A Woman's Portrait Will Grace the $10 Bill (2024)

FAQs

How can you tell if a $10 bill is rare? ›

The $10 note includes an embedded security thread that glows orange when illuminated by UV light. When held to light, a portrait watermark of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton is visible from both sides of the note. In addition, the note includes a color-shifting numeral 10 in the lower right corner of the note.

Ten-dollar bill: Alexander Hamilton.

He served in the Revolutionary War as an aide to George Washington and is one of our Founding Fathers. During his time as a statesman, he helped develop guidelines for constitutional interpretation and led the establishment of the first national bank.

Watermark: Hold the note up to the light to see if a faint image of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton appears to the right of his large portrait. It should be visible from both sides of the note.

The 1933 $10 silver certificate bills that have been found in fairly good condition have gone for $5,200 in the past. However, the finest “King of Silver” grades can sell on the buyer's market for up to $70,500.

The 1933-34 $10 Bill

If you analyze these specific $10 bills closely, you'll find a variation in the different seals that makes them stand out. Light green seals (LGS) are typically worth more money than their counterpart of the darker blue-green seals.

There's a Spider on It (or Is That an Owl?)

Grab a magnifying glass, and check out the top right corner of your dollar bill. Just to the left of the top of the “1,” there is what some believe appears to be either a tiny spider or owl in the “webbing” pattern.

The $10 note features a portrait of Secretary Hamilton on the front of the note and a vignette of the United States Treasury Building on the back of the note.

Macdonald and Laurier. As Viola Desmond is featured on the $10 note, and another iconic Canadian will be featured on the future $5 note, Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and our first francophone Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, will be featured on our higher value bank notes.

Why is a $10 bill called a Sawbuck? ›

Why Is a $10 Bill Called a Sawbuck? A sawbuck or sawhorse resembles "X," which is also the Roman numeral for "10." The first $10 bills issued by the U.S. government in the 1860s prominently featured the Roman numeral 10; the huge Xs looked like sawbucks' side. So "sawbuck" became a way to refer to a 10-dollar bill.

Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul will be on the back of the bill, the Treasury Department announced. Alexander Hamilton's image will still appear on the front of the $10 bill.

So, is there a million-dollar bill? No, there is no official million-dollar bill in circulation, nor has one ever been commissioned by the Federal Reserve. While some novelty items or fake bills may feature a picture of a million-dollar bill, they hold no value and cannot be used as legal tender.

Look for small red and blue security fibers embedded in the bill with a magnifying glass. Counterfeit bills might have fibers that are drawn or printed on instead of being part of the paper itself.

President Grover Cleveland is featured on the newer (1928-1934) $1000 notes. He was the United States of America's 22nd president. The historical figures showcased on older currency are President Andrew Jackson on Civil War-era $1,000 bills and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton on the 1918 Federal Reserve note.

If you find a bill higher than $100, you could possess valuable currency. According to the Atlanta Federal Reserve website, notes in the denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 were last printed in 1945 and issued until 1969, making them pretty rare.

Serial Number

A unique combination of eleven numbers and letters appears twice on the front of the note. Each note has a unique serial number. The first letter of the serial number corresponds to the series year. A “star” suffix is used to identify notes that serve as replacements during the production process.

There are a couple of key places on your bill to check out, like the year and seal color. Bills that have red, brown, or blue seals printed between 1862 and 1917 could be worth up to $1,000, per IndyStar. And, the older a bill is, the rarer it's usually considered.