According to a statement issued by the United States Treasury Department, there was in circulation in the United States on January 1, 1916, money of various kinds in the following amounts:

As already stated, gold certificates and silver certificates are, in effect, warehouse receipts, testifying that there has been deposited an equivalent amount of gold and silver, respectively, which will be paid to the bearer on demand. The total amount of gold coin in the United States January 1, 1916, was over two billion dollars, and included gold held in the Treasury as assets of the government, and gold held as a reserve against Federal reserve notes as well as gold for the redemption of gold certificates and gold coin in actual circulation. There were more than five hundred million 1 dollars in silver in the country's stock of money. The largest part of this was held in the Treasury and was represented in the circulating medium of the country by silver certificates. The subsidiary silver coins are the fifty, twenty-five, and ten cent pieces. The Treasury notes of 1890 were issued to pay for silver bullion purchased under the law of 1890. They may be redeemed in either gold or silver at the option of the Secretary of the Treasury. The United States notes, commonly called greenbacks, were originally irredeemable but at the present time they are redeemable in gold and when redeemed may be reissued. In order to redeem the treasury notes of 1890 and the United States notes the Secretary of the Treasury keeps on hand a gold redemption fund which varies from a hundred to a hundred and fifty million dollars. The Federal reserve notes and the Federal reserve bank notes are issued in accordance with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which will be discussed later. On January 1, 1916, there were no Federal reserve bank notes in circulation. The national bank notes have been issued under the earlier national banking laws. They are obligations of the national banks rather than of the government.