What Are the Largest Bills in American Money?

We all know about the US dollar bill denominations up to the Benjamin Franklin $100 bill. But what about higher denominations? Were there real American dollar bills printed with higher amounts? Run away with expendablenlightenment for a little while into the land of the big American bills of the past.

Many dollar bills have had different lives. They have come in a large bill format and a small bill format (the small bill format is what we have today). They have also changed the faces on the fronts from time to time, even for the lower denominations we use today. But for the large denominations listed below, the faces on them are the ones most recently published.

$500 bill



The $500 bill had President William McKinley on the front.

$1,000 bill



The $1,000 bill had President Grover Cleveland on the front.

$5,000 bill



The $5,000 bill had President James Madison on the front.

$10,000 bill



The $10,000 bill had Salmon P. Chase on the front.

$100,000 bill



The $100,000 bill had President Woodrow Wilson on the front. This bill, the highest denomination ever produced by the US, was not released to the public. It was released by the Treasurer to Federal Reserve Banks. It was only used as official transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. Unlike the other bills, this one was only printed from December 18, 1934, to January 9, 1935.

These large bills were last printed in 1945, and were taken out of circulation in 1969, though most of the higher denomination bills had mostly disappeared by then. These high bills were mostly used by banks and the government, though some private citizens used them.

Some of these high bills can still be seen today, although they are becoming increasingly rare. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury still consider the bills to be at face value, but collectors will pay much higher prices to obtain a piece of history.

In 2009, there was a search to try to find the remaining numbers of the bills in existence. They found this:
Of the $1,000 bill, there were 165,372 known to exist.
Of the $5,000 bill, there were 342 known to exist.
Of the $10,000 bill, there were 336 known to exist.