|
|
Part of a group of notes the New York Fed shipped to Panama, these are among the lowest serials ever available on colorized tens. Do not discount the opportunities we offer, as after the last of them are sold, they cannot be duplicated at any cost.When your stockbroker goes bust collectors will still want your fancy numbered notes!
The United States ten-dollar bill ($10) is a denomination of United States currency. The first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton is currently featured on the obverse of the bill, while the U.S. Treasury is featured on the reverse. (Hamilton is one of two non-presidents featured on currently issued U.S. bills. The other is Benjamin Franklin, on the $100 bill. For this reason, many people often mistakenly assume them to have been presidents. In addition to that, Hamilton is the only person featured on U.S. currency not born in the continental United States, as he was from the West Indies.) All $10 bills issued today are Federal Reserve Notes.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says the "average life" of a $10 bill in circulation is 18 months before it is replaced due to wear. Approximately 11% of all newly printed US banknotes are $10 bills. Ten dollar bills are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in yellow straps.
The source of the face on the $10 bill is John Trumbull’s 1805 portrait of Hamilton that belongs to the portrait collection of New York City Hall. The $10 bill is the only U.S. paper currency in circulation in which the portrait faces to the left (the $100,000 bill features a portrait of Woodrow Wilson facing to the left, but it is no longer in circulation). Large size note history
(approximately 7.4218 × 3.125 in ≅ 189 × 79 mm)
1861: The first $10 bill was issued as a Demand Note with a small portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the left side of the obverse and an allegorical figure representing art on the right.
1862: The first $10 United States Note was issued with a face design similar to the 1861 Demand Note; the reverse, however, was somewhat revised.
1863: Interest Bearing Notes, featuring a portrait of Salmon P. Chase and vignette of liberty, were issued that could be redeemed one year after the date printed on the bill for $10 plus 5% interest. The notes could also be spent for exactly $10.
1864: Compound Interest Treasury Notes, with a face design similar to the 1863 Interest Bearing Note, were issued that grew in face value 6% compounded semi-annually. It is unknown if the note could actually be spent for $10 plus interest.
1869: A new $10 United States Note was issued with a portrait of Daniel Webster on the left and an allegorical representation of Pocahontas being presented to the Royal Court of England on the right side of the obverse. This note is nicknamed a "jackass note" because the eagle on the front looks like a donkey when the note is turned upside down.
1870: National Gold Bank Notes, featuring a vignette of Benjamin Franklin flying a kite on the left and liberty and an eagle on the right, were issued specifically for payment in gold coin by participating national banks. The back of the bill featured a vignette of US gold coins.
1875: The 1869 United States Note was revised. The blue and green tinting that was present on the obverse was removed and the design on the reverse was completely changed.
1878: The first $10 Silver Certificate was issued with a portrait of Robert Morris on the left side of the obverse. The reverse, unlike any other federally issued note, was printed in black ink and featured the word SILVER in large block letters.
1879: Refunding Certificates were issued that paid 4% interest annually.
1886: A new $10 silver certificate with a portrait of Thomas A. Hendricks was issued.
1890: Ten dollar Treasury or "Coin Notes" were issued and given for government purchases of silver bullion from the silver mining industry. The note featured a portrait of General Philip Sheridan. The reverse featured an ornate design that took up almost the entire note.
1891: The reverse of the 1890 Treasury Note was redesigned because the treasury felt that it was too "busy" which would make it too easy to counterfeit.
1901: The famous United States Note featuring portraits of Meriwether Lewis on the left, William Clark on the right, and Black Diamond, an American Bison, was issued. This United States Note was the only one to mention the legal provision that authorized its issuance. The reverse featured an allegorical figure representing Columbia between two Roman-styled pillars.
1907: Congress officially ended the interest paid on Refunding Certificates, forever making the their face value $21.30.
1907: The first $10 Gold Certificate with a portrait of Michael Hillegas on the front and orange-colored back was issued.
1914: The first $10 Federal Reserve Note was issued with a portrait of Andrew Jackson on the obverse and vignettes of farming and industry on the reverse. The note initially had a red treasury seal and serial numbers; however, they were changed to blue.
1915: Federal Reserve Bank Notes (not to be confused with Federal Reserve Notes) were issued by 4 individual Federal Reserve banks. The obverse was similar to the 1914 Federal Reserve notes except for large wording in the middle of the bill and a portrait with no border on the left side of the bill. Each note was an obligation of the issuing bank and could only be redeemed at the corresponding bank.
