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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 1358695, member: 11668&quot;]Generally, the smaller denominations are more widely used, so it makes sense to have a wider variety of them.&nbsp; Remember that, though it was never printed, Congress also authorized a $3 note (but not a $30).</p><p><br /></p><p>Before 1863, when private banks and merchants issued currency, denominations could be practically anything.&nbsp; The $3 denomination wasn&#039;t considered unusual then, and even the $4 was seen with some frequency.&nbsp; Denominations like $30 and $40, while they existed, were much less usual.</p><p><br /></p><p>A bank that issued a lot of $1&#039;s would see a real benefit to printing some $2&#039;s and $3&#039;s, in order to reduce total printing expenses (one $3 can do the work of three $1&#039;s).&nbsp; But few banks would have issued enough $100&#039;s to make $200&#039;s look worthwhile, let alone $300&#039;s (it&#039;s not worth the cost of engraving a printing plate for a $200 to reduce your need for $100&#039;s, if you&#039;re hardly printing any $100&#039;s to begin with).</p><p><br /></p><p>So if you look at obsolete notes, the greatest variety of denominations is always at the low end.&nbsp; Sure, you can find a $30 if you search...but with the same amount of searching you can also find a $1.50 or $1.25 or $2.50 or $6, too.</p><p><br /></p><p>For a more recent example, consider Canada, which for many years went straight from the $100 to the $1000, without even a $500 in between.</p><p><br /></p><p>As to your last question...if there&#039;d been a $200 bill, it would&#039;ve been eliminated (or not) based on how much it was used (or not).&nbsp; The denominations that we got rid of were those that saw very little demand.&nbsp; For example, here are the production figures for the New York FRB in the 1934 series:</p><p><br /></p><p>$5 - 312,704,000</p><p>$10 - 583,288,000</p><p>$20 - 171,320,000</p><p>$50 - 19,248,000</p><p>$100 - 18,364,000</p><p>$500 - 564,000</p><p>$1000 - 507,132</p><p>$5000 - 11,520</p><p>$10000 - 11,520</p><p><br /></p><p>You can see the huge factor-of-thirty drop between the $100 and $500 denominations...so that was a natural place to draw the line between what was worth printing and what wasn&#039;t.&nbsp; (Actually the gap in usage was even wider than these figures indicate, because the listed quantities of $5 through $100 notes met demand from 1934 to 1950, while the listed quantities of $500+ notes were sufficient to last until 1969--over twice as long!)&nbsp; If there&#039;d been a $200, it&#039;s hard to say whether people would&#039;ve used it like a $100 or (barely) used it like a $500; but that&#039;s what would&#039;ve decided whether it was worth continuing to print.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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