Gold certificate
![A $10,000 1934 gold certificate depicting Salmon P. Chase. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.](/Images/godic/202501/15/US-$10000-GC-1934-Fr.24120127.jpg")
![$100 Gold Certificate, Series 1865, Fr.1166c, with a vignette of an eagle and shield (left) and justice (bottom center).](/Images/godic/202501/15/US-$100-GC-1863-FR-1166c0127.jpg")
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A gold certificate in general is a certificate of ownership that gold owners hold instead of storing the actual gold. It has both a historic meaning as a U.S. paper currency (1863–1933) and a current meaning as a way to invest in gold.
Banks may issue gold certificates for gold that is allocated (non-fungible) or unallocated (fungible or pooled). Unallocated gold certificates are a form of fractional-reserve banking and do not guarantee an equal exchange for metal in the event of a run on the issuing bank's gold on deposit. Allocated gold certificates should be correlated with specific numbered bars, although it is difficult to determine whether a bank is improperly allocating a single bar to more than one party.