1918: The 1915 Federal Reserve Bank Note was re-issued under series of 1918 by 4 Federal Reserve banks.
1923: The $10 United States Note was redesigned with a portrait of Andrew Jackson. Some of the design aspects of this note, such as the bottom border and numeral 10 overprinted with the word TEN, were transferred over to the series of 1928 $10 bill.
Small size note history
(6.14 × 2.61 in ≅ 156 × 66 mm)
1929: Under series of 1928, all U.S. currency was changed to its current size. All variations of the $10 bill would carry the same portrait of Alexander Hamilton, same border design on the obverse, and the same reverse with a vignette of the U.S. Treasury building. The $10 bill was issued as a Federal Reserve Note with a green seal and serial numbers and as a Gold Certificate with a golden seal and serial numbers. Contrary to popular belief, the car parked outside of the Treasury Department building is not a Ford Model T, but rather a composite of multiple cars of that era.
1933: As an emergency response to the Great Depression, additional money was pumped into the American economy through Federal Reserve Bank Notes. This was the only small-sized $10 bill that had a different border design on the obverse. The serial numbers and seal on it were brown.
1933: The first small sized $10 Silver Certificates were issued with a blue seal and serial numbers. The obverse had a similar design style to the 1928 $1 Silver Certificates; however, phrasing on the $10 bill was different from the $1 bill. This issue, with the series date of 1933, was not widely released into general circulation. Surviving examples of these notes usually sell for $10,000 to $30,000 in the numismatic community depending on the condition of the paper.
1934: The $10 Silver Certificate was redesigned with a blue numeral 10 on the left side of the obverse and the treasury seal printed over the gray word TEN on the right. Phrasing on the certificate was changed to reflect the Silver Purchase Act of 1934.
1934: The redeemable in gold clause was removed from Federal Reserve Notes due to the U.S. withdrawing from the gold standard.
1942: Special World War II currency was issued. HAWAII was overprinted on the front and back of the $10 Federal Reserve Note, and the seal and serial numbers were changed to brown. This was done so that the currency could be declared worthless in case of Japanese invasion. A $10 Silver Certificate was printed with a yellow instead of blue treasury seal; these notes were given to U.S. troops in North Africa. These notes, too, could be declared worthless if seized by the enemy.
1950: Many minor aspects on the obverse of the $10 Federal Reserve Note were changed. Most noticeably, the treasury seal, gray word TEN, and the Federal Reserve Seal were made smaller; also, the Federal Reserve seal had spikes added around it.
1953: The $10 silver certificate had several design changes analogous to the 1950 Federal Reserve Note design changes; also, the blue numeral 10 on the left side of the bill was changed to gray.
1963: WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND was removed from the obverse and IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the reverse of the 1963 Federal Reserve Notes. Also, the obligation was changed to its current wording, THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.
1969: The $10 bill began using the new treasury seal with wording in English that simply says, "The Department of the Treasury," instead of Latin "THESAUR. AMER. SEPTENT. SIGIL.," "Seal of the Treasury of North America."
1990: The first modern anti-counterfeiting measures were introduced with microscopic printing around Hamilton's portrait and a plastic security strip on the left side of the bill.
May 24, 2000: To combat evolving counterfeiting, a new $10 bill was issued under series 1999 whose design was similar in style to the $100, $50, and $20 bills that had all undergone previous design changes. The major changes were a revised portrait of Hamilton and a revised vignette of the U.S. Treasury building. The plastic security strip reads "USA 10" and now glows orange under a black light.[citation needed]
2001-2004: Various members of the United States Congress introduced bills that would replace the portrait of Hamilton with a portrait of Ronald Reagan. None of the bills were enacted.
The newest $10 bill entered circulation on March 2, 2006. In addition to design changes introduced in 2000, the obverse features red background images of the Statue of Liberty's torch, the phrase WE THE PEOPLE from the United States Constitution, a smaller metallic representation of the Statue of Liberty's torch, orange and yellow background color, a border-less portrait of Hamilton, and to the left of Hamilton small yellow 10s whose zeros form the EURion constellation. The reverse features small yellow EURion 10s and have the fine lines removed from around the vignette of the United States Treasury building. These notes were issued in series 2004A with Cabral-Snow signatures.
The $10 bill has several nicknames, including:
Sawbuck, based on the resemblance of the Roman numeral "X" on some of the earlier designs to the carpentry device of the same name. This usage is far less common today than it was in the early 20th century.
