WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 I want you to take a second and just visualize 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:05.299 your wallet. Yeah. Think about what's actually 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:08.039 in there right now. Right. If you pull it out 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:10.759 and look inside, what do you see? You probably 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:13.580 have some physical cash tucked away, a few ones, 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:17.219 maybe some fives, a 20. And if you just hit the 00:00:17.219 --> 00:00:20.760 ATM, maybe you've got a crisp $100 bill staring 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:23.440 back at you. Pretty standard stuff. Exactly. 00:00:23.899 --> 00:00:27.079 We are entirely accustomed to that specific lineup 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:31.210 of numbers. It feels, I don't know, fixed. Permanent. 00:00:31.769 --> 00:00:33.109 But what if you were walking around carrying 00:00:33.109 --> 00:00:36.049 a $10 ,000 bill? Which sounds completely absurd. 00:00:36.149 --> 00:00:38.759 Right. Or... Stretch your imagination even further. 00:00:39.539 --> 00:00:42.200 What if you had a $100 ,000 bill sitting right 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:43.979 there in that letter fold? I mean, it sounds 00:00:43.979 --> 00:00:46.079 like absolute fiction. It sounds like play money 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:49.719 from a board game. But those bills were very, 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:52.340 very real. And that is the wild reality we're 00:00:52.340 --> 00:00:55.119 getting into today. We've got a fascinating stack 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:57.560 of historical research in front of us covering 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.280 the large, like almost mythical denominations 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:02.640 of United States currency. It's a really incredible 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.689 history. It really is. So our mission for this 00:01:05.689 --> 00:01:08.670 deep dive is to explore these forgotten titans 00:01:08.670 --> 00:01:11.510 of the U .S. Treasury. We are going to investigate 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:14.390 why these massive bills had to exist in the first 00:01:14.390 --> 00:01:16.609 place, who on earth was actually using them, 00:01:16.849 --> 00:01:20.750 and the dramatic story of why the government 00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:22.670 actively hunted them down to make them vanish 00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:25.969 from our lives. Okay, let's unpack this. Well, 00:01:26.030 --> 00:01:28.609 I think we so often think of cash as static, 00:01:28.870 --> 00:01:31.950 you know, like a $20 bill today serves the exact 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:34.430 same basic function as a 20 did a few decades 00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:36.849 ago. Right, buys things. Exactly. But what this 00:01:36.849 --> 00:01:39.629 deep dive really reveals is that currency is 00:01:39.629 --> 00:01:42.409 actually a living reflection of America's technological 00:01:42.409 --> 00:01:45.829 and historical evolution. Money adapts to the 00:01:45.829 --> 00:01:48.400 specific pressures of its era. So it's not just 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:50.480 paper? Not at all. When you look at these massive 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:52.180 denominations, you aren't just looking at vintage 00:01:52.180 --> 00:01:54.000 paper. You're looking at the financial mechanics 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:57.420 of a nation desperately trying to navigate massive 00:01:57.420 --> 00:02:00.579 growth spurts, fund enormous wars, and survive 00:02:00.579 --> 00:02:03.079 unprecedented economic crises. You know, when 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:04.859 I first started digging into the timeline of 00:02:04.859 --> 00:02:07.400 these giant bills, my mind went straight to the 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:12.180 roaring 20s. It's like, I picture top hats, tycoons. 00:02:12.620 --> 00:02:15.400 Maybe some Gilded Age Monopoly Man throwing around 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.639 $1 ,000 notes. But the timeline is so much older 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:21.300 than that. It really is. We are talking about 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:23.960 the very foundations of the country. Yeah, the 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:26.080 origins really do trace back to the birth of 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:29.020 the nation. The first $500 note was actually 00:02:29.020 --> 00:02:32.080 issued by North Carolina. It was authorized by 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:36.000 legislation way back on May 10th, 1780. Wait, 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:39.379 1780? We were literally still fighting the Revolutionary 00:02:39.379 --> 00:02:42.879 War. Precisely. And the context of that war is 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.479 everything. The continental currency was just 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:48.419 crashing. Oh, wow. Yeah, hyperinflation was rampant. 