Do you have a $2.00 bill stashed in your house somewhere?
It's probably more likely than you are having a $50 bill tucked away.
Why do so many people think $2 bills are rare when the fifty is equally scarce?
Hello again, everyone. I'm John, director of the film The Two Dollar Bill Documentary, which you can currently watch for free on this channel.
But before you do, let's get the answer to another question submitted by one of my viewers.
Remember, I'll send you a $2 bill if you're a subscriber and if I use your question to make a new video.
Submit yours on the community page on my channel. Make it a unique one to improve your chances.
For this week, Khalid Abdal-Malik gets a $2 bill for asking how much rarer is the $50 bill compared to that of the two?
He also wants to know if I can go in-depth into the history of the 50.
Well, I'll give it my best shot and I think it should be a little easier
because some of the 50's history aligns with the $2 bill. Here we go.
The first time the United States sees any note with a 50 on it, its 1861,
and the bill isn't so much regular currency
but an interest-bearing note used mostly by large institutions, not individuals.
There are six such types of bills through 1865,
all extremely rare and worth at least 5 figures. This last one sold for $80,500 all the way back in 2007.
By 1862 the United States was in the middle of a fierce Civil War.
To help finance their efforts and avoid the high interest rates being charged by the banks,
Congress passes three Legal Tender acts, which authorized the issuance of new currency.
Among the new bills, there is not only a two but a 50, and both feature Alexander Hamilton.
Seven years later, in 1869, both bills undergo a redesign and are released in an issue known as Rainbow notes.
Thomas Jefferson appears on the two for the first time, and everyone knows he's still on the two today.
But on the 50? That's Senator, Secretary of State and
frequent presidential candidate Henry Clay, who only stuck around for one version of the 50.
When the next issuance came out in 1874,
Clay was replaced by none other than Benjamin Franklin.
Just a year later, the $50 version of what are known as National Banknotes includes a depiction of
George Washington crossing the Delaware on the left and a vignette called Prayer for Peace on the right.
Several versions of these bills, mostly with different backs, are released between 1875 and 1882.
During that period, you had an 1880 Silver Certificate featuring Edward Everett,
a Secretary of State and the guy known as being the other speaker at Gettysburg.
And, you had what is now an extremely rare Gold Certificate, released in 1882 and featuring Silas Wright,
a New York state Senator and Governor.
If you want to know what silver and gold certificates are, check out those videos on my channel.
In 1891, we saw a $2 bill silver certificate and what's known as a Treasury or Coin note. The 50 had its own issues of the same.
The Silver Certificate kept Edward Everett, while the Treasury note introduced William Seward, another Secretary of State.
These 50s are all very rare and fetch five to six figures whenever they come up for sale.
The turn of the century soon delivered another new $50 note - this one a 1902 National Banknote featuring
John Sherman on the front and a vignette called Mechanics and Navigation on the back.
Who's John Sherman?
He was the Secretary of the Treasury from 1877 to 1891,
but like several others, he did not last long. By 1913,
We saw the man who would become the only face of the 50 for the next century plus:
Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States.
Grant was on this Gold Certificate, then a large sized Federal Reserve Note in 1914,
and every iteration of the $50 bill since. Some were National Banknotes,
some were Gold Certificates, and by 1934,
a green seal Federal Reserve Note with the United States Capitol building on the back.
The bill underwent a minor redesign to add security features in both 1996 and then again in 2004,
resulting in the 50 we all use today.
Now to some printing numbers. To answer Khalid's question,
neither the two or the 50 dollar bill is considered rare. The last report put out by the Federal Reserve cites
1.3 billion $2s in circulation and only 1.8 billion $50s.
That may seem like a big difference, but by comparison,
there are over 9 billion $20s and 12 billion ones.
Although 50s are printed more frequently than twos, there's not a great disparity in that number, either.
Less than 1 million more $50s have been printed in the last five years.
It's always amazed me that people treat $50 bills differently than twos.
You hardly see anyone using $50s, and you don't get them as change, but people don't look at them as rare at all.
And no one keeps them in their wallet for good luck. At least, no one I know. Thanks again for watching.
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