Fake Denominations of United States Currency - $3

$3

Although both the colony of Massachusetts and the Thirteen Colonies printed $3 bills, the United States never issued one; however, a $3.00 gold coin was issued by the U.S. from 1854 to 1889.

Legitimate three-dollar bills were also produced by various banks in the early days of the United States and by the Confederacy. Before the creation of the Federal Reserve System, individual banks offered their own currencies.

Various fake $3 bills have been released over time, generally poking fun at politicians or celebrities such as Richard Nixon, Michael Jackson, George W. Bush, both Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama in reference to the idiomatic expression "queer as a three-dollar bill" or "phony as a three-dollar bill". In the 1960s, Mad magazine printed a three-dollar bill that featured a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman and read: "This is not legal tender—nor will tenderizer help it." Mad writer Frank Jacobs said that the magazine ran afoul of the US Secret Service because the $3 bill was accepted by change machines at Las Vegas casinos. In the first decade of the 21st century, gay rights organizations encouraged supporters to print obviously fake $3 bills, called "Queer Dollars", and place the fake bills in Salvation Army donation buckets as a protest against that organization's policy towards gay rights.

Monopoly Junior includes $3 and $4 denominated Monopoly money in addition to $1, $2 and $5 notes. Like the $3 bill, the United States has never issued a $4 note but briefly issued a $4 goloid (an alloy of gold, silver, and copper) coin known as the "stella" in 1879.