00:02:48.620 --> 00:02:51.020 When the value of your standard currency plummets, 00:02:51.219 --> 00:02:53.460 you need larger and larger denominations just 00:02:53.460 --> 00:02:55.840 to conduct basic institutional business. That 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:58.039 makes sense. So Virginia quickly followed North 00:02:58.039 --> 00:03:00.120 Carolina's lead. They authorized the... printing 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:04.300 of $500 and $1 ,000 notes in October of 1780. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.199 Wow. And then, not even a year later, Virginia 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.699 authorized $2 ,000 notes. It's just staggering 00:03:10.699 --> 00:03:13.840 to think about what $2 ,000 represented in 1781. 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:17.240 A massive fortune. And the scale of these bills 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:20.139 just kept growing alongside the country. By the 00:03:20.139 --> 00:03:21.740 time we get to the earliest federal bank notes 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:24.180 in 1861, like right at the onset of the American 00:03:24.180 --> 00:03:27.080 Civil War, Congress authorized notes for $500, 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:31.879 $1 ,000, and even $5 ,000. Which is just a colossal 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:34.639 amount of money for that era. Right. Now, I have 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:36.360 to jump in here with a reality check for you 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.379 listening, because the inflation math is wild. 00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:43.340 Holding a $5 ,000 bill in 1861 wasn't like having 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:45.599 a really nice paycheck in your pocket. Given 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:47.639 the inflation over the last century and a half, 00:03:48.020 --> 00:03:50.120 carrying that note was practically carrying a 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.639 physical house in your pocket. Yeah, quite literally. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.080 Which leads me to a major point of confusion 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:57.500 when I was going through this data. Wasn't this 00:03:57.500 --> 00:04:00.319 incredibly risky? I mean... Who in their right 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:03.000 mind was walking down a dirt road with a $5 ,000 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.360 bill in 1861? If a gust of wind catches that, 00:04:06.659 --> 00:04:09.000 your entire life is ruined. It's a very fair 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:12.919 question, and it highlights a fundamental misunderstanding 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:15.800 of how these specific notes functioned. These 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:18.339 high denomination bills were not intended for 00:04:18.339 --> 00:04:20.420 everyday citizens buying groceries or paying 00:04:20.420 --> 00:04:23.529 a blacksmith to shoe a horse. If we connect this 00:04:23.529 --> 00:04:25.949 to the broader logistical challenges of the time, 00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:29.050 these were critical tools for massive government 00:04:29.050 --> 00:04:32.069 financing and institutional transfers. Ah, so 00:04:32.069 --> 00:04:34.790 this is about the logistics of war. Entirely. 00:04:34.910 --> 00:04:37.370 Think about the absolute nightmare of funding 00:04:37.370 --> 00:04:40.889 the War of 1812 or the Civil War. The federal 00:04:40.889 --> 00:04:43.670 government and the major banks backing them needed 00:04:43.670 --> 00:04:47.670 to move vast, unprecedented sums of value. And 00:04:47.670 --> 00:04:49.509 you couldn't just wire the money digitally back 00:04:49.509 --> 00:04:52.360 then? Right, obviously not. If the Treasury needed 00:04:52.360 --> 00:04:54.639 to settle a massive debt with a bank in New York, 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:57.360 they had two choices. They could load up heavily 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:00.220 guarded horse -drawn wagons filled with literal 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:02.959 tons of gold and silver coins. Which sounds incredibly 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:05.600 slow. Slow and super vulnerable to robbery, yeah. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:08.060 Or they could send an official with a small, 00:05:08.259 --> 00:05:10.920 discreet lockbox containing a few large denomination 00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:13.509 paper notes. Oh, that makes perfect sense. They 00:05:13.509 --> 00:05:15.350 weren't buying a loaf of bread. They were funding 00:05:15.350 --> 00:05:18.810 entire armies. And the records show these early 00:05:18.810 --> 00:05:21.850 federal issues were often called interest bearing 00:05:21.850 --> 00:05:25.470 treasury notes. I think we need to clarify that 00:05:25.470 --> 00:05:28.470 because cash today doesn't pay us interest just 00:05:28.470 --> 00:05:30.990 for holding it. No, it doesn't. And that's a 00:05:30.990 --> 00:05:33.730 crucial distinction. Those early high denomination 00:05:33.730 --> 00:05:36.129 notes functioned almost more like government 00:05:36.129 --> 00:05:39.259 bonds than the pocket money we use today. Interesting. 