Hamilton, Alex, Al or Alexander based on the use of Alexander Hamilton's portrait
Tenner, borrowed from British reference to the 10-pound note, is rarely used in the US but generally understood.
Ten Spot
X-Note
Federal Reserve note is a type of banknote issued by the Federal Reserve System and is the only type of American banknotes that still circulates today.
Federal Reserve Notes are fiat currency, with the words "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" printed on each bill. (See generally 31 U.S.C. § 5103.) They are issued by the Federal Reserve Banks and have replaced United States Notes, which were once issued by the Treasury Department.
The paper that Federal Reserve Notes are printed on is made by the Crane Paper Company of Dalton, Massachusetts.
The first institution with responsibilities of a central bank in the U.S. was the First Bank of the United States, chartered in 1791 by Alexander Hamilton. Its charter was not renewed in 1811. In 1816, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered; its charter was not renewed in 1836, after it became the object of a major attack by president Andrew Jackson. From 1837 to 1862, in the Free Banking Era there was no formal central bank. From 1862 to 1913, a system of national banks was instituted by the 1863 National Banking Act. A series of bank panics, in 1873, 1893, and 1907 provided strong demand for the creation of a centralized banking system. The first printed notes were Series 1914.
The authority of the Federal Reserve Banks to issue notes comes from the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Legally, they are liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks and obligations of the United States government. Although not issued by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Notes carry the (engraved) signature of the Treasurer of the United States and the United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Federal Reserve Notes are fiat currency, which means that the government is not obligated to give the holder of a note gold, silver, or any specific tangible commodity in exchange for the note. Before 1971, the notes were "backed" by gold: that is, the law provided that holders of Federal Reserve notes could exchange them on demand for a fixed amount of gold (though from 1934–1971 only foreign holders of the notes could exchange the notes on demand). Since 1971, federal reserve notes have not been backed by any specific asset. While 12 U.S.C. § 411 states that "Federal Reserve Notes . . . shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand" this means only that Federal Reserve banks will exchange the notes on demand for new Federal Reserve notes. Thus today the notes are backed only by the "full faith and credit of the U.S. government"—the government's ability to levy taxes to pay its debts. In another sense, because the notes are legal tender, they are "backed" by all the goods and services in the economy; they have value because the public accepts them in exchange for valued goods and services. Intrinsically they are worth the value of their ink and paper components.
Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), a bureau of the Department of the Treasury. The Federal Reserve Banks pay the BEP only the cost of printing the notes (about 4¢ a note), but to circulate the note as new currency rather than merely replacing worn notes, they must pledge collateral for the face value, primarily in Federal securities.
Federal Reserve notes, on average, remain in circulation for the following periods of time:
$1 21 months
$5 16 months
$10 18 months
$20 24 months
$50 55 months
$100 89 months
The Federal Reserve does not publish an average life span for the $2 bill. This is likely due to the fact that it is treated as a collector's item by the general public, and therefore is not subjected to normal circulation.
In contrast, the Federal Reserve pays the United States Mint—another Treasury bureau—face value for coins, as coins are direct obligations of the Treasury.
A commercial bank that maintains a reserve account with the Federal Reserve can obtain notes from the Federal Reserve Bank in its district whenever it wishes. The bank must pay for the notes in full, dollar for dollar, by debiting (drawing down) its reserve account. Smaller banks without a reserve account at the Federal Reserve can maintain their reserve accounts at larger "correspondent banks" which themselves maintain reserve accounts with the Federal Reserve.
U.S. paper currency has had many nicknames and slang terms, some of which ("sawbuck" and "double-sawbuck") are now obsolete. The notes themselves are generally referred to as bills (as in "five-dollar bill") and any combination of U.S. notes and coins as bucks (as in "fifty bucks").
See tables below for nicknames for individual denomination
Greenbacks, any amount in any denomination of Federal Reserve Note (from the green ink used on the back)
Dead presidents, any amount in any denomination of Federal Reserve Note (from the portrait of a U.S. president on most denominations)
One hundred dollar bills are sometimes called "Benjamins" (in reference to their portrait of Benjamin Franklin) or C-Notes (the letter "C" stands for the Roman Numeral 100).
One thousand dollars ($1000) can be referenced as "Large", "K", "Grand" or "Stack", and as a "G" (short for "grand").
Many more slang terms refer to money in general (moolah, paper, cash, etc.).
