100 Dollars Federal Reserve Note, small portrait

The "small portrait" designation distinguishes these notes from the large-format series that preceded 1928 — the physical reduction was a cost-cutting measure, not a design preference, driven by a Treasury Department study estimating millions in annual savings from smaller paper stock. The change was deeply unpopular with the public, who associated larger notes with institutional authority and had been handling the old format for decades.

The 1928–1934 date range spans the Federal Reserve's most chaotic period: the Crash of 1929, the bank holiday of March 1933, and the subsequent withdrawal of gold-redeemable currency under Executive Order 6102. Notes from this series that predate the gold clause removal were technically illegal to hold in quantity after 1933.