Last updated: September 2026

What is a gold certificate?

A gold certificate is a United States banknote issued against gold coin or bullion held by the Treasury and payable to the bearer in gold on demand. Congress first authorized the class in 1863, during the Civil War, and the earliest notes were used mainly by banks settling gold balances with one another rather than by the public (CoinWeek).

That makes the gold certificate the twin of the silver certificate: same idea, different metal. Both were receipts rather than direct obligations of the government, which is what separates them from the greenback. The difference in outcome could hardly be starker. Silver certificates circulated until the 1960s and survive by the million. Gold certificates were called in wholesale in 1933, and survivors of the large-size series are counted in the dozens.

How do you identify a gold certificate?

Look for a gold or orange Treasury seal, gold serial numbers, and the words GOLD CERTIFICATE across the top of the face. Small-size notes of Series 1928 and 1934 also carry a bright yellow-gold obligation line, and the Series 1928 backs are the same green as a Federal Reserve Note of the period, while Series 1934 backs are printed in orange.

• Seal and serials. Gold on Series 1928 and 1934. Large-size issues used red seals, and Series 1882 began with brown before moving to a small red seal.
• The obligation. The face states that the amount is payable to the bearer in gold coin on demand.
• The back. An orange back marks the Series 1934 notes, which never went into public circulation.
• What it is not. A yellow seal on a $1, $5 or $10 note is a 1942 North Africa silver certificate, not a gold certificate.

Which gold certificate series exist, and what are they worth?

Gold certificates run from the $10 note to a $100,000 note that was never released to the public, and their values cover a range almost nothing else in American paper can match. The first table below pairs each series and denomination with its seal, its portrait and its standing among collectors. The second gives dated results for specific certified notes, which is the only kind of figure this page quotes.

Results as reported by CoinWeek for the Long Beach currency sale and the $100,000 specimen. This page does not publish a grade-by-grade price guide for the whole class, because the guides that compile one are produced by firms that also sell the notes. Treat a single documented result as evidence about that note in that grade on that date. Seal type, signature combination, star status and certification move individual notes a long way in either direction.

What are the large-size gold certificates of 1863 to 1922?

Large-size gold certificates measure about 7.375 by 3.125 inches and span sixty years of design. The first, Series 1863, is a banking instrument rather than pocket money: the $20 shows a Liberty Head double eagle gold coin at the centre and a golden-orange back standing in for the metal behind it. Two examples bearing the handwritten signature of Henry H. Van Dyke, a Lincoln appointee serving as Assistant United States Treasurer in New York, are documented to exist (CoinWeek).

The Series of 1882 is where the class becomes properly collectible, and where the portraits arrive: Garfield on the $20, Silas Wright on the $50, Thomas Hart Benton on the $100, Lincoln on the $500 and Hamilton on the $1,000. The later large-size issues settled into a stable cast. Michael Hillegas, the first Treasurer of the United States, took the $10 from Series 1907 onward, Washington took the $20 from Series 1905, and Grant took the $50 from Series 1913. Series 1922 was the last large-size gold certificate and is the one most collectors actually own, because it circulated latest and survived the 1933 recall in the largest numbers.

What is the Series 1928 gold certificate?

Series 1928 is the only small-size gold certificate ever issued to the public, and for most collectors it is the practical way into the class. It appeared after the 1929 standardization cut every United States note to about 6.14 by 2.61 inches and fixed one portrait per denomination (US Currency Education Program). The gold seal and gold serial numbers are the tell; the green back is identical in layout to the Federal Reserve Note of the same denomination.

Eight denominations were issued: $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000, carrying Hamilton, Jackson, Grant, Franklin, McKinley, Cleveland, Madison and Chase respectively. The $10 and $20 are the affordable end of the class. Star replacement notes exist and are much scarcer than the notes they stood in for. Writing in February 2026, CoinWeek put a Series 1928 $10 star note, catalogued Fr. 2400 star, at around $200 in low grades and in the region of $2,250 to $2,500 at MS 63, with high-grade examples reaching as much as $15,000, against roughly $480 to $1,000 for a non-star $10 of the same series in the same grade (CoinWeek). Our page on star notes and replacement notes explains how to spot one.

What happened to gold certificates in 1933?

They were called in. On April 5, 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, titled "Forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates," which required all persons to deliver their gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates to Federal Reserve Banks or member banks on or before May 1, 1933. The order carried a general exemption of up to $100 in gold coin per person and a further exemption for gold coins having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins (CoinWeek).

The recall sat inside a wider program. The Emergency Banking Act of March 9, 1933 gave the Secretary of the Treasury power to compel the surrender of gold coins and certificates, and on April 20, 1933 Roosevelt formally suspended the gold standard by proclamation (Federal Reserve History). The Gold Reserve Act, signed January 30, 1934, then transferred all monetary gold held by the Federal Reserve to the Treasury and set the official price at $35 per ounce, while its sections 5 and 6 ended the redemption of dollars for gold (Federal Reserve History). Congress prohibited the redemption of currency for gold in 1963 (US Currency Education Program).

Collecting was permitted again in 1964. That single change is why a 1928 $20 gold certificate is an ordinary purchase today and why so few large-size notes came back to the market. Millions of notes had already been surrendered and destroyed in the intervening thirty years, which is the real reason survivors are scarce. For the longer arc of how American money left metal behind, see the gold standard to fiat money.

What was the Series 1934 gold certificate and the $100,000 note?

Series 1934 gold certificates were accounting instruments, not money. Printed in $100, $1,000, $10,000 and $100,000 denominations with orange backs, they moved gold balances between Federal Reserve Banks and the Treasury and were never issued to the public (US Currency Education Program).

The $100,000 is the highest face value ever printed on United States paper. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced 42,000 of them between December 18, 1934 and January 9, 1935. Woodrow Wilson appears on the face, engraved by George F. C. Smillie, over the signatures of Treasurer William A. Julian and Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. Surviving examples are held by the Smithsonian, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and San Francisco. A uniface front specimen with a blank reverse marked SPECIMEN NOT NEGOTIABLE, graded PMG Choice Uncirculated 63 and traced to the Taylor Family Collection, sold at Heritage Auctions in February 2005 for $74,750 and was acquired by a private dealer in August 2025 (CoinWeek). No issued $100,000 note has ever been sold at public auction, which is why it is absent from the ranking on our page covering the most valuable United States banknotes.

Which gold certificates are the rarest?

Rarity in this class is driven by the recall and by the tiny original printings of the highest denominations, not by age alone. Three groups stand out.

The Series 1882 $1,000 is the extreme case. A Fr. 1218f example graded PMG Very Fine 25, from the Allan H. Goldman Collection, brought $156,000 at Heritage Auctions' October 2022 Long Beach sale, and that is a single data point rather than a market, because so few exist. The Series 1863 $20 sits alongside it, with two documented Van Dyke-signed examples. The hand-signed Series 1882 $100 is the third, with two known and a documented $750,000 result in the same sale; the printed-signature Fr. 1203 of the same denomination brought $300,000 there in PMG Choice Fine 15 (Heritage Auctions via CoinWeek).

Below that tier, the scarcity is real but attainable. Large-size Series 1922 notes in higher grades, Series 1928 star notes, and the $500 and $1,000 small-size notes all trade regularly. Because so much of this class was destroyed, forgery and alteration are worth guarding against: read how to spot counterfeit banknotes before buying raw, compare certified and uncertified buying in graded versus raw banknotes, and use our banknote grading guide to read the numbers on a holder.

Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.