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:41.480 The government was essentially issuing an IOU 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:44.220 to investors or banks, promising to pay them 00:05:44.220 --> 00:05:47.040 back with interest over, say, a three -year period. 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:49.680 It was a mechanism to quickly raise capital to 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:52.579 fight the Civil War. Even the Confederate government 00:05:52.579 --> 00:05:55.660 utilized this exact strategy, issuing their own 00:05:55.660 --> 00:05:59.000 $501 ,000 notes. And what's amazing to me is 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:01.519 the sheer artistry involved. They didn't just 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:04.019 print a giant number on a blank piece of paper 00:06:04.019 --> 00:06:06.759 to serve as a receipt. Oh, the artwork is stunning. 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:11.319 11 different types of US currency issued in these 00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:14.060 high denominations, spread across nearly 20 different 00:06:14.060 --> 00:06:16.540 series dates. We're talking about incredibly 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:19.759 intricate engravings. Yeah, true masterpieces. 00:06:19.899 --> 00:06:22.259 You have allegorical figures symbolizing justice 00:06:22.259 --> 00:06:25.339 and liberty. There's even a $1 ,000 note from 00:06:25.339 --> 00:06:29.079 1878 that features DeWitt Clinton alongside this 00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:31.860 elaborate engraving of Christopher Columbus sitting 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:34.740 in his study. The visual history alone is remarkable. 00:06:35.019 --> 00:06:38.000 You have to remember, before the 1870s, the Bureau 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.079 engraving and printing wasn't even responsible 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:43.079 for U .S. currency. Oh, really? Yeah. Some of 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:45.540 these early notes from the 1860s were printed 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.860 on very thin paper, making them incredibly fragile. 00:06:49.379 --> 00:06:51.720 But the designs were purposefully elaborate to 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:55.100 project authority, project stability, and, crucially, 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:57.930 to deter counterfeiting. So the big portraits 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:00.089 weren't just for show. Exactly. You had sweeping 00:07:00.089 --> 00:07:02.449 portraits of figures like Alexander Hamilton, 00:07:02.829 --> 00:07:05.089 Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Andrew Jackson. 00:07:05.589 --> 00:07:07.410 The government needed these bills to visually 00:07:07.410 --> 00:07:09.649 communicate the absolute wealth and resilience 00:07:09.649 --> 00:07:11.910 of the nation. OK, so we've established that 00:07:11.910 --> 00:07:14.790 these early massive notes were essentially logistical 00:07:14.790 --> 00:07:18.370 tools to finance wars and build the early American 00:07:18.370 --> 00:07:21.149 economy. But reading through the historical arc, 00:07:21.629 --> 00:07:23.750 the peak of this enormous currency doesn't actually 00:07:23.750 --> 00:07:26.230 happen during a war. No, it doesn't. The absolute 00:07:26.230 --> 00:07:29.089 pinnacle of the mega bill happens during a completely 00:07:29.089 --> 00:07:31.649 different kind of crisis, the Great Depression. 00:07:31.819 --> 00:07:35.939 Which brings us to 1934, specifically the series 00:07:35.939 --> 00:07:39.420 1934 gold certificates. Right. This is the era 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:42.199 that produced the absolute behemoths, the granddaddy 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:44.500 of them all. The one hundred thousand dollar 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:47.600 bill featuring President Woodrow Wilson. Just 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:50.360 the concept of a single piece of paper. bearing 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:53.259 a face value of $100 ,000 during the depths of 00:07:53.259 --> 00:07:56.240 the Great Depression is dizzying. It is. But 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.819 to understand the mechanism of why this specific 00:07:58.819 --> 00:08:01.579 astronomical bill had to be created, we have 00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:03.319 to look at the mechanics of what happened the 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:06.519 year prior. OK. On March 9th, 1933, President 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:09.660 Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102. 