50 State Dollars - Robert Cavelier De La Salle Louisiana

This note is part of a privately produced novelty series — not legal tender, not issued by the Federal Reserve or any government authority. The "50 State Dollars" line was a commercial product, sold as collectibles and occasionally as gift items, trading on the visual language of official currency without the backing of any monetary institution. Robert Cavelier de La Salle, the 17th-century French explorer who claimed the Mississippi River basin for France and named it Louisiana after Louis XIV, is an appropriate enough honoree for the state theme.

Polymer substrate on a piece with no monetary function is an odd material choice — it adds durability to something that was never meant to circulate.