WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.200 You know, when you pull out a hundred dollar 00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:06.070 bill today... to pay for something, there's a 00:00:06.070 --> 00:00:08.830 certain weight to it. It's like the ultimate 00:00:08.830 --> 00:00:11.289 cash wicks, right? You lay down that crisp Benjamin 00:00:11.289 --> 00:00:14.189 Franklin and it just feels like a definitive 00:00:14.189 --> 00:00:16.789 statement. Yeah, we're really culturally conditioned 00:00:16.789 --> 00:00:19.929 to see the hundred as the absolute ceiling of 00:00:19.929 --> 00:00:22.309 everyday cash. Right. It's the largest piece 00:00:22.309 --> 00:00:24.390 of currency most of us will ever actually hold 00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:26.410 in our hands. It commands a lot of attention. 00:00:26.609 --> 00:00:28.989 But what if I told you that the hundred dollar 00:00:28.989 --> 00:00:32.890 bill is actually just a minnow? that it used 00:00:32.890 --> 00:00:36.189 to swim in an ocean alongside these absolute 00:00:36.189 --> 00:00:39.009 leviathans. Which is just wild to think about. 00:00:39.189 --> 00:00:42.509 It really is. Today, we are taking a deep dive 00:00:42.509 --> 00:00:46.189 into the hidden, almost mythical world of America's 00:00:46.189 --> 00:00:49.189 mega money. We're talking about individual physical 00:00:49.189 --> 00:00:51.810 banknotes with base values of $500, $1 ,000, 00:00:51.829 --> 00:00:56.570 $5 ,000, $10 ,000, and even a staggering $100 00:00:56.570 --> 00:00:59.509 ,000 bill. It sounds completely made up, like 00:00:59.509 --> 00:01:02.420 something out of a heist movie. Right. But welcome 00:01:02.420 --> 00:01:04.439 to the deep dive. We are so glad you're joining 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:07.680 us as we explore why these massive bills were 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.299 created, their secret life inside government 00:01:10.299 --> 00:01:13.159 vaults, and, you know, why they ultimately vanished 00:01:13.159 --> 00:01:15.700 from our wallets. It's a fascinating journey 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:18.120 that really tracks the evolution of the United 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:20.599 States economy itself. OK, let's unpack this, 00:01:20.939 --> 00:01:23.000 because my very first thought when diving into 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.790 this source material was... Why on earth would 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:29.290 anyone in the 18th or 19th century need $1 ,000 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:31.390 bill? That's the logical question, yeah. I mean, 00:01:31.390 --> 00:01:33.689 if you account for inflation, $1 ,000 back then 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:36.409 was a life -changing fortune. Yet the historical 00:01:36.409 --> 00:01:39.629 records show that as early as May 1780, North 00:01:39.629 --> 00:01:43.010 Carolina authorized a $500 note. Which was a 00:01:43.010 --> 00:01:45.310 massive amount of value for the time. Huge. And 00:01:45.310 --> 00:01:47.530 then Virginia immediately followed suit. They 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:51.370 authorized $501 ,000 notes, and by 1781, they 00:01:51.370 --> 00:01:54.599 were actually printing $2 ,000 notes. Why print 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:57.140 a single piece of paper worth more than most 00:01:57.140 --> 00:01:59.719 people made in a decade? What's fascinating here 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:01.959 is that these early high -denomination notes 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:06.640 were absolute functional necessities. Necessities. 00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:09.259 Yeah, you have to remember the physical reality 00:02:09.259 --> 00:02:12.319 of the era. We didn't have wire transfers. We 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:14.939 didn't have digital banking. We didn't even have 00:02:14.939 --> 00:02:17.960 armored cars traversing a paved highway system. 00:02:18.139 --> 00:02:20.280 Right, none of the modern infrastructure. Exactly. 00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:23.840 So when the government or a major financial institution 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:27.020 needed to move massive amounts of value quickly, 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:31.580 particularly during times of conflict, They couldn't 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:35.539 rely on literal horse -drawn wagons full of low 00:02:35.539 --> 00:02:39.189 -denomination coins or small bills. Yeah I like 00:02:39.189 --> 00:02:41.430 to think of these early high denomination bills 00:02:41.430 --> 00:02:44.050 as the heavy shipping containers of the 19th 00:02:44.050 --> 00:02:45.830 century economy. Oh, that's a great way to put 00:02:45.830 --> 00:02:48.469 it. Like today, a massive steel shipping container 00:02:48.469 --> 00:02:51.250 moves tons of goods across the ocean efficiently. 