Portraits Removed from US Currency: Chase, Stanton, and the Figures No Longer on American Notes

Most collectors can recite the current portrait lineup without hesitation: Washington on the $1, Lincoln on the $5, Hamilton on the $10. But the roster of faces on American paper money has shifted more than once over the past 160 years, and some of the names that once appeared are all but forgotten today. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase placed his own portrait on Legal Tender Notes, Edwin M. Stanton appeared on Fractional Currency during the Civil War era, and explorer William Clark, along with a handful of other now-obscure figures, briefly held a place in American monetary iconography before being quietly retired. These displaced portraits are not just curiosities; they are some of the most collectible and historically rich pieces in all of American numismatics.

Salmon P. Chase: The Man Who Put Himself on Money

No story in American currency portraiture is more audacious than that of Salmon Portland Chase. As Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln from 1861 to 1864, Chase was the architect of the modern American monetary system. He shepherded the Legal Tender Act of 1862 through Congress, established the National Banking system, and oversaw the issuance of the first standardized federal paper currency. He also, quite deliberately, arranged for his own portrait to appear on the notes he authorized.

Chase’s likeness first appeared on the $1 Legal Tender Note of 1862 (Friedberg numbers FR-16 through FR-17c, depending on signature combination and series). These notes, often called “Greenbacks” alongside the broader Legal Tender series, carried the Chittenden-Spinner or Colby-Spinner signature pairs on most circulated examples. The obverse featured Chase’s stern, heavy-jowled portrait engraved by the American Bank Note Company from a photograph, with a red Treasury seal to the right. In circulated grades of Very Fine (VF-30 to VF-35), collector values for the FR-16 and FR-16a varieties run approximately $350 to $750 depending on eye appeal and signature combination. Uncirculated examples, which are genuinely scarce for any 1862 Legal Tender note, can exceed $2,500.

Chase was not finished. Later, long after he had left the Treasury to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, his portrait appeared on the $10,000 Federal Reserve Note of 1918 (FR-1172 to FR-1173). These are among the most storied notes in American numismatics. Printed for interbank settlement rather than everyday commerce, the Series 1918 $10,000 notes are printed in an orange-green color scheme on the reverse, depicting the phrase “TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS” in large script. The obverse carries Chase’s portrait framed in an elaborate engraved border. Fewer than a dozen examples are known to still exist in private and institutional hands, making the $10,000 Chase note one of the great trophy pieces of American paper money collecting. A VF-20 example sold at Heritage Auctions in 2014 for $384,000, and subsequent offerings have occasionally exceeded that figure at major auction houses.

The Act of 1866: Congress Shuts the Door

Chase’s self-portrait gambit did not go unnoticed by Congress. The backlash was swift enough that legislators passed the Act of April 7, 1866, which expressly prohibited the portrait of any living person from appearing on United States currency or government securities. The law has remained in effect, with only occasional legislative attempts to carve out exceptions, none of which have succeeded. This is precisely why modern proposals to place figures like Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill have proceeded without any legal obstacle, since Tubman is deceased, but also why no sitting president or current officeholder can appear on a circulating note.

The 1866 Act created an interesting gray area for notes already in circulation and for future commemorative or high-denomination issues. Chase himself was deceased by the time the $10,000 Federal Reserve Note series entered production in 1918, which legally cleared the way for his return to American paper money. Similarly, portraits of historical figures who had recently died required some degree of institutional approval before appearing on notes, a process that became more formalized over the twentieth century under Treasury Department guidelines.

Edwin M. Stanton and the Fractional Currency Portraits

Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin McMasters Stanton, occupies an equally fascinating but far less discussed chapter in currency portrait history. Stanton appears on the 50-cent Fractional Currency of the Fifth Issue, specifically on FR-1381 notes bearing his stern, bearded image. More notably for collectors, the Fifth Issue of Fractional Currency (issued between February 1874 and February 1876) included the 15-cent denomination, which is where portrait selection became politically complex.

The Fifth Issue 15-cent Fractional Currency notes (FR-1267 through FR-1274) are particularly interesting because they were a two-note series. The 10-cent note carried the portrait of William M. Meredith, while the 15-cent denomination used the portrait of General William T. Sherman (FR-1267 through FR-1271 for perforated and unperforated varieties) on some notes and Francis E. Spinner, the long-serving Treasurer of the United States, on others. Stanton’s specific portrait note is the 50-cent Fifth Issue (FR-1381), depicting him with his characteristic full beard in the central oval vignette.

