These uber-notes of Gold Certificate have long been removed from circulation.

For their artistic, historical and aesthetic attributes, I present the major players;

From Wikipedia comes this regarding the Gold Certificate denominations and who was featured on them;

• The $500 bill featured a portrait of William McKinley
• The $1,000 bill featured a portrait of Grover Cleveland
• The $5,000 bill featured a portrait of James Madison
• The $10,000 bill featured a portrait of Salmon P. Chase
• The $100,000 bill featured a portrait of Woodrow Wilson

None of these are considered legal tender anymore. In fact until 1964 it was not legal for private individuals to even own Gold Certificates. This mandate was rescinded in that year to allow collectors and private individuals to possess them and the issue became converted to the standard “legal tender” with no actual connection to an amount or value of gold. “Payable in Gold” no longer applies.

William McKinley $500.00 Note, Obverse

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William McKinley $500.00 Note, Reverse

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William McKinley Jr., (Jan. 29th, 1843 – Sept 14th, 1901) Republican. Twenty-fifth President of the United States and last veteran of the American Civil War to hold this office.

Grover Cleveland $1000.00 Note, Obverse

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Grover Cleveland $1000.00 Note, Reverse

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S. Grover Cleveland (Mar. 18th, 1837 – June 24th, 1908) Democrat. This amazing man held the office twice, non-consecutively, as the twenty-second and the twenty-fourth U.S. President. He is therefore counted twice in the Presidential numbering schema.

James Madison $5000.00 Note, Obverse

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James Madison $5000.00 Note, Reverse

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James Madison Jr. (Mar. 16th, 1751 – June 28th, 1836) Fourth President of the United States. Madison is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was also principle author of the Constitution and sometimes referred to as “Father of the Constitution” as well. His wife, Dolley Madison, defined the role of “The First Lady.” In the United States, this role is ascribed to the wife of the elected official.It was Zachary Taylor at the funeral of Dolley Madison whom described her with the term “First Lady” while reciting the eulogy that he had written himself for her service.

Salmon P. Chase $10,000.00 Note, Obverse

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Salmon P. Chase $10,000.00 Note, Reverse

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Salmon P. Chase (Jan. 13th, 1808 – May 7th, 1873) American politician, jurist in the Civil War era and U.S. Senator, he also held the office of Governor of the state of Ohio. Under President Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Chase also held the title of U.S. Treasury Secretary, and was a Chief Justice of the United States.It was due to the money crunch created by the Civil War that Chase, with reluctance, implemented the first printing of money on paper, legal tender, in the United States. His likeness was briefly used on the one-dollar denomination, but after the war and in his position of Chief Justice of the United States, declared paper money to be unconstitutional.

Salmon P. Chase is only one of two people featured on paper legal tender notes whom did not hold the office of the President of the United States, with Benjamin Franklin being the other notable individual.

Woodrow Wilson $100,000.00 Note, Obverse

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 Woodrow Wilson $100,000.00 Note, Reverse

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Thomas Woodrow Wilson (Dec. 28th, 1856 – Feb.3rd, 1924) Twenty-eighth President of the United States. Democrat. Re-elected by a narrow margin in 1916, in his second term he again tried to maintain neutrality in the First World War. It wasn’t until after unprovoked German submarine attacks upon non-combatant sea vessels that he asked Congress to declare war upon Germany, bringing the United States into the First World War.  Another notable event in the tenure of this Presidency was his enactment of the first effective military draft, in 1917.

  It may be just an apocryphal account, but we were told in U.S History class in school and I recall watching a television program once that also touted this as fact also, that President Wilson upon signing the order to send men into war against Germany, placed his head upon the Presidential desk, and cried.

Close-up View of Gold Certificate

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Woodrow Wilson rates as one of my favorite Presidential subjects, and this Gold Certificate bearing the highest denomination of legal tender ever minted by the United States seems to agree. For their art and of this note’s reverse use of such an unusual orange color, I am duly impressed.

For the men depicted upon these notes and their service and contribution to the nation of my birth, I am grateful.

Today, January 20th, 2008, our new President, Barrack Obama, takes office. He is to be our forty-fourth leader of the United States and to continue this respectable lineage of Presidential leaders. Let us remember those whom have sat in that Presidential office before him, reflect upon their achievements, the   their time, and of their greatness. We need to believe that hope has finally arrived. Now more than ever, we need a leader in this office as worthy of the ones whom came before such as those chosen and depicted here.