Paper Money Collecting: Notes, Grading, and Storage

The United States issued its first federal paper currency — the Legal Tender Notes, colloquially called "Greenbacks" — in 1862 under the Legal Tender Act, in denominations from $1 to $1,000, to finance the Civil War without increasing the gold coin supply. The Series 1862 $1 Legal Tender Note featuring Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, is the founding artifact of American paper money collecting, and fine condition examples with sharp printing and no folds carry prices that reflect both historical significance and a survival rate that 160-plus years of folding, circulation, and storage have reduced to a fraction of the original print run. The PMG (Paper Money Guaranty) and PCGS Currency third-party grading systems, launched in the 2000s, gave paper money collecting the authentication infrastructure that made the category accessible to investors alongside traditional collectors.

Paper Money Collecting covers a spectrum from circulated world banknotes purchased for a few dollars to uncirculated examples of rare American National Bank Notes reaching five figures, with the collector's access point determined by specialization rather than budget. The National Bank Note category — currency issued by individual federally chartered banks from 1863 to 1935, with each bank's name and city printed on the note — produces extreme geographic scarcity: notes from small-town Oklahoma banks or rural New Mexico territorial banks may exist in populations of three to five surviving examples, while notes from large urban banks survive in the hundreds. Charter number collecting and state-by-state completeness building are the organizing frameworks most National Bank Note collectors use.

Two practical habits. Handle paper money exclusively by the edges — the oils in fingertip contact leave residue patterns on paper currency that are invisible initially but become the oxidized brown spots called "foxing" over decades, and fingerprint damage on an otherwise uncirculated note drops it below its grade potential permanently. PMG and PCGS graders assess surface contamination as a significant deduction. And learn the series letter and plate position notation before evaluating any American paper money purchase: the face plate and back plate letters and numbers printed in small text on Federal Reserve Notes and earlier US currency identify the production position, and position identification affects variety collecting in ways that general condition assessment alone doesn't capture.

The National-Bank-Note long game

Learn the Paper Money Collecting fundamentals — Legal Tender Note and National Bank Note identification and how the National Bank charter system creates geographic scarcity structures, how PMG and PCGS grading applies to paper currency condition, and which series and denomination combinations have the most limited surviving populations — and keep notes on series, denomination, and grade at purchase.

Find the other paper money collectors

Niches like Paper Money Collecting grow sharper when collectors tracking National Bank charters can compare geographic sourcing leads and condition notes. Amassable lets you log notes with series and grade notes, display the currency collection like a gallery, and meet others building the same state-by-state National Bank Note runs. Early members help shape how this specialty develops.

Your turn

Log the notes, document the series, compare notes with the community. Amassable is built for Paper Money collectors — catalog what you own, track the charter and series gaps, and start conversations about the territorial and small-town National Bank Notes worth pursuing. Download Amassable from the official store links on our homepage, and help bring the paper money community together, one charter number at a time.