The Treasury Department printed 756,096,000 $50 bills last year, a record figure in more than four decades that totals $37.800 billion, according to CNN, which explains that it was not due to inflation forcing people to pay with higher-value bills but to a custom that began to spread during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The $50 bill (which features the effigy of Ulysses S. Grant, the country's eighteenth president in the late 12th century) has an average life of about 100 years before it has to be replaced due to wear and tear, the longest after the $23 bill (almost 1 years) and twice that of the $<> bill.
$50 bill. US Currency Education Program
[Do you have a $2 bill in your possession? If you sell it, you may get paid thousands of dollars.]
The total $50 bills in circulation totaled $124.200 billion in 2022, 5.4% of the $2.26 trillion in circulation in bills (the majority, $1.8 trillion, in $100 bills) in 2022. In total that year there were 2.5 trillion $50 bills in circulation, 5% of the total banknotes in circulation.
With the exception of the two-dollar bill (there are 1.5 trillion in circulation), it is the most difficult to find, and even carries with it a certain superstition that it causes bad luck (for example, among gamblers in Las Vegas). The coronavirus pandemic further complicated that situation: in 2021, the Federal Reserve already warned that it was suffering from "unprecedented demand for notes and coins," explaining that, since 2020, people in the United States began to carry more cash in their wallets and cars.
In 2021 and 2022, the Treasury Department printed more $50 bills than $10 or $5, CNN notes, despite its alleged unpopularity, which appears to stem from the fact that Ulysses S. Grant walked into his Wall Street office one day as a wealthy man and emerged in the afternoon broke and broke. The $50 bill has been around since 1862, and Grant's effigy was only added in 1914, but it carries a cursed legend to the point that a congressman tried in 2010 (unsuccessfully) to replace him with former President Ronald Reagan.
[Why don't we use $1,000 bills anymore?]
In any case, the $50 bill is not at risk of disappearing, and although it is not likely that it will ever be worth more than its face value, there are some that can reach higher figures if they are in good condition.