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5 Dollars Silver Certificate, Yellow Seal - North Africa
| Issuer | United States Department of the Treasury |
|---|---|
| Year | 1934 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio portrait of Abraham Lincoln at center, with the Treasurer's signature and numeral 5 to the left and the Secretary of the Treasury's signature flanking the circular Treasury Seal to the right. A yellow seal — the distinguishing mark of the North Africa emergency issue — replaces the standard blue seal of regular Silver Certificates. The note title SILVER CERTIFICATE appears in an arch above the portrait within an elaborate guilloche border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is engraved entirely in green, with a central oval vignette of the Lincoln Memorial rendered in fine intaglio detail, its reflecting pool and flanking shrubbery visible below the colonnade. Large numeral 5 counters appear in ornate lathe-work circles at each upper corner, with acanthus scroll ornamentation filling the lateral margins. The denomination legend FIVE DOLLARS runs across the lower portion in bold serif lettering, framed by FIVE in solid rectangular panels at each lower corner. |
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| Comments |
The yellow seal on this note was a deliberate military security measure. When Allied forces landed in North Africa in November 1942, Washington needed a way to limit financial exposure if large quantities of currency fell into Axis hands — a standard blue or green seal note would be indistinguishable from domestic circulation and impossible to demonetize quickly. The yellow seal allowed the Treasury to repudiate the entire series at short notice without affecting stateside currency.
The same logic was applied to the concurrent Hawaii overprint issues in the Pacific theater. Both series were declared legal tender for troops but could be declared worthless by proclamation within hours.