The Most Valuable United States Banknotes, Ranked
One 1890 $1,000 bill sold for $3,290,000 at Heritage Auctions on January 10, 2014, and Guinness World Records lists that sale as the most expensive banknote ever sold at auction. Three further public sales of $1,000 Treasury Notes from the same two-year window have each passed a million dollars.
Last updated: July 2026
The most valuable United States banknote is the Series 1890 $1,000 Treasury Note known as the Grand Watermelon, which realized $3,290,000 at Heritage Auctions on January 10, 2014, followed by the Series 1891 $1,000 Treasury Note at $2,585,000 at Heritage Auctions in April 2013 and a large brown seal Grand Watermelon at $2,040,000 at Stack's Bowers Galleries in October 2018. Those three results describe the very top of the market, but they are not the whole story of American rarity. A $5 note from a frontier bank in Washington Territory has brought $161,000, which tells you most of what you need to know about how this market actually works. The pattern that emerges from every documented sale is the same: face value predicts almost nothing, and surviving population predicts almost everything. This page ranks the confirmed records, explains the classes of note that produce them, and shows where the genuinely rare American notes hide.
Which United States banknotes have sold for the most money?
Four documented public sales lead the American record book, and every one of them is a $1,000 Treasury Note of 1890 or 1891. The table below lists only results that can be tied to a named auction house and a dated sale, which is why it is shorter than most rankings you will find. It ranks sales rather than notes: rows three and four are both Friedberg 379a large brown seal Grand Watermelons, and with only a handful of that variety in private hands they may represent the same note appearing at auction thirteen years apart.
There is a reason to be strict here. Paper money records circulate as folklore, get rounded up, and end up attached to the wrong note. Every result in the table traces to a specific catalog: Heritage Auctions at the Florida United Numismatists convention in Orlando, Heritage at the Central States Numismatic Society convention in Chicago, Stack's Bowers Galleries selling the Joel R. Anderson Collection, and Lyn Knight Auctions selling the David Rickey Collection.
| Rank | Note | Catalog | Price realized | Sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Series 1890 $1,000 Treasury Note, small red seal, "Grand Watermelon" | Fr. 379b | $3,290,000 | Heritage Auctions, FUN convention, Orlando, January 10, 2014 |
| 2 | Series 1891 $1,000 Treasury Note, small red seal | Fr. 379c | $2,585,000 | Heritage Auctions, Central States convention, Chicago, April 2013 |
| 3 | Series 1890 $1,000 Treasury Note, large brown seal, "Grand Watermelon" | Fr. 379a | $2,040,000 | Stack's Bowers Galleries, Joel R. Anderson Collection, October 2018 |
| 4 | Series 1890 $1,000 Treasury Note, large brown seal, "Grand Watermelon" | Fr. 379a | $1,092,500 | Lyn Knight Auctions, David Rickey Collection, October 2005 |
| Unranked | Series 1934 $100,000 Gold Certificate, Woodrow Wilson | Never offered at public auction; known examples are in institutional collections |
Prices realized are as reported by the selling auction houses. The Grand Watermelon that brought $3,290,000 also changed hands privately for $2,255,000 in December 2006, a sale Heritage Auctions announced at the time. That climb of more than a million dollars in the seven years between those two sales is the clearest illustration anyone has of what happens when a unique note meets a mature collector market. For how these American results compare with record holders from other countries, see our ranking of the most valuable world banknotes.
One more documented result belongs next to those four, even though it sits nowhere near them in price. A Series 1875 $5 National Bank Note from the First National Bank of Walla Walla in what was then Washington Territory, charter 2380, catalogued Fr. 403, brought $161,000 at Heritage Auctions in June 2010. It does not belong in a numbered top five, and this page does not attempt to catalog every six-figure American sale. It is here because it shows how far down the denomination scale the population effect reaches, which is the real subject of everything below.
Why does the Grand Watermelon hold the world record?
The Grand Watermelon is the Series 1890 $1,000 Treasury Note, nicknamed for the three enormous striped zeros on its back. The example Heritage Auctions sold in January 2014 is the only small red seal specimen in private hands, and Guinness World Records lists that $3,290,000 sale as the most expensive banknote ever sold at auction. When a buyer is bidding on the sole obtainable example of a famous design, the ceiling is set by desire rather than by comparable sales.
Treasury Notes, also called Coin Notes, were issued from 1890 to 1893 under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to pay for bullion the government was required to buy. The Series of 1890 ran from $1 to $1,000 and carried some of the most heavily engraved backs the Bureau of Engraving and Printing ever produced. Critics complained the density made counterfeits harder to spot rather than easier, so the Series of 1891 replaced those backs with open, simplified designs. The watermelon zeros therefore existed for exactly one series, which is a large part of the legend.
Seven Grand Watermelons are believed to survive, per the census cited by PCGS and Stack's Bowers. Four sit in government collections and three are private: two large brown seal notes catalogued as Fr. 379a and the single small red seal Fr. 379b. The face shows General George Gordon Meade, the Union commander at Gettysburg, engraved by Charles Burt. Collectors call the $100 note of the same series, which carries Admiral David Farragut, the Watermelon note.
