$1 1917 LEGAL TENDER RED SEAL NO FOLDS CGA AU58* AMAZING BEAUTY #2 of 2

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An incredible bright original treasure, with amazing full brightness, huge margins, deep original embossing, extreme quality, and eye popping appeal. The flashy ink color will dazzle and even hypnotize. A United States Note (known popularly in its day as a "greenback") is a fiat paper currency that was issued directly into circulation by the United States Department of the Treasury . These bills of credit were also known as Legal Tender Notes because of the inscription on each obverse face stating "This Note is a Legal Tender." They were among the first national United States currency , authorized by the Legal Tender Act of 1862 and began circulating during the American Civil War . After the death of Abraham Lincoln on 15 April 1865 , additional "first charter period" (i.e. banks chartered between 1863 and 1882) National Bank Notes and Gold Certificates of 1865 were issued. The notes were issued until January 1971, after which they were entirely replaced by the Federal Reserve Notes which had circulated alongside them since 1914. Despite the fact that in modern times the word "greenback" usually refers to any United States paper currency (all noted for their use of green ink on the reverse side of bills), the original origin of the term is from United States Notes, which were issued with green backs. The later Federal Reserve Notes and also gold certificates and silver certificates in the United States, were printed with distinctive green reverse sides to mimic the United States Note. On a United States Note, the Treasury seal and the note's serial number are printed in red (as contrasting with Federal Reserve Notes, where it appears in green). United States Notes have been printed in the following denominations: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000. The Treasury Department issued these notes directly into circulation, and they are obligations of the United States Government . The issuance of United States Notes was subject to limitations established by Congress . In order to stimulate the economy , the Currency Acts of July 10 , 1862 and March 3 , 1863 , and May 3 , 1878 (among other legislation) established a statutory limitation of $346,681,016 on the amount of United States Notes authorized to be outstanding and in circulation. This currency was not backed by any deposit in any bank or government reserve, in contrast to the gold certificates at the time. They also do not bear interest, unlike the appropriately titled Interest Bearing Notes of 1861 to 1865. While $346,681,016 was a significant figure in Civil War days, it is now a very small fraction of the total currency in circulation in the United States. Besides Abraham Lincoln, influential Americans who have from time to time advocated a government-issued currency include President John F. Kennedy , President Andrew Jackson , inventor Thomas Edison , inventor Peter Cooper , and American economists Henry C. Carey , Edward Kellogg , and Nobel-prize winner Milton Friedman . William Jennings Bryan is remembered as saying in his 1896 Cross of Gold speech "When we have restored the money of the Constitution, all other reform will be possible, but until this is done there is no other reform that can be accomplished." Both United States Notes and Federal Reserve Notes were parts of the national currency of the United States and both were legal tender . Both were used in circulation as money in the same way. However, the issuing authority for them came from different statutes. United States Notes (like the later Federal Reserve Notes) were fiat currency, in that they were never redeemable explicitly for any precious metal . The difference between a United States Note and a Federal Reserve Note was that a United States Note represented a "bill of credit" where the currency was transferred into circulation free of interest. Federal Reserve Notes are based on debt, and thus bear interest to bank with stockholders which serves as a lending intermediary between the Government and the citizenry. The American economist S.G.Fisher once ... read more

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