Value of Old One Hundred Dollar Bills? | Price Guide - Old Money Prices (2024)

Before we begin, it’s important to have a basic understanding of the factors which determine the value of your $100 bill. To get the most money for your vintage one hundred dollar bill, if you’re like me, you’ll want to educate yourself a little bit before. If you don’t want to spend the time, you can always send us a picture of your bill and we’ll give you an exact value.

On top of that, I’m a huge history nerd… I completely nerd-out when it comes to the history behind old paper money. I truly love what I do.

If you’ve seen the hit television show on the History Channel,Pawn Stars, then you may have seen an old fifty dollar bill like these before. We’ve been fortunate enough to work closely with this popular shop’s currency department for years now, buying and selling collectible paper money with them.

This guide doesn’t show every single $100 bill ever issued, simply because there are some exotic fifty dollar bills that don’t exist in public hands.

If you’re unsure what you have, feel free to contact us, we’re happy to tell you what you have.

The First United States $100 Bill

The first $100 bill ever printed was on August 8th, 1778, during the Colonial Period. These don’t look like your typical Federal Reserve notes you will see today, with the green seal and nice black engraved ink. This was during the midst of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) so you can only imagine what stressors were being dealt with whilst printing paper money.

After colonial and continental currency came the Confederacy and their paper money bills. The first confederate $100 bill was printed by the U.S. in 1861 issued in Richmond, Virginia.

Interestingly enough, the Confederate States of America printed much higher denomination paper money before the $100 bill, in 1861.

After the Civil War, many people destroyed Confederate Currency because it essentially had no value. However, some people saved them, which is why they’re so scarce today. Old one hundred dollar Confederate notes are relatively easy to obtain, especially in poor quality.

If you have something similar to what’s pictured above,your bill may be fake. Counterfeiters during the Confederacy were a dime-a-dozen. The ability to fake one of these bills was easy. A lot of what we see today is modern replica money.

Fake notes look pretty obviously fake, but we’ll get more into spotting fakes a bit later in this post.If you’re uncertain, contact us and we’ll tell you if your old $100 bill is real or fake.

The transition from Confederacy into the more organized U.S. Treasury system you can see security features were put into place to deter the low barrier of entry into counterfeiting.

The Federal Reserve printing period, which began in 1861, Congress authorized the issuance of $100 bills. There were two types of bills printed close to 1861 which were the $100 national bank notes, printed and delivered to individual national banks around the U.S. and also .

The “original” series $100 national bank notes are quite unique and values can range dramatically depending upon which bank issued them.

If you want to find more information about national bank notes, see this informative page where we list over 13,000 banks across the United States.

In some instances, we’ve paid over $95,000 for an old $100 bill like the one pictured above. It really comes down to a number of factors like condition, serial number, type, and place of issue. Feel free to reach out to us if you are interested in selling your old currency.

During this same time period, $100 legal tender bills were also printed. These bills are the closest to confederate notes as you’ll ever see.

The paper is thin, the security features are limited (see the red seal and green ink in the picture above to see what I’m talking about).

But this was a huge step in the right direction to deter counterfeiting and make it that much harder to accomplish.

Legal tender $100 bills from 1869, also known as Rainbow Notes, are some of my favorite bills to collect from the series, simply because they’re so attractive.

The Federal Reserve focused heavily on increasing its security features by adding multiple colors and also adding fibers and partially blue paper.

The reason these rainbow notes are so popular is simply due to their stunning color. The red, blue, and green are usually vibrant and make for an exceptional conversation piece.

These one-hundred dollar legal tender rainbow notes generally cost between $5,000 for decent condition and better condition for around $9,500. We’ve paid over $25,000 for especially high-grade examples of this note.

If you have a legal tender note and want a full price guide, check out this page we wrote for a more in-depth look.

The image above is a real Large Size antique $100 Silver Certificate bill. Between 1869 and 1880 there are multiple different types of $100 bills. Below I will list every type, but in this brief history breakdown, I decided to skip them for now.

As you can see above the $100 1880 dollar bill has a large brown seal at the center. A very similar design was printed in 1878, but 1880 was the final year you will see this silver certificate design type.

Next came the 1891 $100 Treasury “Farragut” Note. This bill only comes with a small red seal.Treasury notes were only printed in 1890 and 1891, but the fifty was only printed in 1891.

Almost all large size currency bills from the 1800s have taken on a nickname in the collector community.

The 1891 Treasury notes have simply been nicknamed “Farragut” notes due to the person on the bill. David G. Farragut,flag officer of the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War, is on all $100 treasury notes.

One hundred dollar silver certificates from 1891 are very popular among collectors. Virtually no fake $100 1891 notes exist, so the likelihood of you having a real bill is high. We would love to see what you have, please contact us by email or phone today.

The value of 1891 fifty dollar silver certificates is based solely upon condition. These bills are often worth $4,500. However, we have paid over $15,000 for higher-grade examples. The 1891 $100 has a large value spread determined by its condition.

Here’s a quick tip: silvercertificates were once legal tender, meaning you could bring them to the bank and get silver in equal value. Fifty dollar notes, in better condition, have collector value and bring much more than their face value.

Old bills with unique serial numbers will bring a higher premium in the marketplace. Serial number 1 notes almost always cost more money to buy.

If you want to learn more about rare serial numbers, check out this page we wrote all fancy unique serial numbers.

If you don’t see your bill pictured above, make sure to scroll through to see the rest of the fifty dollar bills printed by the United States.