Most people have probably seen pictures of the famous $100,000 Gold Certificate bearing Woodrow Wilson’s protrait. Having been issued in 1934, after the possession of Gold Certificates and gold had been prohibited for the general public, it’s usually explained that the Certificates of the 1934 issue were intended only for circulation among the Federal Reserve Banks and the Treasury. Further, I’m aware that the Gold Certificate Account remains an asset on the combined balance sheet of the Federal Reserve Banks, presumably against the Treasury’s gold stock.
So, my questions are:
What other denominations were issued in the 1934 series?
Do the FRBs still retain custody of the actual Certificates?
When the official gold price was raised during the Nixon years from $35 to $42 per ounce, did the Bureau of Printing and Engraving pump out additional Gold Certificates in the 1934 series to reflect the inflated price of gold? (Note: the “series year” on an American note need not be the year of actual manufacture or issue.)
Obligatory vanity search bait: samclem
I did manage to find a partial answer to question #1. I’ve seen images of a $100 Gold Certificate from the 1934 series, which leads me to assume that at least the other standard denominations higher than $100 but less than $100 were included–$500, $1000, $5K, and $10K.
My specialized book says that they issued denominations of $100, $1000(84,000 pieces as a side note), 36,000 pieces of $10,000 note. That’s what I found.
I can’t imagine that most of these weren’t destroyed. No doubt various Fed Reserve BAnks may have a specimen on display, but I would bet the bulk were destroyed.
I doubt that the BEP printed additional notes after the 1934 series. I can’t prove it.
I thought since the Gold Certificate Account is still an item on the Fed’s balance sheet, and thus–theoretically–forms a minuscule part of our currency’s backing, that the certificates would not have been destroyed, but still physically exist in the vaults of the various FRBs around the country. Since gold was revalued to $42.22 in the Nixon years, this led me to suppose that the Treasury would have had to trot out the old plates at that time, and produce enough in Gold Certificates to match the difference. These, then, I imagined would have made a single trip to one or more of the FRBs and then sat there from that day to this. IIRC the Gold Certificate Account is still valued against the Treasury’s gold stock at the $42.22/oz rate.
If the certificates are all destroyed, then it’s surprising to me that the Fed doesn’t retain any physical documentation as evidence of its claim of the Treasury’s gold.