The first type of paper money to become popular was actually not “dollar bills”. It was fractional notes hence worth only a fraction of a dollar. They were worth between $0.03 to $0.50 and were miniature bills being 2 to 3 times smaller than dollar bills. They started in 1862 because people started to hoard all silver coins in circulation and the Civil War was puting the country in debt so printing money seemed like an obvious answer. The pieces of paper were printed in a high quantity.
Counterfeiting was easy at the beginning because there were few anti-counterfeiting features on the 1882 notes. Later notes had rings around the portrait that were hard to reproduce. Today the bills are common items to find at coin shops but they are normally beat up. A perfect note similar this would sell for about $100 and a beat up note would be about $5.
Most notes only had one portrait on them but a few, such as this one, have a whole line of them. This version was best used to show how many postage stamps to get at a post office.
All pictures of these notes are not mine because my notes don't have many details left. All imiges credit goes to http://www.antiquemoney.com/fractional-currency-value-and-price-guide/
Very interesting post, enjoyed it very much.
Thank you