,000 gold certificate was part of a series of gold certificates issued by the U.S. Treasury to Federal Reserve banks in exchange for the gold the banks turned over to the treasury. The printing on the bill includes the phrase, "This is to certify that there is on deposit in the Treasury of the United States of America One Hundred Thousand Dollars in Gold payable to bearer on demand as authorized by law." This note, always a popular attraction, came to the Smithsonian in 1978 from the U.S. Treasury.
Front: Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th President of the United States 1913-1921
Wilson graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) and the University of Virginia Law School. He earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and became a professor of political science and later president of Princeton in 1902. Wilson ran for President in 1912. He won by an overwhelming electoral vote but only 42 percent of the popular vote.
Back: One Hundred Thousand Dollars
This 100,000 Dollar Gold Certificate is the highest U. S. denomination. Only 42,000 were printed. They were used only for transactions between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. These notes were never issued for public circulation. When the Government stopped using them in the early 1960s, most were destroyed.
Only three are known to have survived. One is housed at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, one at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and one at the Smithsonian Institute.
It's illegal for a private person to own one of these notes, and none has ever been in private hands.