Our dedicated page on the Grand Watermelon note covers the full provenance chain, the variety differences, and the complete sale history. If you are new to how catalog references such as Fr. 379b work, our catalog number guide explains the systems collectors use to pin a note to an exact variety.
What makes the 1891 Red Seal the second most valuable US note?
The Series 1891 $1,000 Treasury Note, catalogued Fr. 379c, brought $2,585,000 at Heritage Auctions in April 2013, the second-highest documented American result in the table above. Scarcity rather than face value is what carried a $1,000 note to that price, and the 1891 issue gives collectors very few chances to bid.
The 1891 note is the sober sibling of the Grand Watermelon. Same denomination, same General Meade portrait, same short-lived class of currency, but with the simplified open back that replaced the ornate 1890 design. Collectors sometimes call these the Open Back notes. What the 1891 gives up in visual drama it makes up for in scarcity.
The 1891 functions as a benchmark, the piece other documented results get measured against. That is the role a handful of American notes play in the wider market described on our United States banknotes reference.
How rare are the $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills?
Far rarer than most people assume at the top and far more common than most people assume at the bottom. As of May 30, 2009, only 336 $10,000 bills and 342 $5,000 bills were recorded, against 165,372 $1,000 bills reported outstanding and fewer than 75,000 $500 bills out of more than 900,000 printed, according to Brian Palmer, writing in Slate on July 24, 2009.
American high denominations date to the first federal issues of 1861, but the small-size notes of Series 1928 through 1934 are the ones collectors actually pursue. All four were last printed on December 27, 1945, and on July 14, 1969 the Treasury and the Federal Reserve announced the denominations would be discontinued for lack of use. They were never demonetized. As the notes came back through the banking system, they were withdrawn rather than reissued, which is why the surviving population has only shrunk since.
| Denomination | Small-size portrait, Series 1928 to 1934 | Last printed | Recorded population, as of May 30, 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | William McKinley | December 27, 1945 | Fewer than 75,000, from more than 900,000 printed |
| $1,000 | Grover Cleveland | December 27, 1945 | 165,372 reported outstanding |
| $5,000 | James Madison | December 27, 1945 | 342 known |
| $10,000 | Salmon P. Chase | December 27, 1945 | 336 known |
| $100,000 | Woodrow Wilson, gold certificate | January 9, 1935 | Never released to the public |
A caution on reading that column. The $5,000 and $10,000 figures count examples known to the numismatic community. The $1,000 figure counts notes reported outstanding, which is a different and looser measure, so the two should not be compared as though they were the same census. All figures are as of 2009 and no more recent published count has replaced them.
The $10,000 note deserves its own footnote. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that Benny Binion's million dollar display on the floor of Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas held one hundred $10,000 bills encased in acrylic. The Binion family eventually broke the display up and sold the notes to private collectors, which means close to a third of the population recorded in 2009 once stood in a single casino. For context on how these compare with the largest face values ever printed anywhere, see our page on the highest denomination banknote ever issued.
The $100,000 Gold Certificate has never been sold at auction
The Series 1934 $100,000 Gold Certificate carries the highest face value ever printed on United States paper, and it has no auction record at all, because it was never released to the public. It was printed from December 18, 1934 through January 9, 1935 and issued only to Federal Reserve Banks against an equal amount of gold bullion, according to Paper Money Guaranty.
The design is startling in person and in photographs. Woodrow Wilson appears on the front. The back is a field of orange with golden rays radiating from a centered 100,000 behind a dollar sign, a color scheme unlike anything else in American currency. Nothing about it was made for a wallet. It was an accounting instrument that happened to be printed on banknote paper.
Known examples are held in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the Federal Reserve System, where they appear in public exhibitions. That institutional custody is precisely why the note cannot appear in an auction ranking. It is the most valuable United States note in the sense of face value and historical weight, and it has no market price because it has no market.
Why can a $5 National Bank Note outsell a $1,000 bill?
Because a National Bank Note is not really priced as currency. It is priced as a document from one specific bank in one specific town, and that is why a Series 1875 $5 from the First National Bank of Walla Walla in what was then Washington Territory brought $161,000 at Heritage Auctions in June 2010, more than thirty-two thousand times its face value.
The National Bank Act signed on February 25, 1863 let federally chartered banks issue their own currency backed by United States government bonds, and a follow-up act arrived on June 3, 1864. A ten percent tax on state bank notes, passed March 3, 1865 and effective July 1, 1866, pushed the remaining private issuers out and made national banks the country's note issuers. More than 14,000 banks were chartered to issue National Bank Notes between 1863 and 1935, according to the Society of Paper Money Collectors' Bank Note History project.
Every one of those notes names its issuing bank, its town, its state, and a unique charter number. That turns the field into geography rather than numismatics. A large Manhattan issuer printed notes by the millions and its survivors remain approachable. A territorial bank in a town of a few hundred people printed a tiny run, most of which was redeemed and destroyed, and the two or three survivors compete for buyers who want that exact town. Territorial issues from Washington, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii sit at the extreme end of that curve.