00:02:51.949 --> 00:02:55.509 Back then, a $5 ,000 bill was the only way to 00:02:55.509 --> 00:02:57.849 move tons of economic value across a developing 00:02:57.849 --> 00:03:00.650 country without, you know, needing a fleet of 00:03:00.650 --> 00:03:02.930 heavily guarded stagecoaches. That is a perfect 00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:05.669 analogy. They were essential financial infrastructure. 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:08.860 Across nearly 20 different series dates, the 00:03:08.860 --> 00:03:11.099 U .S. issued 11 different types of these high 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.400 -denomination notes just to keep the engine of 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:15.039 the country running. We're talking about legal 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:18.639 tender, compound interest treasury notes, silver 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.860 certificates, gold certificates. Wait, hold on. 00:03:21.879 --> 00:03:23.900 Let me stop you right there. You just threw out 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:26.280 a bunch of dense financial terminology. Fair 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:27.939 enough, yeah. Let's break that down for a second 00:03:27.939 --> 00:03:30.099 because I want to make sure we really understand 00:03:30.099 --> 00:03:33.349 the mechanics here. A compound interest treasury 00:03:33.349 --> 00:03:35.909 note. Does that mean the physical cash actually 00:03:35.909 --> 00:03:37.870 grew in value while it was just sitting in a 00:03:37.870 --> 00:03:41.689 safe? Yes, exactly. That is the brilliance of 00:03:41.689 --> 00:03:43.990 how they engineered these early financial instruments. 00:03:44.090 --> 00:03:46.949 That's incredible. Right. During the Civil War, 00:03:47.349 --> 00:03:49.770 the government needed to raise capital desperately. 00:03:50.289 --> 00:03:52.789 So they issued these compound interest notes. 00:03:52.889 --> 00:03:55.289 You didn't just spend them at face value. If 00:03:55.289 --> 00:03:57.930 you held onto them, they accrued interest at 00:03:57.930 --> 00:04:01.580 a set rate over a period of years. Wow. So a 00:04:01.580 --> 00:04:04.960 $500 note today might be worth like $530 a year 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:07.580 from now. Precisely. So it's literally a savings 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:09.240 account you could fold up and put in your pocket. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:11.919 Yeah. And what about the silver and gold certificates? 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:15.139 Those were a bit different, but equally crucial. 00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:19.930 A silver or gold certificate was a literal physical 00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:22.870 claim ticket. The piece of paper itself wasn't 00:04:22.870 --> 00:04:25.889 the intrinsic value. It was a legally binding 00:04:25.889 --> 00:04:28.769 receipt. You could walk into a bank, hand the 00:04:28.769 --> 00:04:31.470 teller a thousand dollar gold certificate, and 00:04:31.470 --> 00:04:34.269 they were legally obligated to hand you one thousand 00:04:34.269 --> 00:04:36.529 dollars worth of physical gold coin or bullion 00:04:36.529 --> 00:04:39.310 in return. Oh, I see. So the paper is just a 00:04:39.310 --> 00:04:41.730 lightweight proxy for heavy metal. Exactly. Which 00:04:41.730 --> 00:04:44.089 it perfectly explains why we see these massive 00:04:44.089 --> 00:04:46.750 denominations spike during wars. The sources 00:04:46.750 --> 00:04:48.850 show one thousand dollar notes authorized during 00:04:48.850 --> 00:04:51.470 the War of 1812, and both the federal government 00:04:51.470 --> 00:04:53.870 and the Confederacy were printing five hundred 00:04:53.870 --> 00:04:55.829 and one thousand dollar notes heavily during 00:04:55.829 --> 00:04:59.009 the Civil War. Wars require moving millions of 00:04:59.009 --> 00:05:00.829 dollars in capital overnight. You have to pay 00:05:00.829 --> 00:05:03.769 soldiers, buy munitions. And the government needed 00:05:03.769 --> 00:05:06.129 people to actually trust these massive pieces 00:05:06.129 --> 00:05:08.660 of paper. They needed citizens and foreign governments 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:12.240 to believe that this fledgling, war -torn nation 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.220 wasn't going to just collapse tomorrow. Right. 00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:16.279 Which is why the physical design of these notes 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:19.629 was so incredibly deliberate. Oh, they were gorgeous. 