silver certificate

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A bill formerly issued as legal tender by the US government in representation of deposited silver bullion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• A certificate issued by a government that there has been deposited with it silver to a specified amount, payable to the bearer on demand. In the United States and its possessions, it is issued against the deposit of silver coin, and is not legal tender, but is receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues. In the United States the redeemability in silver of silver certificates was discontinued in the 1970's; they are still (1997) accepted as money at the face dollar value, but cannot be redeemed in silver.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun formerly a bank note issued by the United States Treasury and redeemable in silver