Last updated: September 2026

What are Military Payment Certificates?

Military Payment Certificates are paper currency issued by the United States to its service personnel in certain foreign countries, used in place of ordinary American money on bases and at approved locations. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing dates the program's start precisely: in 1946 "the BEP begins work on Military Payment Certificates for use by U.S. troops" (Bureau of Engraving and Printing).

They were a narrow instrument by design. MPC could be spent only by military personnel in military facilities and approved places, and once a certificate had been exchanged for local currency it could not be turned back into MPC (Paper Money Guaranty via CoinWeek). That one-way valve is the whole point of the system, and it explains everything else about how MPC worked.

Why were troops paid in MPC instead of dollars?

Because American dollars in an occupied or wartime economy become a commodity rather than a currency. After the Second World War, United States cash paid to troops overseas flowed straight into local black markets, where dollars fetched far more than the official rate and undercut the host country's own money. Paying the troops in scrip that had no value outside the base broke that chain.

The program grew out of wartime experience. The War Department had already ordered Allied Military Currency in 1943, with the first notes used by Allied forces in Italy and production beginning that July (Bureau of Engraving and Printing). MPC was the peacetime successor, first issued by the Pacific Command immediately after the war ended (Tyler Rossi, CoinWeek). For the wider family of occupation and invasion money, see our page on WWII occupation and military currency and on Japanese invasion money.

What was a conversion day?

A conversion day, always called a C-day, was the moment one MPC series was canceled and replaced by the next. Bases were closed to civilians, service personnel exchanged their old certificates for the new series, and the retired series stopped functioning as money on the base from that moment. C-days in Vietnam were never pre-announced and were treated as classified information.

What are the MPC series, and what is in each one?

Fifteen series were created and thirteen were issued. The series number is not a date in the ordinary sense: the first two digits stand for the last two digits of the year of issuance and the final digit marks which series it was for that year (Tyler Rossi, CoinWeek), but several series sat in storage and entered use years after the number they carry. The table below therefore lists the series year read from the number, not a circulation period, because the sources cited here do not publish per-series circulation dates.

Series list, denominations and design notes from Tyler Rossi, CoinWeek and Paper Money Guaranty via CoinWeek. The series year is read from the number itself: the first two digits are the last two digits of the year of issuance and the final digit is the series number for that year, which is why 1969 produced both a 691 and a 692. Seven denominations ran from 1946 until 1965, and the Treasury added a $20 note from 1966. Per-series circulation and withdrawal dates were not announced at the time and are not published in the sources cited here, so this table gives the series year rather than a circulation period, and Schwan catalog numbers are omitted for the same reason. No openly published grade-by-grade price guide exists for MPC, so no value ranges are quoted; see the section below.

What is pictured on Military Payment Certificates?

The early series are institutional and the later ones are portraits and hardware, and the shift tracks the program's move from postwar occupation duty to Vietnam. Series 461 through 481 lean on Great Seal imagery. Series 521 was the first to put denominations on the reverse and brought in stronger color. Series 611 placed female portraits on the larger denominations. Series 692, the last one issued, carries the Native American leaders Hollow Horn Bear on the $10 and Ouray on the $20 (Paper Money Guaranty via CoinWeek).

Series 681 is the one most collectors picture when they think of MPC, because its designs are a roll call of the armed forces in 1969. The fractional notes show the nuclear submarine Thomas Edison and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Edward White on his Gemini 4 spacewalk. The $1 has a helmeted pilot on the face and four Thunderbirds in formation on the back. The $5 shows a naval petty officer second class. The $10 has an Army Special Forces master sergeant carrying an M14 outside a jungle village, with an M48A4 tank on the reverse. The $20 has a helmeted soldier of the Second World War and a B-52A bomber on the back (Philip Thomas, CoinWeek).

The production is unusual for American currency. MPC were printed by offset rather than intaglio, in four colors on the face and two on the reverse, by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing together with private contractors including Forbes Lithograph, Tudor Press and Stecher-Traung. Security relied on planchettes, the small colored discs embedded in the paper, and MPC were the first United States notes to use ultraviolet ink as a security feature (Paper Money Guaranty via CoinWeek). Our page on banknote security features explains how those devices work.

What were series 691 and 701?

They are the two series that were created but never issued. Series 691 was printed in 1969 and Series 701 in 1970, and neither reached the troops. Paper Money Guaranty describes Series 691 as an exact copy of Series 541 apart from a newly designed $20 note, and Series 701 as carrying historical Americans including Mark Twain and Washington Irving. A further series was designed and never printed at all, which is how fifteen created series produced only thirteen issued ones (Tyler Rossi, CoinWeek).

For collectors this is the sharpest scarcity line in the whole field. Both series were largely destroyed rather than distributed, so whatever reaches the market comes from surviving printed stock rather than from circulation. Series 701 carries a historical Americans theme (Paper Money Guaranty via CoinWeek), which is the design most often reproduced in reference works and least often held.

What are Military Payment Certificates worth?

Value in this field is driven by four things: the series, the denomination, the grade, and whether the note is a replacement. Unlike Federal Reserve Notes or silver certificates, MPC has no openly published grade-by-grade price guide, so this page does not quote value ranges it cannot attribute. The honest guidance is to price from recent sold results for the exact series, denomination and grade you are looking at, not from asking prices.

What can be stated with confidence is the shape of the supply:

• Issued versus unissued. Series 691 and 701 were printed and withheld, and the surviving stock was largely destroyed, so they come from a fixed and very small pool rather than from circulation.
• The conversion-day effect. Each series was surrendered and destroyed within a few years of appearing, which is why uncirculated examples of the early series are far tougher than the mintage figures alone would suggest.
• Replacement notes. MPC replacement certificates were printed to stand in for spoiled sheets, and like star notes and replacement notes in the domestic series they were produced in far smaller numbers than the notes they replaced.
• Certification. Both major services grade MPC on the standard 70-point scale; Paper Money Guaranty has illustrated Series 681 notes graded PMG 65 Gem Uncirculated EPQ and PMG 66 Gem Uncirculated EPQ (Paper Money Guaranty via CoinWeek). Read the PMG grading scale alongside our banknote grading guide.

How do you start collecting MPC?

Build a series type set first: one note from each of the thirteen issued series. It is achievable on an ordinary budget if you start with circulated fractional denominations from the later series, and it gives you the whole arc of the program from Great Seal austerity in 1946 to the Vietnam-era portraits of 1969.

Two refinements follow naturally. Collectors who want depth go denomination by denomination inside one series, which is where the Schwan M numbers become essential for pinning a note to an exact variety; our catalog number guide explains how catalog systems work. Collectors who want rarity chase replacements and the unissued series. Whichever route you take, condition is the constraint, because MPC circulated hard on bases and most surviving notes are well used. If you are weighing certified against uncertified purchases, our comparison of graded versus raw banknotes covers the trade-off, and how to buy world banknotes covers what to look for in a seller.

MPC use ended in 1973, a few months after the official end of United States participation in the Vietnam War. CoinWeek records that the certificates were used until 1973 and circulated in 19 foreign countries, and that the program itself was not formally canceled until 2003 (Tyler Rossi, CoinWeek). Nothing has replaced them, which means this is a closed series: no new notes will ever be added to it.

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