00:08:10.139 --> 00:08:12.720 This was a drastic, highly controversial measure 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:14.879 aimed at stabilizing the economy. And what did 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:17.180 it do exactly? It essentially repealed the gold 00:08:17.180 --> 00:08:19.860 standard for the public. the order compulsorily 00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:22.680 confiscated public gold. I just let's pause and 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:25.100 visualize that for the listener because it's 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:28.560 hard to fathom today. Imagine the federal government 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:31.160 issuing an order demanding that you go to your 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:34.019 bank empty out your safe deposit box of all your 00:08:34.019 --> 00:08:36.519 gold coins and gold bullion and hand it over 00:08:36.519 --> 00:08:38.799 to the government in exchange for regular paper 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:41.340 money. It's wild to think about, but that is 00:08:41.340 --> 00:08:44.059 exactly what occurred. Citizens and businesses 00:08:44.059 --> 00:08:46.779 turned in their gold. And because all of that 00:08:46.779 --> 00:08:49.799 physical wealth was now rapidly being consolidated 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:52.080 within the government's vaults, they faced a 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:53.820 massive accounting problem. Right. They have 00:08:53.820 --> 00:08:56.000 all the gold now. The federal government, and 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:57.960 specifically the Federal Reserve System, held 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:00.759 all this gold, and they needed a way to represent 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:03.679 that massive transfer of wealth internally on 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:05.600 their own ledgers. And that's where Woodrow Wilson 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:08.940 steps in. Precisely. What's fascinating here 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:11.360 is how the backing of money fundamentally shifted. 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:15.340 These series 1934 gold certificates, the hundreds, 00:09:15.659 --> 00:09:18.000 thousands, 10 ,000s, and especially that $100 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.000 ,000 note were created exclusively for intergovernmental 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:24.460 transactions. So just between government branches. 00:09:25.169 --> 00:09:28.110 Exactly. They were the mechanical solution to 00:09:28.110 --> 00:09:30.470 balancing the books between the various Federal 00:09:30.470 --> 00:09:32.830 Reserve banks. You know, the best analogy I can 00:09:32.830 --> 00:09:35.889 think of for this is like settling the bar tab 00:09:35.889 --> 00:09:38.370 at the end of the night between friends, but 00:09:38.370 --> 00:09:40.429 on a macro economic scale. That's a great way 00:09:40.429 --> 00:09:42.710 to put it. Like, if the Federal Reserve Bank 00:09:42.710 --> 00:09:45.090 of Chicago suddenly owed the Federal Reserve 00:09:45.090 --> 00:09:48.370 Bank of New York $50 million because of the way 00:09:48.370 --> 00:09:50.490 funds were shifting around the country, they 00:09:50.490 --> 00:09:53.129 didn't want to load up a train with $50 million 00:09:53.129 --> 00:09:55.750 worth of heavy physical gold and ship it across 00:09:55.750 --> 00:09:59.090 the country. No, way too risky. Right. Instead, 00:09:59.470 --> 00:10:01.970 the officials behind closed doors just handed 00:10:01.970 --> 00:10:05.389 over a small stack of these $100 ,000 bills to 00:10:05.389 --> 00:10:07.629 settle the ledger. That is the exact mechanism. 00:10:07.669 --> 00:10:10.190 They were the ultimate insider currency because 00:10:10.190 --> 00:10:12.679 they strictly for these massive internal bank 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:14.879 transfers. They were never issued to the general 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:17.879 public. Ever. Never. To this day, it remains 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:20.120 completely illegal for a private citizen to hold 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:24.080 a real $100 ,000 bill. You cannot privately own 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:26.379 one. The only exceptions are what are called 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:29.200 unifis specimens held in certain institutional 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:31.799 settings. And just to clarify for everyone listening, 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:35.120 a unifis specimen basically means it's a dummy 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.919 note. It's printed on only one side, essentially 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:41.279 serving as a poster for a museum display. It 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:45.559 isn't real spendable legal tender. Right. If 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:49.039 you somehow found a real double -sided $100 ,000 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:51.419 bill hidden in your great -grandfather's attic, 00:10:51.850 --> 00:10:53.990 you'd be holding illegal government property. 