00:05:19.790 --> 00:05:21.649 I was looking at the specific designs in the 00:05:21.649 --> 00:05:24.110 text, and these weren't just utilitarian slips 00:05:24.110 --> 00:05:27.310 of green paper. They were sprawling, intricate 00:05:27.310 --> 00:05:29.949 canvases. They really were pieces of art. You 00:05:29.949 --> 00:05:32.910 had bills featuring James Madison, Alexander 00:05:32.910 --> 00:05:35.670 Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, but you also had these 00:05:35.670 --> 00:05:39.110 incredible allegorical and historical engravings. 00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:41.990 Like figures of justice and liberty. Yes. And 00:05:41.990 --> 00:05:45.610 there was a $500 national banknote from 1865 00:05:45.610 --> 00:05:48.310 that featured an engraving of the surrender of 00:05:48.310 --> 00:05:51.589 General Burgoyne, a $1 ,000 bill showing Columbus 00:05:51.589 --> 00:05:54.790 in his study, another with De Soto discovering 00:05:54.790 --> 00:05:57.329 the Mississippi. They were deeply symbolic pieces 00:05:57.329 --> 00:05:59.790 of national art. By putting defining moments 00:05:59.790 --> 00:06:01.850 of American history and monumental figures on 00:06:01.850 --> 00:06:04.329 the currency, the government was projecting stability. 00:06:04.529 --> 00:06:06.569 Projecting institutional power, yeah. It was 00:06:06.569 --> 00:06:08.689 a psychological tool as much as a financial one. 00:06:10.329 --> 00:06:12.990 There is a cruel irony to their history, particularly 00:06:12.990 --> 00:06:15.709 with those earliest Civil War era notes. Right, 00:06:15.790 --> 00:06:19.110 which brings me to a detail that completely baffled 00:06:19.110 --> 00:06:23.490 me at first. If you go to the Smithsonian Institution's 00:06:23.490 --> 00:06:26.129 National Numismatic Collection today, which is 00:06:26.129 --> 00:06:28.449 basically the ultimate museum of American money. 00:06:28.699 --> 00:06:32.240 The holy grail for collectors. Exactly. You will 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:36.100 notice a massive glaring gap in their archives. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:38.800 They have a nearly complete set of every bill 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:41.660 ever made, but they are notably missing several 00:06:41.660 --> 00:06:44.720 types of those early compound and interest bearing 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:47.420 notes from the 1860s. They don't have the proofs. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.600 Yeah. The historical record states they were 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:52.579 printed on incredibly thin paper and are virtually 00:06:52.579 --> 00:06:55.839 nonexistent today. So given that, does that mean 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:59.000 these massive fortunes were literally disintegrating 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.399 in people's pockets? It's a great question. And 00:07:01.399 --> 00:07:03.220 the short answer is yes, though they weren't 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:05.439 exactly disintegrating in the pockets of average 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:07.560 citizens because the average person almost never 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:09.579 encountered them. Oh, right. Because of the value. 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:11.660 Right. But for the banks and clearing houses 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:14.399 that did handle them daily, the physical fragility 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:16.420 was a logistical nightmare. Because they were 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:18.620 essentially made of tissue paper. Pretty much. 00:07:19.379 --> 00:07:23.060 These early notes predate the 1870s, which is 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:26.079 a pivotal decade. That's when the Bureau of Engraving 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:28.759 and Printing officially took over all U .S. currency 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:32.220 and began standardizing the highly durable cotton 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:35.560 linen blend paper we use today. That makes sense. 00:07:35.860 --> 00:07:38.300 Before that standardization, the paper used for 00:07:38.300 --> 00:07:40.680 these high denominations simply couldn't survive 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.480 the friction of being counted, bundled and transported 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:45.860 between bank vaults. They just fell apart. They 00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:48.540 wore out, they tore, they frayed at the edges. 00:07:49.100 --> 00:07:51.759 When they became too damaged to read, the banks 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:53.980 would turn them back into the treasury to be 00:07:53.980 --> 00:07:56.420 destroyed and replaced. Wow. They were literally 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:58.620 used until they crumbled, which is exactly why 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:00.920 the Smithsonian lacks proof specimens today. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:03.319 They were all systematically shredded or burned. 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:05.639 So the 19th century shipping containers were 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:08.199 made of tissue paper. That is wild. This funny 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.459 image. And it perfectly transitions us into the 00:08:11.459 --> 00:08:14.319 next era of this history. Because you mentioned 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.339 that average citizens weren't carrying these 00:08:16.339 --> 00:08:18.459 fragile fortunes around. No, definitely not. 00:08:18.740 --> 00:08:21.720 Here's where it gets really interesting. As we 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:24.920 move into the 20th century, the absolute largest 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:27.680 of these bills became completely disconnected 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:30.569 from the public. They did. I mean, I see it as 00:08:30.569 --> 00:08:32.570 the federal government playing a high stakes, 00:08:32.850 --> 00:08:35.490 exclusive game of monopoly behind closed doors. 00:08:35.649 --> 00:08:37.970 That is an incredibly accurate way to describe 00:08:37.970 --> 00:08:41.629 the series 1934 gold certificates. This is where 00:08:41.629 --> 00:08:44.230 we see the introduction of the absolute apex 00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:47.649 predator of American currency. The legendary 00:08:47.649 --> 00:08:51.490 $100 ,000 bill featuring Woodrow Wilson. The 00:08:51.490 --> 00:08:54.730 very one. When I first read about the $100 ,000 00:08:54.730 --> 00:08:57.460 bill, I genuinely thought it had to be a typo 00:08:57.460 --> 00:08:59.759 in the source text. A lot of people do. But the 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:02.259 context around why it existed is critical. This 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.000 wasn't something you could win in a lottery or 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:06.700 get as a bonus or keep in a safe at home. Not 00:09:06.700 --> 00:09:09.580 at all. In fact, it is strictly illegal for a 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:11.779 private citizen to hold one today. They were 00:09:11.779 --> 00:09:14.399 never in public circulation. Never. Never. To 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:16.879 understand why this bill was born, we have to 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:20.080 look at the massive economic shockwave of 1933. 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:23.480 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:26.639 Order 6102. In the midst of the Great Depression, 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:29.919 this order effectively repealed the gold standard 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:33.980 for the public and compulsorily confiscated privately 00:09:33.980 --> 00:09:36.960 held gold. So the American public was legally 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:39.539 required to turn in their gold coins in bullion. 00:09:39.860 --> 00:09:42.259 Yes, and their gold certificates, exchanging 00:09:42.259 --> 00:09:44.659 them for regular paper money. Okay, so imagine 00:09:44.659 --> 00:09:47.639 the sheer scale of that shift. Suddenly, the 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:49.940 federal government has centralized all the gold 00:09:49.940 --> 00:09:52.299 and the entire structure of the American economy 00:09:52.299 --> 00:09:55.519 is forcibly rewired overnight. It was a monumental 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.360 change. And yet the Federal Reserve banks across 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:01.539 the country still need a way to settle massive 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:03.399 multi -million dollar debts with one another 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:05.899 at the end of every business day. Right. So I 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:08.669 have to challenge this logic for a second. If 00:10:08.669 --> 00:10:10.590 the government has all the gold and it is just 00:10:10.590 --> 00:10:12.610 transferring wealth to itself between its own 00:10:12.610 --> 00:10:16.210 Federal Reserve branches, why go to the immense 00:10:16.210 --> 00:10:19.230 trouble and expense of engraving and printing 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:24.049 a physical $100 ,000 note at all? It seems redundant, 00:10:24.049 --> 00:10:25.809 doesn't it? It really does. Why not just keep 00:10:25.809 --> 00:10:27.649 a ledger, just tally it up in a book somewhere? 