Despite the relatively late addition of color and other anti-counterfeiting features to U.S. currency, critics hold that it is still a straightforward matter to counterfeit these bills. They point out that the ability to reproduce color images is well within the capabilities of modern color printers, most of which are affordable to many consumers. These critics suggest that the Federal Reserve should incorporate holographic features, as are used in most other major currencies, such as the pound sterling, Canadian dollar and euro banknotes, which are more difficult and expensive to forge. Another robust technology, the polymer banknote, has been developed for the Australian dollar and adopted for the New Zealand dollar, Romanian leu, Thai baht, Papua New Guinea kina and other circulating, as well as commemorative, banknotes of a number of other countries. Polymer banknotes are a deterrent to the counterfeiter, as they are much more difficult and time consuming to reproduce. They are more secure, cleaner and more durable than paper notes.
However, U.S. currency may not be as vulnerable as it is said to be. Two of the most critical anti-counterfeiting features of U.S. currency are the paper and the ink. The exact composition of the paper is confidential, as is the formula for the ink. The ink and paper combine to create a distinct texture, particularly as the currency is circulated. The paper and the ink alone have no effect on the value of the dollar until post print. These characteristics can be hard to duplicate without the proper equipment and materials.
The differing sizes of other nations' banknotes are a security feature that eliminates one form of counterfeiting to which U.S. currency is prone: Counterfeiters can simply bleach the ink off a low-denomination note, typically a single dollar, and reprint it as a higher-value note, such as a $100 bill. To counter this, the U.S. government has included a vertical strip imprinted with denominational information, and has considered making lower-denomination notes slightly smaller than those of higher denomination. Current proposals suggest making the $1 and $5 bills an inch shorter in length and a half-inch shorter in height
Critics also note that U.S. bills are often hard to tell apart: they use very similar designs, they are printed in the same colors (until the 2003 banknotes), and they are all the same size. Advocates for the blind have argued that American paper currency design should use increasing sizes according to value and/or raised or indented features to make the currency more usable by the vision-impaired, since the denominations cannot currently be distinguished from one another non-visually. Use of Braille codes on currency is not considered a desirable solution because (1) these markings would only be useful to people who know how to read braille, and (2) one braille symbol can become confused with another if even one bump is rubbed off. Though some blind individuals say that they have no problems keeping track of their currency because they fold their bills in different ways or keep them in different places in their wallets, they nevertheless must rely on sighted people or currency-reading machines to determine the value of each bill before filing it away using the system of their choice. This means that no matter how organized they are, blind Americans still have to trust sighted people or machines each time they receive change for their purchases or each time they receive cash from their customers. Nor does this help blind or partially sighted tourists.
By contrast, other major currencies, such as the pound sterling and euro, feature notes of differing sizes: the size of the note increases with the denomination and are printed in different colors. This is useful not only for the vision-impaired; they nearly eliminate the risk that, for example, someone might fail to notice a high-value note among low-value ones. Tourists also frequently encounter difficulties with U.S. money, as they are less familiar with the design cues that distinguish the various denominations.
Multiple currency sizes were considered for U.S. currency, but makers of vending machines and change machines successfully argued that implementing such a wide range of sizes would greatly increase the cost and complexity of such machines. Similar arguments were unsuccessfully made in Europe prior to the introduction of multiple note sizes.
Alongside the contrasting colors and increasing sizes, many other countries' currencies contain tactile features missing from U.S. banknotes to assist the blind. For example, Canadian banknotes have a series of raised dots (not Braille) in the upper right corner to indicate denomination. Mexican peso banknotes also have raised patterns of dashed lines.
On November 28, 2006, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the American bills gave an undue burden to the blind and denied them "meaningful access" to the U.S. currency system.
Ruling on a lawsuit filed in 2002 by the American Council of the Blind, Judge Robertson accepted the plaintiff's argument that current practice violates Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. (Ruling as PDF file) The Treasury is appealing the decision. The judge has ordered the Treasury Department to begin working on a redesign within 30 days.
The plaintiff's attorney was quoted as saying "It's just frankly unfair that blind people should have to rely on the good faith of people they have never met in knowing whether they've been given the correct change."
Government attorneys estimated that the cost of such a change ranges from $75 million in equipment upgrades and $9 million annual expenses for punching holes in bills to $178 million in one-time charges and $50 million annual expenses for printing bills of varying sizes.
On May 20, 2008, in a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of District Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the earlier ruling, pointing out that the cost estimates were inflated and that the burdens on blind and visually impaired currency users had not been adequately addressed.
|