gold certificate

American  

noun

1. a former U.S. paper currency issued by the federal government for circulation from 1865 to 1933, equal to and redeemable for gold to a stated value.

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gold certificate British  

noun

1. a currency note issued exclusively to the Federal Reserve Banks by the US Treasury. It forms a claim on gold reserves deposited by the Federal Reserve Banks at the Treasury and is used to transfer interbank balances within the Federal Reserve System

2. Also called: gold note.  (formerly) a banknote issued by the US Treasury to the public and redeemable in gold

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Etymology

Origin of gold certificate

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65

Example Sentences

A detective tapped him for weapons, found a "hot" $20 gold certificate.

From Time Magazine Archive

One at a time, please," says I. "The amount o' the cash transaction was a twenty-dollar gold certificate.

From Gullible's Travels, Etc. by Lardner, Ring

Pennycuick traced Cashel's route from Belt's to near Calgary with Belt's clothes, horse, saddle and the aforesaid $50.00 gold certificate.

From Policing the Plains Being the Real-Life Record of the Famous North-West Mounted Police by MacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)

He paused and withdrew from his pocket a small tin box, and opening it, disclosed a handful of ashes and the half of a United States gold certificate for ten thousand dollars.

From The Challenge of the North by Hendryx, James B. (James Beardsley)

The process in which this and other Federal Reserve Banks have been engaged is the substitution, as a circulating medium, of a note which is elastic in quality for the inelastic gold certificate.

From Readings in Money and Banking Selected and Adapted by Phillips, Chester Arthur