The first American currency, originally issued in 1862, were so-called United States Notes, characterized by a red seal and serial number. Federal Reserve Notes, issued with the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, supplanted United States Notes in 1971. The public circulation of currency notes in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 was discontinued due to lack of use in 1969, none having been printed since 1945. As of May 31, 2003, $469,345,519,400 of the $659,160,111,810 (about 70 percent) in total currency is in the $100 denomination.
Notes in Public Circulation:
| $1 George Washington | Great Seal of the United States |
| $2 Thomas Jefferson | The Declaration of Independence |
| $5 Abraham Lincoln | The Lincoln Memorial |
| $10 Alexander Hamilton | U.S. Treasury |
| $20 Andrew Jackson | The White House |
| $50 Ulysses S. Grant | U.S. Capitol |
| $100 Benjamin Franklin | Independence Hall |
High Denomination Notes:
$500 William McKinley; $1,000 Grover Cleveland; $5,000 James Madison; $10,000 Salmon P. Chase (former treasury secretary and chief justice); $100,000 Woodrow Wilson