00:10:54.250 --> 00:10:55.870 You absolutely would, and there's a beautiful 00:10:55.870 --> 00:10:57.789 irony in the physical dimensions of these notes 00:10:57.789 --> 00:11:01.070 as well. Oh, how so? Well, the historical records 00:11:01.070 --> 00:11:03.590 note a shift between the large -size knights 00:11:03.590 --> 00:11:05.789 of the earlier eras and the small -size notes 00:11:05.789 --> 00:11:09.029 we know today. Prior to 1928, US currency was 00:11:09.029 --> 00:11:12.230 physically larger, about 7 and 3 eighths by 3 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:14.470 and 1 eighth inches. So noticeably bigger than 00:11:14.470 --> 00:11:17.870 what we have now. Exactly. But in 1928, the Treasury 00:11:17.870 --> 00:11:20.490 standardized everything to the smaller physical 00:11:20.490 --> 00:11:22.629 footprint we currently use. So when they printed 00:11:22.629 --> 00:11:25.830 these astronomical sums in 1934, including the 00:11:25.830 --> 00:11:28.990 $100 ,000 bill, they were printed on the exact 00:11:28.990 --> 00:11:32.129 same physical size of paper as the crumpled $1 00:11:32.129 --> 00:11:35.620 bill in your wallet right now. Wow. The physical 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:38.419 footprint shrank while the numerical value reached 00:11:38.419 --> 00:11:41.960 its absolute zenith. So these paper behemoths 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:44.960 are the absolute backbone of the Federal Reserve 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:47.860 in the mid -20th century. They're literally holding 00:11:47.860 --> 00:11:49.860 up the accounting of the entire banking system. 00:11:50.019 --> 00:11:52.720 They were. So how do we get from that peak of 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:55.679 relevance to the Fed actively throwing them into 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:58.639 incinerators just a few decades later? It was 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:00.960 a fascinating collision of technology and law 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:03.639 enforcement. The Treasury officially stopped 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:06.279 printing new high denomination bills on December 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:10.200 27th, 1945. Production completely ceased. But 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:12.100 they were still out there. Right. The existing 00:12:12.100 --> 00:12:14.379 bills continued to circulate and be used by banks 00:12:14.379 --> 00:12:17.299 for decades after that. The true death blow didn't 00:12:17.299 --> 00:12:20.879 arrive until July 14th, 1969, when the Federal 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:23.779 Reserve System officially discontinued them entirely. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.399 Now, reading through the official Treasury statements, 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:28.860 the primary reason given for the discontinuation 00:12:28.860 --> 00:12:31.240 was simply lack of use. That was the official 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:33.519 line. But looking at the historical context of 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:35.799 the late 1960s, I have to push back on that a 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:38.000 bit. Was it really just because banks were bored 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.220 of them or was it because the wrong people had 00:12:40.220 --> 00:12:42.899 started using them? You hit on the dual reality 00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:47.139 of the 1969 purge. Yes, lack of use was the polite 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:50.259 official line and mechanically... It was true 00:12:50.259 --> 00:12:52.200 for the banking sector. Because of computers. 00:12:52.519 --> 00:12:55.080 Basically, yeah. We have to look at the massive 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:57.799 technological shift happening. The introduction 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:00.740 of secure electronic money systems and wire transfers 00:13:00.740 --> 00:13:03.480 made moving physical cash obsolete for banks. 00:13:04.019 --> 00:13:06.419 If a Federal Reserve Bank needs to transfer $100 00:13:06.419 --> 00:13:10.279 million in 1969, they don't need a briefcase 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:12.159 of Woodrow Wilson's anymore. They just transmit 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:15.820 the data. It's faster, infinitely safer and cheaper. 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:19.000 OK, so the legitimate banking system outgrew 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:22.419 them. But the criminal underworld didn't. Exactly 00:13:22.419 --> 00:13:24.419 the opposite. The criminal element found them 00:13:24.419 --> 00:13:26.639 incredibly useful. The historical data points 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:28.559 out that rising concerns about counterfeiting 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:30.759 and the use of untraceable cash for unlawful 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:32.919 activities, specifically the booming illicit 00:13:32.919 --> 00:13:35.340 drug trade and massive money laundering operations, 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:38.539 were the unstated but major driving factors in 00:13:38.539 --> 00:13:40.639 the government's decision to kill off these bills. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:43.679 I want you, the listener, to visualize the logistics 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:46.340 of this for a second. Let's do the math on smuggling 00:13:46.340 --> 00:13:49.139 a million dollars. It's pretty eye opening. A 00:13:49.139 --> 00:13:52.399 million dollars in crisp, standard $100 bills. 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.980 is bulky. It weighs over 20 pounds. You need 00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:58.500 a sizable, sturdy briefcase or a heavy duffel 00:13:58.500 --> 00:14:01.320 bag to move it around discreetly. But a million 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:06.000 dollars in $10 ,000 bills, that is exactly 100 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.940 pieces of paper. Tiny. It weighs a few ounces. 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:11.179 It is less than half an inch thick. You could 00:14:11.179 --> 00:14:13.399 slip a million dollars into a standard mailing 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:15.799 envelope and tuck it into the inside pocket of 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:18.320 your suit jacket. The density of value was simply 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:21.299 too high. It became a massive vulnerability for 00:14:21.299 --> 00:14:24.509 law enforcement. High denomination cash is the 00:14:24.509 --> 00:14:27.070 ultimate bearer instrument. Whoever physically 00:14:27.070 --> 00:14:29.750 holds the paper owns the wealth and it leaves 00:14:29.750 --> 00:14:32.409 absolutely zero digital paper trail. Oh, they 00:14:32.409 --> 00:14:35.230 had to go? Yeah. By eliminating these large bills, 00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:37.629 the government fundamentally altered the logistics 00:14:37.629 --> 00:14:40.210 of crime. They made it significantly harder, 00:14:40.529 --> 00:14:42.909 heavier, and riskier for illicit operations to 00:14:42.909 --> 00:14:45.950 move vast sums of physical wealth without detection. 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:48.919 So, in the summer of 1969, the Federal Reserve 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:51.440 doesn't just discontinue them on paper. They 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:53.940 execute an active purge. A very aggressive one. 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:56.399 They essentially turn bank tellers into bounty 00:14:56.399 --> 00:14:59.059 hunters for the Fed. The instruction was like, 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:01.620 whenever a citizen or a business deposits a large 00:15:01.620 --> 00:15:04.899 bill, a 500, a 1 ,000, a 5 ,000, or a 10 ,000, 00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:08.379 do not hand it back out. Intercept it. send it 00:15:08.379 --> 00:15:10.159 straight back to the Federal Reserve, where it 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:12.659 will be aggressively destroyed, usually by punching 00:15:12.659 --> 00:15:14.840 holes in it and incinerating it. Gone forever. 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:16.960 Because the Fed was so ruthlessly hunting these 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:19.279 things down, you have to wonder, did any of these 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:21.720 paper giants actually survive the fire? They 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:25.059 did, but in astonishingly low numbers. We have 00:15:25.059 --> 00:15:28.799 concrete data on the survivors. As of May 2009, 00:15:29.139 --> 00:15:31.679 the known survival numbers were incredibly small. 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:36.299 How small? There were exactly 336 known $10 ,000 00:15:36.299 --> 00:15:39.480 bills left in existence. Those are the iconic 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:41.820 notes featuring the portrait of Salmon P. Chase, 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.100 who served as Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury. 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:47.419 Just 336 of them left in the entire world. Yes, 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:50.279 and for the $5 ,000 bills, which feature President 00:15:50.279 --> 00:15:54.100 James Madison, there were only 342 known to exist. 00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:57.299 Now, there are more of the smaller high denominations 00:15:57.299 --> 00:16:01.529 out there. About 165 ,000 of the $1 ,000 bills 00:16:01.529 --> 00:16:05.309 and fewer than 75 ,000 of the $500 bills managed 00:16:05.309 --> 00:16:07.450 to avoid the incinerators out of the hundreds 00:16:07.450 --> 00:16:09.929 of thousands printed. Which raises the question, 00:16:10.269 --> 00:16:13.529 who was holding on to a $10 ,000 bill in 1969 00:16:13.529 --> 00:16:16.450 instead of cashing it in? I mean, it had to be 00:16:16.450 --> 00:16:18.350 wealthy individuals hoarding them in private 00:16:18.350 --> 00:16:20.830 safes or people who simply forgot they had them 00:16:20.830 --> 00:16:23.899 locked away in a safe deposit box for decades. 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:26.240 That accounts for almost all the survivors. And 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:28.580 because they are so phenomenally rare today, 00:16:28.940 --> 00:16:31.159 the numismatic market, the collector's market, 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:33.700 is entirely divorced from their printed value. 