The $5 Bill With Lincoln in a “Porthole”, and the Treasury Secret Hidden for Decades
Few American banknotes command attention as quickly as the 1923 Lincoln Porthole $5 Silver Certificate.
Abraham Lincoln stares from the center of a massive circular frame. Brilliant blue serial numbers and Treasury devices cut across the black engraving. Meanwhile, the sprawling dimensions instantly identify the note as a relic from America’s large-size currency era.
Collectors often call these oversized notes “Horse Blankets.” The nickname fits. Large-size U.S. currency measured roughly 7.4 inches by 3.1 inches. Modern notes measure only 6.14 by 2.61 inches.
Yet size alone does not explain the appeal of the Porthole.
Behind its unforgettable design lies a far stranger story. Treasury officials created the note during an ambitious currency modernization program. Then they almost immediately decided to eliminate its denomination from the Silver Certificate lineup. Millions sat in government vaults. New Yorkers suddenly began seeing them years later. And Serial Number 1 disappeared from numismatic view for nearly a century.
In other words, the Lincoln Porthole represents more than the final large-size $5 Silver Certificate. It captures the moment when one era of American money collided with the next.
Silver Certificates Put Silver Dollars Into Paper Form
The story begins long before 1923.
Congress authorized Silver Certificates through the Bland-Allison Act of February 28, 1878. The law allowed people to deposit silver coin with the Treasury and receive paper certificates in exchange. Initially, the government issued certificates only in denominations of $10 or more. Congress added $1, $2, and $5 Silver Certificates in 1886.
The concept solved a practical problem.
Americans could carry paper instead of bags filled with heavy silver dollars. Meanwhile, the Treasury maintained silver coin to support redemption. Silver Certificates soon became an important part of the American monetary system.
By the early 1920s, however, the nation’s currency system had become complicated. Treasury officials dealt with numerous classes of money, overlapping denominations, and designs that stretched back decades.
Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon wanted something cleaner.
Andrew Mellon Pushes a New Look for American Money
Treasury officials had discussed modernizing and standardizing U.S. currency for years. World War I interrupted earlier efforts. After the war, Treasury officials revived the project.
Mellon pushed it forward.
On September 10, 1923, the Treasury announced its redesigned currency program. Officials wanted simpler layouts and more consistent portraits for each denomination. The new plan assigned George Washington to the $1, Abraham Lincoln to the $5, Andrew Jackson to the $10, Grover Cleveland to the $20, Ulysses S. Grant to the $50, and Benjamin Franklin to the $100.
The Series 1923 $5 Silver Certificate emerged from that program.
However, the date printed on the note tells only part of the story.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing began working with Porthole face plates in early 1924. The Treasury received the first completed notes on August 7, 1924. Serial numbering continued in several runs through March 12, 1926.
In total, the BEP produced 6,316,000 notes, representing $31,580,000 in face value.
Every regular note carries the same signature combination: Harley V. Speelman, Register of the Treasury, and Frank White, Treasurer of the United States. Therefore, collectors need only one Friedberg number, Fr. 282, to represent the regular issue.
That simplicity hides an exceptionally complicated production and distribution history.
Lincoln Takes Center Stage
Abraham Lincoln already held enormous symbolic power by 1923.
Lincoln served as the 16th president and led the United States through the Civil War. John Wilkes Booth shot him at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Lincoln died the following morning.
Americans quickly placed Lincoln’s image on medals, stamps, coins, and currency.
He also appeared on earlier Silver Certificates. The famous Series 1899 $1 “Black Eagle” Silver Certificate carries small portraits of Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant beneath its eagle.
Then, in 1914, Lincoln became the central portrait on the $5 Federal Reserve Note.
The familiar Lincoln portrait has an even deeper history. Engraver Charles Burt based his engraving on an 1864 photograph by Anthony Berger. The government used Burt’s portrait on several large-size notes before carrying it into the small-size $5 denomination.
