5 Dollars United States Note, Red Seal right, with motto

By 1963, United States Notes were functionally obsolete — Federal Reserve Notes had long since dominated commerce — but a federal statute required the Treasury to maintain at least $300 million in U.S. Notes in circulation, a Depression-era obligation that nobody had bothered to repeal. These were printed to satisfy that legal floor, not any economic need. The 1963 series was among the last; President Kennedy briefly considered expanding U.S. Note issuance as an alternative to Fed-issued currency, though nothing came of it.

The addition of "IN GOD WE TRUST" to this series was the first appearance of the motto on U.S. paper currency, mandated by Congress in 1955 but not implemented on small-size notes until this issue.