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:36.480 Oh, I bet. You cannot simply buy a surviving 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:40.059 $10 ,000 bill for $10 ,000. Collectors pay massive 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:42.179 premiums, often hundreds of thousands of dollars 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:44.539 to acquire them. They have transitioned from 00:16:44.539 --> 00:16:47.840 currency into pure historical artifacts. They 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:50.610 really are museum pieces now. Though, looking 00:16:50.610 --> 00:16:52.490 through the research, for a long time, the most 00:16:52.490 --> 00:16:54.470 famous public display of this kind of wealth 00:16:54.470 --> 00:16:57.230 wasn't in a museum at all. It was in a casino 00:16:57.230 --> 00:17:01.470 in Las Vegas. Oh, yes. Binions. Right. Benny 00:17:01.470 --> 00:17:04.529 Binion, who ran Binion's Horseshoe Casino, came 00:17:04.529 --> 00:17:07.130 up with this brilliant marketing gimmick. He 00:17:07.130 --> 00:17:11.130 created a display featuring exactly $110 ,000 00:17:11.130 --> 00:17:13.829 bills. A literal million -dollar display. Right 00:17:13.829 --> 00:17:16.769 out in the open. A million dollars, strictly 00:17:16.769 --> 00:17:19.829 in $10 ,000 notes featuring Salmon P. Chase, 00:17:20.470 --> 00:17:23.130 stacked and encased in thick acrylic. It was 00:17:23.130 --> 00:17:25.930 a massive tourist attraction for decades. Anyone 00:17:25.930 --> 00:17:28.000 could walk in off the street get their photo 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:31.019 taken and just stare at a million dollars compressed 00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:33.339 into a hundred tiny slips of paper. This is an 00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:36.319 amazing visual. But eventually even that iconic 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:38.500 display was dismantled and the individual bills 00:17:38.500 --> 00:17:40.819 were sold off to private collectors. It serves 00:17:40.819 --> 00:17:43.779 as the ultimate symbol of a bygone era of physical 00:17:43.779 --> 00:17:46.380 wealth, which naturally leads to the modern status 00:17:46.380 --> 00:17:48.660 of these bills. According to the U .S. Department 00:17:48.660 --> 00:17:50.619 of the Treasury, their official administrative 00:17:50.619 --> 00:17:52.980 stance today is resolute. They aren't bringing 00:17:52.980 --> 00:17:55.339 them back. They assert that the current lineup 00:17:55.579 --> 00:18:00.259 The $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills 00:18:00.259 --> 00:18:03.579 perfectly and completely serves the needs of 00:18:03.579 --> 00:18:06.059 the American public. They state very clearly 00:18:06.059 --> 00:18:08.220 that neither the Treasury nor the Federal Reserve 00:18:08.220 --> 00:18:11.460 has any plans whatsoever to change the denominations 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:14.319 in use today. That is the fixed position of the 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:17.049 banking authorities. But it's fascinating how 00:18:17.049 --> 00:18:19.789 currency is still viewed as a powerful tool to 00:18:19.789 --> 00:18:22.630 project national identity and make political 00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:25.369 statements today. The research shows we are currently 00:18:25.369 --> 00:18:28.230 seeing a political resurgence of the idea of 00:18:28.230 --> 00:18:30.569 printing high denomination bills. We are. The 00:18:30.569 --> 00:18:32.789 historical documentation notes that in June of 00:18:32.789 --> 00:18:36.009 2024, Representative Paul Gosar introduced a 00:18:36.009 --> 00:18:38.680 bill into Congress. The specific purpose of this 00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:40.880 legislation was to legally mandate the Federal 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:43.740 Reserve to restart the issuance of the $500 bill. 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:46.680 Furthermore, the legislation proposed adopting 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:49.380 a new modernized design for this revived note, 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:52.000 which would feature former President Donald Trump 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:55.759 in its portrait. And that 2024 proposal wasn't 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:58.990 an isolated incident. Following that, in 2025, 00:18:59.690 --> 00:19:01.650 another legislative bill was introduced in Congress. 00:19:02.349 --> 00:19:04.549 This one proposed the creation and issuance of 00:19:04.549 --> 00:19:08.849 a $250 note, which would be a completely unprecedented 00:19:08.849 --> 00:19:12.369 denomination for modern U .S. currency, and this 00:19:12.369 --> 00:19:14.930 proposed note would also feature Trump's portrait. 00:19:15.890 --> 00:19:18.369 Now, I want to be extremely clear here for you 00:19:18.369 --> 00:19:21.269 listening. We are taking absolutely no sides 00:19:21.269 --> 00:19:24.130 on this. We are impartially reporting the legislative 00:19:24.130 --> 00:19:26.410 proposals exactly as they appear in the source 00:19:26.410 --> 00:19:29.049 material for this deep dive. We aren't endorsing 00:19:29.049 --> 00:19:31.869 any political viewpoint, just conveying the historical 00:19:31.869 --> 00:19:34.690 and current ideas around our currency. Absolutely. 