Stanton died in December 1869, so his portrait on Fifth Issue notes issued from 1874 onward did not violate the 1866 living-persons prohibition. Nevertheless, his inclusion is historically poignant. He had been Lincoln’s wartime Secretary of War, and his presence on Fractional Currency links the small-change economics of Reconstruction America to the dramatic personalities of the Civil War cabinet.

Spencer Clark and the Self-Portrait Scandal That Changed Everything

The legislative action of 1866 was not triggered solely by Chase’s presumption. The more immediate and embarrassing catalyst was Spencer M. Clark, head of the National Currency Bureau (the predecessor to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing). Clark made the remarkable decision to place his own portrait on the 5-cent First Issue Fractional Currency note of 1863 (FR-1230 through FR-1232). When Congress discovered this self-serving placement, the reaction was immediate outrage. Representative M. Russell Thayer of Pennsylvania delivered a floor speech denouncing the practice, and the resulting legislation passed with little opposition.

Clark’s 5-cent notes are consequently among the most historically significant pieces of Fractional Currency from a legislative standpoint. They are not especially rare in absolute terms since hundreds of thousands were printed, but examples in VF-25 or better with crisp paper and unfaded ink can retail for $75 to $175 at current market prices. Uncirculated examples graded 64 or 65 EPQ by PMG have sold at auction for $250 to $450. The irony that Clark’s act of vanity directly produced one of the most enduring restrictions in American monetary law makes these small notes genuinely fascinating conversation pieces.

Other Displaced and Forgotten Portraits

Beyond Chase, Stanton, and Clark, several other portraits have cycled off American paper money over the decades. The original $5 Silver Certificate of 1886 (FR-259 through FR-265) carried the portrait of Ulysses S. Grant on the obverse, before Lincoln was standardized on the $5 denomination. The 1890 and 1891 Treasury Notes, sometimes called “Coin Notes” or “Stanton Notes” by collectors, featured portraits on denominations now retired entirely: Civil War General Philip H. Sheridan appeared on the $5 Treasury Note of 1890 (FR-361), and General George H. Thomas appeared on the $5 Treasury Note of 1891 (FR-363 and FR-364).

The large-denomination Federal Reserve Notes of 1918 featured a gallery of portraits now entirely removed from circulation: Grover Cleveland on the $20 (FR-996 to FR-999), Andrew Jackson on the $10 (FR-989 to FR-995), and Chief Justice John Marshall on the $50 (FR-1023 to FR-1026). The 1928 and later small-size series largely standardized the portrait lineup we recognize today, though even that lineup shifted slightly through the mid-twentieth century as design revisions were implemented on individual denominations.

Why These Portraits Were Retired

The reasons for portrait replacement fall into several broad categories. First, legal prohibition removed living persons after 1866. Second, denomination consolidation eliminated many portrait subjects when entire denominations were discontinued: the $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 notes were last printed in 1945 and officially discontinued in 1969, taking McKinley, Cleveland, Madison, and Chase with them from active monetary use. Third, periodic redesign campaigns, particularly the major overhauls of 1928 (large to small size), 1996 to 2006 (security feature redesigns), and ongoing anti-counterfeiting updates, replaced earlier portrait engravings with updated versions or entirely different compositions. Finally, political and social pressure has occasionally forced or prompted portrait reconsideration, as with the ongoing Tubman $20 redesign process initiated under the Obama administration and continuing into subsequent administrations.

The Legacy of Displaced Portraits for Today’s Collector

Collecting displaced portrait notes rewards patience and a willingness to study history alongside numismatics. Notes bearing Chase, Stanton, Sheridan, and Thomas are not simply old pieces of paper: they are material evidence of how nineteenth-century Americans thought about institutional authority, political symbolism, and the meaning of government-issued money. The Act of 1866, still law today, emerged directly from the self-aggrandizing choices of Chase and Clark, and its effects touch every piece of American currency issued in the past 158 years.

For new collectors, the most accessible entry points are the Fifth Issue Fractional Currency notes and the First Issue Clark 5-cent notes, both available in circulated grades for modest sums. Intermediate collectors can pursue the 1862 Legal Tender series or the 1890-1891 Treasury Notes in Fine to Very Fine grades. Advanced collectors with significant budgets should consider the 1918 Federal Reserve Note series in the higher denominations, where even raw, lightly circulated examples represent genuine numismatic trophies. Whatever the budget level, every displaced portrait note carries a story that the current standardized portrait lineup simply cannot offer.