Silver Certificate

Q: After my husband died, I was going through his things and found a dollar “silver certificate” autographed by actress Ingrid Bergman. The bill is from “Series 1935A” and is signed by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. My husband never said anything about the bill’s history. What is it worth and how I can sell it?

A: Silver certificates were issued from 1878 to 1964 and could be redeemed for silver dollars or silver bullion. After a certificate was redeemed, it was destroyed and not re-circulated. Early silver certificates were larger than today’s dollar bill and are worth more than face value. Small certificates like those in your series were first issued in 1928. The government stopped redeeming the certificates for silver in June 1968, but the certificates can still be used as “legal tender” at face value. Your certificate without Ingrid Berman’s autograph would be worth just $1, but her autograph on a 3-by-5-inch card sold at auction for $100 last year. So your certificate is probably worth about that much if the autograph is genuine.