00:19:35.250 --> 00:19:37.049 And these contemporary legislative proposals 00:19:37.049 --> 00:19:39.509 highlight a fascinating ongoing tension. What 00:19:39.509 --> 00:19:41.470 kind of tension? Well, on one side you have the 00:19:41.470 --> 00:19:43.309 Treasury and the Federal Reserve operating on 00:19:43.309 --> 00:19:45.490 pure mechanics. They're arguing that digital 00:19:45.490 --> 00:19:47.690 transaction networks and the current physical 00:19:47.690 --> 00:19:50.109 cash lineup are entirely sufficient for the modern 00:19:50.109 --> 00:19:53.069 economy. Right. It's just math to them. Exactly. 00:19:53.609 --> 00:19:55.769 But on the other side, you have legislative efforts 00:19:55.769 --> 00:19:58.769 attempting to utilize currency not just as a 00:19:58.769 --> 00:20:01.549 medium of economic exchange, but as a prominent 00:20:01.549 --> 00:20:05.009 cultural or political statement. It mirrors how 00:20:05.009 --> 00:20:08.009 those 19th century notes utilized allegorical 00:20:08.009 --> 00:20:11.109 figures or past leaders to project a specific 00:20:11.109 --> 00:20:13.509 vision of national identity. It really brings 00:20:13.509 --> 00:20:16.240 the whole story full circle. So. When we step 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:18.599 back and look at this entire historical arc, 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:22.779 from the desperate 1780 North Carolina $500 note, 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:26.720 to the heavily guarded $100 ,000 intergovernmental 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:30.460 trading cards, to the ruthless 1969 Fed purge, 00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:32.940 all the way to modern congressional debates over 00:20:32.940 --> 00:20:35.569 printing new faces on new denominations, What 00:20:35.569 --> 00:20:37.710 does this all mean for the listener? If we connect 00:20:37.710 --> 00:20:40.009 this grand history to the mechanics of your daily 00:20:40.009 --> 00:20:42.289 life, the core takeaway is about recognizing 00:20:42.289 --> 00:20:44.349 the invisible infrastructure of your wealth. 00:20:44.650 --> 00:20:46.690 The invisible infrastructure. I like that. Think 00:20:46.690 --> 00:20:48.690 about it. Every single time you tap your phone 00:20:48.690 --> 00:20:50.869 at a coffee shop to pay or every time you send 00:20:50.869 --> 00:20:52.890 a digital transfer to a friend to split a dinner 00:20:52.890 --> 00:20:55.650 bill, you are actively participating in the exact 00:20:55.650 --> 00:20:58.269 technological revolution that ultimately killed 00:20:58.269 --> 00:21:01.160 the $10 ,000 bill. It's all connected. It is. 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:03.480 Physical cache, especially in massive amounts, 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:06.759 was simply outpaced by data. The friction of 00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:09.019 moving paper, the severe security risks, the 00:21:09.019 --> 00:21:11.420 physical weight, the slow speed of transport 00:21:11.420 --> 00:21:14.299 was entirely eliminated by electronic systems. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.779 We traded the tangible, beautiful, risky paper 00:21:17.779 --> 00:21:20.900 giants of the past for the invisible frictionless 00:21:20.900 --> 00:21:24.009 speed of the modern digital grid. It really forces 00:21:24.009 --> 00:21:26.549 you to look at the standard $20 bill in your 00:21:26.549 --> 00:21:28.390 wallet in a completely different light. It's 00:21:28.390 --> 00:21:30.849 the resilient survivor of a much larger, much 00:21:30.849 --> 00:21:33.289 wilder family tree of money. It definitely is. 00:21:33.470 --> 00:21:35.509 But, you know, it also leaves us with a deeply 00:21:35.509 --> 00:21:39.230 provocative final thought to chew on. We've spent 00:21:39.230 --> 00:21:42.410 the last half century relentlessly entirely replacing 00:21:42.410 --> 00:21:45.130 these massive physical bills with electronic 00:21:45.130 --> 00:21:47.650 money systems. It makes sense. It's faster. It's 00:21:47.650 --> 00:21:49.250 safer. And it keeps a million dollars out of 00:21:49.250 --> 00:21:51.809 a smuggler's jacket pocket. Absolutely. But if 00:21:51.809 --> 00:21:54.589 those digital grids were ever to suffer a catastrophic 00:21:54.589 --> 00:21:57.210 failure or a massive prolonged cyber attack, 00:21:58.109 --> 00:22:00.769 our digital wealth becomes instantly inaccessible. 00:22:01.130 --> 00:22:04.319 A scary thought. Very. Without those large -denomination 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:06.940 physical notes circulating as a tangible backup, 00:22:07.539 --> 00:22:09.799 how would our society actually manage to transfer 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:12.440 significant wealth or keep the massive gears 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:15.319 of the economy turning in a total digital blackout? 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:17.799 The paper giants are gone, and we've put all 00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:19.539 our faith in the invisible data. Let's hope the 00:22:19.539 --> 00:22:20.259 power stays on.