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During the Civil War, silver and gold coins were in short supply. They were often hoarded by the public and thus removed from circulation. In order to facilitate commerce, the U.S. Government started printing small format notes, known as fractional currency, in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents from 1862 to 1875.

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A portrait of George Washington and a vignette entitled Columbus' Discovery of Land are on the front of this note. The highly ornate back features the famous "sawhorse" design. The X apparently called to mind the crossed wooden support of the sawhorse, on which logs were cut.

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This note is not in my collection. Scans courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries

The front features the portrait of Civil War-era General George Gordon Meade who commanded Union Army troops at the Battle of Gettysburg. The three ornate zeros in the back look like watermelons, thus given the note it's nickname "Grand Watermelon".

This note was sold in December 2006 by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas for $2,255,000, a world's record price paid for a United States bank note.

"The only other known red seal Grand Watermelon is in the museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco," said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage. This note is at the top of the list in the recently-published reference book, The 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, by Q. David Bowers and David Sundman.

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The One Dollar Note of 1896, better known as the "Educational" was designed by Will H. Low and engraved by Charles Schlecht.

It shows an allegorical history instructing the youth of America ( pointing at the Constitution ) with the Washington Monument and Capitol building in the background, engraved in black with a red seal. The names of great Americans appear in wreath decorating the outer edge of the notes including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William T. Sherman, James Fennimore Cooper, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Fulton, John C. Calhoun, Washington Irving, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Oliver H. Perry, John Marshall, Daniel Webster, Samuel Morse, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Bancroft, Ulysses S. Grant, David G. Farragut, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Signed by the Register of the Treasury & the Treasurer of the United States. The reverse of this silver certificate depicts Martha & George Washington.

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