What is a 1 dollar silver certificate?

Answer 1

Silver certificates were bills backed 1-for-1 by silver metal on deposit in the US Treasury. They could only be printed in quantities equal to the total amount of silver in the vaults, which put a significant limit on the ability of the Treasury to adjust the money supply.

Silver certificates were possible only because the government controlled the price of silver and held it fixed for decades at the now ridiculously low level of $1.29 per ounce. But in the 1960s the demand for silver skyrocketed and the Treasury was forced to deregulate its price and sell off its stocks. The 1-1 backing of bills with metal was suspended because otherwise people could "game" price swings and make a profit by trading bills back and forth for silver bullion. In 1963 new $1 Federal Reserve Notes started to replace silver certificates, and by 1968 the government stopped exchanging silver certificates for bullion.