>> “I’ve never seen a silver certificate for more than $10.” <<
From 1934 to 1957, all paper money was silver certificates.
Are you sure? That doesn't sound right to me.
Except for Federal Reserve Notes, and U.S. Notes? Silver certificates made up a small percentage of currency issued.
You don't know WTF you're talking about.
The Federal Reserve was created in 1913. You think they gave up printing money for 23 years? In 1934 they stopped issuing notes that were redeemable in GOLD. From 1934 to 1963 Federal Reserve Notes were redeemable in "Lawful Money." Now they aren't redeemable for anything (and thus do not meet the usual legal definition of a note).
The only thing that happened in 1957, as I recall, was that the Fed began issuing one dollar notes (and the Treasury probably stopped issuing silver certificates).
ML/NJ
Nope. There were Federal Reserve Notes and United States Notes in there, too.
In theory, all were redeemable in silver up until 1964, all you had to do was go to the bank and get quarters, halves, or dimes.