1966 One Hundred Dollars Legal Tender Note
Now we’re at the One Hundred Dollar Bill. Thanks to the United States having a great economy for so long, U.S. Currency is known world wide and is the preferred currency for most business and governments to deal with for international trade. The $100 bill is perhaps the greatest symbol of wealth in the world today. There are several other countries that have issued banknotes that, given their exchange rate, are higher in denomination, it is the US $100 that is the most famous banknote worldwide. It is depicted in movies, magazines, pop art, on clothing, in advertising on busses and billboards and just about anywhere else.
This note below is a United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, which, due to the red serial and treasury seal, stands out like a red herring when compared to the notes we are used to seeing today. Issued in 1966, it was a rather short lived banknote, as the last issue of a United States 100 Dollar Banknote was in 1968 (albeit with a series 1966A date). One bit of trivia that’s sure to win you over with all your friends is that this note was this first one to have the new design of the Treasury Seal. It’s the same look, but with a change in the wording. The older seal read: “Thesaur. Amer. Septent. Sigil”, which is of course Latin for “Seal of the Treasury of North America.” The new seal reads in modern English “The Department of the Treasury.”
This Red Seal $100 is also rather scarce. It was issued in two series: 1966 and 1966A (new signatures). Combined, the two series issued only 1,408,000 notes.
1969 One Hundred Dollars Federal Reserve Note
This note is a series 1969 note issued by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. This Federal Reserve design has several changes from the United States Note above, including the color of the seals and serial numbers, the type of banknote denoted at the top, the number 100 moved from left to right and the words ONE HUNDRED over the treasury seal omitted, while the Federal Reserve Seal with letter designator and the corresponding numbers are added to the front.
2003A One Hundred Dollars Federal Reserve Note “Big Head”
This design is from the short lived “Big Head” design from 1996. Though this design was reportedly done to fight counterfeiting, it’s methods weren’t quite enough, and was replaced with the new colorized version.