Regarding the response to whose face is on the $1000 bill (http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m1000.html), Salmon P. Chase was also Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary (with responsibilities for financing the Civil War.) Also, the U.S. Mint (as the name suggests) is responsible for minting coins only. As your answer stated, it is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing that has the responsibility for printing bills. Finally, there was a $100,000 note (not for circulation) used for Federal Reserve transactions (http://www.bep.treas.gov/document.cfm/18/118). This note bore the likeness of President Woodrow Wilson.
Further facts:
Everything bigger than $100 is now out of circulation, since about the only people using them were using them for crime.
“Ornate denomination” means just that: the design of the back of the respective bills is “Five Hundred Dollars”, “One Thousand Dollars”, “Five Thousand Dollars”, etc., in fancy lettering.
If you would like to see some pictures, look here:
http://www.currencygallery.org/denoms/10000dollar.htm
The earlier gold certificates featured Andrew Jackson on the $10000 denomination.
(To browse around that site in general go to http://www.currencygallery.org - I lifted that particular page out of a frame, and it’s missing the navigation panel - that’s why the links bring up a new window as well. That site has a lot of information on the history of US currency.)