00:10:27.970 --> 00:10:30.649 Well, if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:10:31.110 --> 00:10:34.149 you have to realize that the psychological and 00:10:34.149 --> 00:10:36.470 mechanical transition away from the gold standard 00:10:36.470 --> 00:10:40.200 didn't happen overnight. Okay. For decades, interbank 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:42.980 transfers were physically backed by and settled 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:46.860 with heavy crates of gold. In a newly post -gold 00:10:46.860 --> 00:10:48.960 standard world where electronic systems didn't 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:51.980 exist yet, these physical certificates were the 00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:54.820 required mechanical bridge for institutional 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.899 wealth. Oh, I see. The entire banking system 00:10:57.899 --> 00:11:00.720 was legally and procedurally built around the 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:03.649 exchange of tangible certificates. So the laws 00:11:03.649 --> 00:11:05.950 and the accounting mechanics just hadn't caught 00:11:05.950 --> 00:11:08.970 up to the reality of the new economy? Precisely. 00:11:09.330 --> 00:11:12.690 The $100 ,000 Woodrow Wilson note was essentially 00:11:12.690 --> 00:11:15.330 a high -efficiency receipt representing the gold 00:11:15.330 --> 00:11:17.450 that was now permanently locked up in the treasury. 00:11:17.710 --> 00:11:20.149 So it allowed the Federal Reserve System to operate 00:11:20.149 --> 00:11:23.049 within its existing rigid physical rules just 00:11:23.049 --> 00:11:25.009 using a lightweight piece of paper instead of 00:11:25.009 --> 00:11:27.049 moving tons of precious metal. Which, by the 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:29.210 way, that series was discontinued in 1940, right? 00:11:29.289 --> 00:11:31.360 Correct. It was a short -lived bridge. But even 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:33.799 though the hundred grand bill was strictly intra 00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:36.620 -governmental, the slightly smaller ones, the 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:40.720 500 ,000, 5 ,000, and $10 ,000 bills, were still 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:43.440 technically out there. Yes, from the series 1928 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:46.639 and 1934. And to illustrate the sheer scale of 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:48.919 that concentrated wealth, there's this famous 00:11:48.919 --> 00:11:52.279 story about Benny Binyon, the legendary Las Vegas 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:55.159 casino owner. Oh, the horseshoe casino display. 00:11:55.299 --> 00:11:58.700 Yes. For years, he had a public display consisting 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:02.480 of exactly one hundred ten thousand dollar bills 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:05.200 each featuring the portrait of salmon piches 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.580 and they were just encased in a thick block of 00:12:08.580 --> 00:12:12.000 acrylic a literal million dollars in cash just 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.100 sitting there in a display case for tourists 00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:16.139 to take photos with it's just hard to fathom 00:12:16.139 --> 00:12:17.899 today and think about the physical dimensions 00:12:17.899 --> 00:12:21.879 of that 100 standard US bills stacked together 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:24.659 is less than half an inch thick that's incredible 00:12:24.659 --> 00:12:26.879 when you visualize it You're looking at a million 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:28.659 dollars that you could effortlessly slide into 00:12:28.659 --> 00:12:31.820 the front pocket of your jeans. Sadly, that display 00:12:31.820 --> 00:12:33.820 was eventually dismantled and the bills were 00:12:33.820 --> 00:12:35.519 sold off to collectors. Yeah, they're scattered 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:38.620 now. Which perfectly brings us to the extinction 00:12:38.620 --> 00:12:41.399 event of these financial giants. Because if you 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:43.620 walk into your local bank branch today and ask 00:12:43.620 --> 00:12:46.600 to withdraw your savings and $5 ,000 bills, the 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:48.240 teller is going to look at you like you're crazy. 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:50.179 They absolutely will. Yeah. And the timeline 00:12:50.179 --> 00:12:52.240 of how they were phased out is really interesting. 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:55.960 The Treasury actually stopped printing all large 00:12:55.960 --> 00:13:00.000 denominations on December 27, 1945. Wow, that 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.720 early? Yes. But they continued to circulate for 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:05.100 decades. They weren't officially discontinued 00:13:05.100 --> 00:13:08.840 and targeted for removal until July 14, 1969. 00:13:09.549 --> 00:13:11.710 discontinued by the Federal Reserve. And the 00:13:11.710 --> 00:13:13.830 official reason given on the public record was 00:13:13.830 --> 00:13:17.909 lack of use, which feels like a massive understatement. 00:13:18.090 --> 00:13:20.149 It was a very polite way of stating a much more 00:13:20.149 --> 00:13:23.809 complex reality. Starting in 1969, the Fed instituted 00:13:23.809 --> 00:13:25.870 a policy of actively destroying them. Right. 00:13:26.009 --> 00:13:27.830 They did knock on doors demanding them back. 00:13:28.169 --> 00:13:30.210 But the moment a five hundred or a thousand dollar 00:13:30.210 --> 00:13:33.090 bill was deposited into a bank, the teller was 00:13:33.090 --> 00:13:35.250 instructed to pull it from circulation. It was 00:13:35.250 --> 00:13:37.549 sent back to the Fed and shredded. Exactly. It 00:13:37.549 --> 00:13:40.419 was a silent. highly effective hunt. And the 00:13:40.419 --> 00:13:43.940 survival numbers are startlingly low. As of 2009, 00:13:44.059 --> 00:13:46.240 out of the entire history of the United States 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.120 economy, there were only 336 of those $10 ,000 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:52.480 bills known to exist. It's practically nothing. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:58.500 Only 342 $5 ,000 bills, about 165 ,000 $1 ,000 00:13:58.500 --> 00:14:03.460 bills, and fewer than $75 ,500 bills left. And 00:14:03.460 --> 00:14:06.600 because of that extreme rarity, collectors now 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:09.620 pay vast premiums over face value just to acquire 00:14:09.620 --> 00:14:12.059 them. So what does this all mean? Why did the 00:14:12.059 --> 00:14:14.000 government decide to systematically kill off 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.100 these massive bills? I look at it like these 00:14:16.100 --> 00:14:18.860 high denomination notes were financial megafauna. 00:14:19.179 --> 00:14:20.940 Megafauna. Yeah, they were the wooly mammoths 00:14:20.940 --> 00:14:22.879 of the economy, and they were ultimately wiped 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:25.840 out by a digital meteor. As the 20th century 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:27.919 progressed, the rise of electronic money systems 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:30.600 made moving large -scale physical cash completely 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:33.059 obsolete. That is the technological reason, yes. 00:14:33.100 --> 00:14:35.299 The mechanical need for a shipping container 00:14:35.299 --> 00:14:37.940 of physical value vanished. But there was also 00:14:37.940 --> 00:14:41.360 a very urgent law enforcement reason. As legitimate 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.139 businesses shifted to electronic banking, the 00:14:44.139 --> 00:14:46.899 primary demographic still demanding high denomination 00:14:46.899 --> 00:14:50.220 physical bills were people who desperately wanted 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:53.799 to avoid a paper trail. Ah, right. The government 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:55.879 quickly realized that high denomination bills 00:14:55.879 --> 00:14:58.879 were incredibly efficient tools for counterfeiting, 00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:01.740 drug trafficking, and money laundering. because 00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:03.299 of the weight and volume issue we talked about. 00:15:04.059 --> 00:15:06.120 Exactly. Smuggling a million dollars and hundred 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:08.659 dollar bills means lugging around a heavy duffel 00:15:08.659 --> 00:15:11.240 bag. Doing it with ten thousand dollar bills 00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:13.179 means slipping an envelope into your jacket. 00:15:13.580 --> 00:15:16.279 So the Treasury clamped down hard. And their 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:19.139 stance today is immovable. The Treasury states 00:15:19.139 --> 00:15:21.620 that the present denominations from one dollar 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:24.519 to one hundred serve the public's needs perfectly 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:27.840 with no plans to change. Well, from the perspective 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.769 of the Treasury, yes, but It is fascinating to 00:15:30.769 --> 00:15:32.590 look at recent congressional records because 00:15:32.590 --> 00:15:35.370 there is a very unexpected modern coda to this 00:15:35.370 --> 00:15:37.629 story. There is, yeah. And I need to be super 00:15:37.629 --> 00:15:40.529 clear with you here, the listener. We are strictly, 00:15:41.029 --> 00:15:43.110 impartially reporting on the contents of these 00:15:43.110 --> 00:15:45.450 congressional bills as they are documented in 00:15:45.450 --> 00:15:47.529 the source. Absolutely. We aren't taking any 00:15:47.529 --> 00:15:50.389 political side and we