Collectors new to currency are usually quite surprised to learn that for much of its history, the U.S. has had different Types of currency circulating side-by-side. In the decades following the Civil War, separate Acts of Congress created separate classes of currency. Each came with their own special characteristics, and some even had limitations on how they could be used as money!

The Greensheet provides prices for the Demand Notes of 1861; the U.S. Notes (Legal Tender Notes) of 1862 through 1923; Compound Interest Treasury Notes of 1863-1864; Interest Bearing Notes of 1861-1865; Refunding Certificates of 1879; large-sized Silver Certificates of 1880-1923; Treasury Notes (Coin Notes) of 1890 1891; the three different issues of National Bank Notes of 1875 through 1902; large-sized Federal Reserve Bank Notes of 1915-1918; Federal Reserve Notes of 1914-1918; National Gold Bank Notes of 1870-1875; and Gold Certificates of 1882-1922.

Before the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) began producing our current size of paper money in 1929, Americans were accustomed to both larger and smaller sized currency. All of the Notes listed above were of larger size than used today. U.S. Fractional Currency, representing denominations of 3¢, 5¢, 10¢, 15¢, 25¢, and 50¢, were much smaller than our current Notes; Fractionals were issued as a result of the coinage shortages during the Civil War, and started as a variant of postage stamps! The Currency Dealer newsletter reports on all the Notes produced during the five different emissions of Fractionals, 1862 through 1876. Fractionals are also avidly collected because they are the only official emissions which have widely-available Proofs (as in Printer's Proofs) and Specimens (Special Printings). The CDN lists prices for the specimens as well as the regular issues.

In the Small-Size series, the Greensheet lists prices for Legal Tender Notes, 1928-1966; Silver Certificates 1928-1953; the R&S Experimental Silver Certificates of 1935; Small-Size U.S. Bank Notes and National Bank Notes of 1929; Federal Reserve Bank Notes of 1929; Federal Reserve Notes of 1928-1950; the World War II Emergency issues for Hawaii and North Africa; and the Gold Certificates of 1928. While uncut currency sheets (of modern Notes) are now easily available from the BEP, full sheets of earlier small-size Notes are rare and valuable. The CDN lists prices for uncirculated sheets of United States Notes (Legal Tender); Silver Certificates; WW II Emergency Issues, and National Currency.

We can't let the topic of collecting paper money pass without mention of the Professional Currency Dealers Association (PCDA). Currency collectors have long recognized the value of doing business with knowledgeable dealers who belong to the industry's trade associations.