The 1923 Silver Certificate gave that portrait perhaps its most dramatic setting.
How the Lincoln Porthole Got Its Name
Designers placed Lincoln inside a bold circular frame. The words THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA curve around the portrait.
The result looks unlike almost any other major American note.
Collectors eventually saw a ship’s round window in the design. Thus, the nickname “Lincoln Porthole” took hold.
The face also delivers striking color contrast. A blue Treasury seal appears at left. Blue serial numbers frame the central design. An oversized blue numeral 5 dominates the right side. Meanwhile, dense black engraving fills the remainder of the note.
The reverse changes the visual tone completely. Green ink surrounds the Great Seal of the United States, with its heraldic eagle at center. Intricate geometric engraving fills the surrounding field. The Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection confirms both the Great Seal design and the note’s large physical dimensions.
The book 100 Greatest American Currency Notes by Q. David Bowers and David M. Sundman ranks the Porthole at No. 30.
[IMAGE SPACE – Detail of Lincoln Portrait and Circular “Porthole” Frame]
Did Americans Really Think Lincoln Was Inside a Gun Barrel?
Here the story becomes more complicated.
Numismatic literature has long repeated a dramatic claim. According to that story, some Americans thought the circular frame made Lincoln look as though someone viewed him through the barrel of a gun.
PCGS has repeated that account in its discussion of the issue.
The association certainly adds drama, especially because an assassin killed Lincoln.
However, surviving Treasury correspondence gives us a different documented criticism.
In April 1929, New York resident Thomas Desmond wrote to the Treasury after recently encountering the unusual $5 notes in circulation. He complained that the ornate Roman numeral V in the upper-left portion of the design looked too much like the numeral 1. Treasury official William S. Broughton privately acknowledged that the criticism had merit.
Therefore, collectors should treat the “gun barrel” controversy as established numismatic lore rather than the only documented reason people criticized the note.
The archival story may prove even more interesting.
Why had Desmond only recently noticed a note dated 1923?
The answer explains much of the Porthole’s modern rarity.
Millions of Porthole Notes Never Reached the Public
The Treasury printed 6.316 million Portholes. However, it did not release all of them.
In 1925, Treasury officials created a Currency Board to tackle note shortages, simplify production, and prepare for smaller currency. The board also wanted to reduce duplication among different classes of money.
Then came a decision that effectively doomed the new Porthole.
The Treasury wanted $1 Silver Certificates to absorb much of the available silver-backed circulation. At the same time, officials planned to eliminate $5 Silver Certificates as soon as existing production needs allowed.
That policy trapped millions of freshly printed Portholes inside Treasury storage.
Researcher Lee Lofthus later uncovered Treasury records that reconstructed what happened.
The government released roughly $10 million in face value, or about two million notes, during 1924 and 1925. Then it held most of the remaining inventory.
Years passed.
By 1929, the Treasury still held about $20 million in Porthole certificates.
Then New York developed a shortage of $5 bills.
Suddenly, those forgotten Portholes became useful.
The $5 Bill That Suddenly Appeared in New York in 1929
In early 1929, the Treasury began releasing another large group of Portholes into the New York area.
That explains Desmond’s puzzled letter. He saw “Series of 1923” on the note, yet he had not encountered the design until years later.
Treasury records suggest that roughly another $10 million in face value entered circulation during the 1929 release. Meanwhile, approximately the final $10 million never reached normal circulation.
That means a substantial portion of the entire print run may never have passed through American hands.
The government had created millions of striking new notes, stored them, and then prepared to replace their entire physical format.
Few U.S. currency issues tell a transition story quite like this one.
The Porthole Arrived Just as Large-Size Currency Was Dying
The Lincoln Porthole stood at the end of America’s large-format paper money era.
Treasury officials spent the 1920s looking for ways to simplify production and cut costs. Smaller notes offered an obvious advantage.
The government ultimately reduced U.S. banknote dimensions by about 30%. Large notes measured approximately 7.375 by 3.125 inches. The new format measured 6.14 by 2.61 inches.