definitely aren't endorsing 00:15:50.389 --> 00:15:52.169 the viewpoints of the legislation. We're just 00:15:52.169 --> 00:15:55.919 looking at the facts. In June 2024, Representative 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.039 Paul Gosar introduced a bill to force the Federal 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:02.259 Reserve to restart the issuance of $500 bills 00:16:02.259 --> 00:16:05.279 featuring Donald Trump. Right. And then subsequently, 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:09.419 a 2025 bill was introduced for a $250 note, also 00:16:09.419 --> 00:16:11.340 with Trump's portrait. So here's my question 00:16:11.340 --> 00:16:14.809 for you. Given the Treasury's firm stance that 00:16:14.809 --> 00:16:17.950 large bills fuel illicit activities and are electronically 00:16:17.950 --> 00:16:22.509 obsolete, what does this recent 2024 and 2025 00:16:22.509 --> 00:16:25.269 congressional push tell us about the ongoing 00:16:25.269 --> 00:16:28.250 cultural tension between physical cash and digital 00:16:28.250 --> 00:16:30.529 tracking? This raises an important question, 00:16:30.549 --> 00:16:32.590 and it really synthesizes that tension perfectly. 00:16:33.210 --> 00:16:35.769 As we discussed, in the 19th century, a thousand 00:16:35.769 --> 00:16:37.730 dollar bill was a mechanical and assessor. Great. 00:16:37.830 --> 00:16:40.879 The shipping container? Exactly. Today, a $500 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:44.279 or $250 bill is completely separate from the 00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:46.980 mechanical needs of the economy. It is entirely 00:16:46.980 --> 00:16:49.620 a symbol. A symbol of what, exactly? Well, this 00:16:49.620 --> 00:16:52.460 modern desire highlights a debate about privacy 00:16:52.460 --> 00:16:55.659 and the tangible nature of wealth. For some, 00:16:56.120 --> 00:16:58.480 physical cash represents freedom from digital 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.519 surveillance, freedom from bank tracking, and 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:04.420 a tangible assurance of wealth. So, by proposing 00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:07.980 a specific political figure on a new, high -value 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:11.099 note, it transforms currency from a mere medium 00:17:11.099 --> 00:17:13.839 of exchange into political symbolism. Exactly. 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:15.819 It shows that our relationship with currency 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:18.400 is about much more than just economics. It really 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:20.859 is. We've traced the entire sweeping lifespan 00:17:20.859 --> 00:17:23.779 of these financial giants. We started with the 00:17:23.779 --> 00:17:27.140 fragile, thin -paper $500 notes of the 1860s 00:17:27.140 --> 00:17:29.220 desperately needed to fund a growing nation. 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.140 We moved into the 1930s, where the government's 00:17:32.140 --> 00:17:35.369 secret $100 ,000 Woodrow Wilson Monopoly money 00:17:35.369 --> 00:17:37.670 functioned entirely with enclosed vaults. Down 00:17:37.670 --> 00:17:39.950 to the rare collector items of today, trapped 00:17:39.950 --> 00:17:42.650 in acrylic or preserved in museum archives, all 00:17:42.650 --> 00:17:45.250 the way to the legislative debates of 2025. It's 00:17:45.250 --> 00:17:47.289 a remarkable evolution. Which leaves me with 00:17:47.289 --> 00:17:49.630 one final thought for you to mull over as we 00:17:49.630 --> 00:17:53.210 wrap up today's Deep Dive. Historically, these 00:17:53.210 --> 00:17:56.690 massive banknotes were sprawling canvases for 00:17:56.690 --> 00:17:59.369 incredible art. Oh, absolutely. We're talking 00:17:59.369 --> 00:18:02.430 about detailed engravings of liberty just and 00:18:02.430 --> 00:18:04.630 pivotal moments like the surrender of General 00:18:04.630 --> 00:18:08.289 Burgoyne. Real masterpieces. But as we move closer 00:18:08.289 --> 00:18:12.069 to a purely digital economy where money is just 00:18:12.069 --> 00:18:15.690 a pixelated number on a screen, what happens 00:18:15.690 --> 00:18:18.490 to the concept of currency as a physical piece 00:18:18.490 --> 00:18:21.569 of national art? Are we basically losing a tangible 00:18:21.569 --> 00:18:23.990 gallery of our own history? That's a profound 00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:26.259 question to end on. Something we don't often 00:18:26.259 --> 00:18:28.359 think about when we tap a card to pay. Something 00:18:28.359 --> 00:18:29.980 to think about the next time you hold a piece 00:18:29.980 --> 00:18:32.220 of cash. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:34.000 this deep dive. We hope you'll keep exploring 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:35.839 and maybe take a second look the next time you 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:38.259 pull out that $100 bill. Until next time.