This is the single best lesson the American series teaches. Denomination is a label. Population is the price. If you want to understand how condition then multiplies that scarcity, our banknote grading guide walks through the numeric scale that every documented result on this page depends on.
Which small-size United States notes are genuinely rare?
The modern-size era, which began in 1929, produced far fewer true rarities than the large-size era, but the ones it produced are severe. The Series 1933 $10 Silver Certificate is the headline case: very few were released before Series 1934 replaced them, most of the remainder were consigned to destruction, and only a few dozen are known to collectors today, according to Schwartz and Lindquist's Standard Guide to Small-Size U.S. Paper Money.
Small-size rarity almost always traces to an interrupted issue, an emergency overprint, or a wartime experiment rather than to age. The 1942 Hawaii overprint notes, printed with brown seals and HAWAII overprinted front and back so they could be repudiated if the islands fell, are the best known emergency issue. The Series 1935A experimental $1 notes marked with a red R or S tested alternative paper stock during the Second World War. Neither was old when it became collectible. Both were simply produced in small numbers for a specific reason and then stopped.
| Rarity driver | What it means in practice | American example |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving population | A tiny census sets the price regardless of face value | Grand Watermelon, 7 known, 3 privately held |
| Issuing bank and town | Buyers compete for one place, not one denomination | Walla Walla, Washington Territory $5, $161,000 in 2010 |
| Denomination withdrawn | Notes are pulled from circulation and never replaced | $5,000 and $10,000 bills, 342 and 336 known as of 2009 |
| Series never widely released | A printing is superseded before it reaches the public | Series 1933 $10 Silver Certificate, a few dozen known |
| Emergency or experimental issue | Deliberately limited production for a specific event | 1942 Hawaii overprints; Series 1935A red R and S notes |
| Replacement printings | Notes printed to replace spoiled sheets, in far smaller runs | Star notes, scarce in some series and blocks |
| Condition and certification | Grade multiplies scarcity into a market price | Every seven-figure result above is a certified note |
Two of those drivers are worth chasing on a normal budget. Star notes and replacement notes can be found in circulation-era material and reward patience with a checklist. Certification is the other. A rare American note without third-party grading is a harder sell at every level, which is why our comparison of graded versus raw banknotes and our breakdown of PMG versus PCGS matter more in this field than almost any other. If a note is unfamiliar to you, our guide to spotting counterfeit banknotes is worth reading before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most valuable United States banknote?
The Series 1890 $1,000 Treasury Note known as the Grand Watermelon, catalogued Fr. 379b. It realized $3,290,000 at Heritage Auctions on January 10, 2014 at the Florida United Numismatists convention in Orlando, and Guinness World Records lists that sale as the most expensive banknote ever sold at auction. Seven Grand Watermelons are believed to survive, and the note that set the record is the only small red seal example in private hands.
Why were the $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills discontinued?
They fell out of use. All four denominations were last printed on December 27, 1945, and on July 14, 1969 the Treasury and the Federal Reserve announced that the denominations would be discontinued because demand had collapsed. The notes were never demonetized. As examples returned through the banking system they were withdrawn instead of reissued, which is why the surviving population has only shrunk since and why these denominations are now collected rather than spent.
What makes a $5 National Bank Note worth more than a $1,000 bill?
Geography and survival, not denomination. Every National Bank Note names its issuing bank, town, state, and charter number, and more than 14,000 banks were chartered to issue them between 1863 and 1935, according to the Society of Paper Money Collectors. Notes from tiny or territorial banks survive in single digits. A Series 1875 $5 from Walla Walla in Washington Territory brought $161,000 at Heritage Auctions in June 2010.
How many $10,000 bills still exist?
As of May 30, 2009, 336 $10,000 bills were recorded, along with 342 $5,000 bills, according to Brian Palmer, writing in Slate on July 24, 2009. By that count the $10,000 is the scarcest United States denomination ever released to the public. One hundred of them were once displayed in acrylic at Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, before the display was dismantled and the notes sold to collectors.
Which small-size United States notes are the rarest?
The Series 1933 $10 Silver Certificate leads the modern-size field. Very few were released before Series 1934 replaced them and most of the remainder were consigned to destruction, leaving only a few dozen known to collectors, according to Schwartz and Lindquist's Standard Guide to Small-Size U.S. Paper Money. Other genuine small-size rarities come from interrupted or emergency printings rather than age, including the 1942 Hawaii overprint notes and the Series 1935A experimental notes marked with a red R or S.
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No collector starting today should plan on owning a Grand Watermelon, but the eras that produced these records left behind a deep bench of attainable American paper. Availability and pricing move with inventory, so browse the current United States banknotes selection and our graded banknotes to see what is on the shelf. From here, three good next steps: read the full story of the Grand Watermelon note, work through the United States banknotes reference for the classes of currency behind these rarities, and compare the American record book against the world in our most valuable world banknotes ranking. If a term here is unfamiliar, the banknote glossary defines it, and how to buy world banknotes covers the practical side. Collectors drawn to nineteenth-century American paper often find their way to Confederate currency next.