The new currency carried the Series 1928 designation. However, the government first released those small-size notes on July 10, 1929.
Therefore, the Porthole became the final large-size $5 Silver Certificate design.
Its timing could hardly have been worse from the Treasury’s perspective. Officials introduced a new large-size design just as they began planning to make large-size currency obsolete.
For collectors, however, that timing created a classic.
Serial Number 1 Vanishes for 95 Years
One Porthole carries an extraordinary story of its own.
Treasury records show that the first serial-numbered Porthole, A1B, reached the Treasurer on August 7, 1924.
Then the note effectively disappeared from the numismatic record.
For decades, collectors knew that many extremely low serial numbers had survived. Yet nobody publicly documented A1B.
That changed at the 2019 American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, Illinois.
There, the Serial Number 1 Porthole surfaced publicly. Researchers connected it directly to the first Treasury delivery from August 7, 1924. The note subsequently appeared in Lyn Knight’s November 7, 2019 currency auction.
The note had remained outside the established census for roughly 95 years.
For a famous federal currency type that collectors had studied for generations, such a discovery borders on astonishing.
How Rare Is the 1923 Lincoln Porthole Today?
No one can state an exact survival total.
PCGS has estimated that perhaps 5,000 examples survive across all grades. Other published estimates run lower. Therefore, collectors should view any precise census figure as an estimate rather than a settled total.
Either way, the number represents only a tiny fraction of the original 6,316,000-note production.
High-grade pieces become substantially more difficult.
In 2020, PCGS highlighted an especially attractive example that earned PCGS 55PPQ. The grade indicates an About Uncirculated note with only light handling, while the PPQ designation recognizes premium paper quality.
Auction activity continues to demonstrate strong demand across the grading spectrum.
For example, a PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ example realized $10,370 in January 2026. A PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ brought $6,710 in May 2026. Meanwhile, a PMG Choice Very Fine 35 example realized $2,928 in June 2026.
Condition, centering, paper originality, serial numbers, star-note status, and eye appeal can all influence value.
1923 Lincoln Porthole $5 Silver Certificate: Quick Facts
- Denomination: $5
- Series: 1923
- Type: Silver Certificate
- Friedberg Number: Fr. 282
- Portrait: Abraham Lincoln
- Portrait engraving: Charles Burt, based on an Anthony Berger photograph
- Signatures: Harley V. Speelman and Frank White
- Treasury devices: Blue seal, blue serial numbers, large blue 5
- Reverse: Great Seal of the United States in green
- Total production: 6,316,000 notes
- Total face value printed: $31,580,000
- First Treasury delivery: August 7, 1924
- Final serial-numbering run: Ended March 12, 1926
- Approximate large-size dimensions: About 7.4 x 3.1 inches
- Collector nickname: Lincoln Porthole
- Ranking: No. 30 in 100 Greatest American Currency Notes
Why the Lincoln Porthole Matters
Great currency often combines artistic design, scarcity, and history.
The 1923 Lincoln Porthole $5 Silver Certificate offers all three.
Its central portrait connects directly to one of America’s most important presidents. Its bold circular frame makes the design instantly identifiable. Its blue overprints give the face exceptional visual energy. Meanwhile, its Great Seal reverse represents the elaborate engraving tradition that defined large-size American currency.
Yet its production story elevates the note further.
The Treasury created it as part of a modernization program. Officials then moved to eliminate the denomination. Millions remained in storage. A shortage brought part of that inventory back into circulation years later. Shortly afterward, the United States abandoned large-size currency altogether.
Then, nearly a century later, Serial Number 1 walked into public view.
That combination explains why the Lincoln Porthole has moved far beyond its original role as a five-dollar certificate redeemable in silver.
Today, it serves as a tangible survivor from the final act of America’s “Horse Blanket” era, and one of the most distinctive pieces of U.S. paper money ever placed into circulation.
