What is a silver certificate 1 dollar bill?

Answer 1

Silver certificates were bills issued directly by the US government rather than by the Federal Reserve System. They were backed 1-for-1 with a dollar's worth of silver on deposit in the Treasury's vaults, so the number available was determined by how much silver was stored.

Today silver certificates almost never show up in circulation. Those that do are usually 1957 $1 bills which are the most common date and are only worth a small premium. Some older silver certificates can be worth much more to a collector, though.

At one time the government controlled the price of silver, so certificates could be exchanged for silver coins or silver metal at a bank. That policy was halted in 1968 after the price of silver was deregulated to prevent people from "gaming" the exchange system every time the price of silver changed.

In the 20th century silver certificates were most commonly issued as $1, $5, and $10 bills. Other denominations were issued in the 19th century. They most commonly had blue serial numbers an seals, and all had the words SILVER CERTIFICATE across the top.

The last silver certificates were 1957-B $1 bills. They were printed up till the mid-1960s with the same date while the government transitioned the $1 bill to its current form as a green-seal Federal Reserve Note.

US Notes

US Notes were another form of currency printed directly by the government. These bills are sometimes confused with silver certificates but are not the same. Most US Notes have red serial numbers and the words UNITED STATES NOTE clearly printed across the bill's face.