The United States Federal Government began printing banknotes called Demand Notes in 1861 to help finance the American Civil War. In the decades that followed it issued many different types of notes including Legal Tender Notes, Compound Interest Notes, Interest Bearing Notes, Gold Certificates, Silver Certificates, National Bank Notes, Treasury Bank Notes, and Fractional Currency. Each note was guaranteed or backed in a different way. In 1914, the U.S. introduced Federal Reserve Notes and made them the single standardized note type by the late 1920s. The designs of the Federal Reserve Notes of the late 1920s remain largely unchanged today.

This Learning Lab showcases examples of each of the different types of notes from the Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection.