How to frame paper money and your first dollar bill

People order a currency frame like the bill is a photo. It is not. A bill is a small, thin, oddly shaped piece of paper that will outlive you if you leave it alone. Most of the damage we see was done by the owner, not by time. Someone wanted it flat and reached for tape.

Every US bill is the same size

A modern US note is 6.14 inches wide and 2.61 inches tall. A one, a five, a fifty, a hundred. All the same. Most people do not believe this until they stack two bills and look.

This makes your life easy. A mat opening cut for a first dollar fits a hundred later. If you frame a bill today and swap it in ten years, the frame still works.

Old bills are much bigger

US notes printed before 1929 run about 7.375 by 3.125 inches. That is a large jump. People inherit a silver certificate from a grandparent and order a modern currency frame. The bill will not fit.

Measure the actual bill before you order anything. Do not trust the year alone. Use a ruler and write the number down.

The first dollar deserves room

The classic shop first dollar is one bill in a small mat. We see a lot of tight mats, and they look cheap. The bill ends up looking like a receipt someone pinned to a wall.

Give it room. We like an 8x10 or an 11x14 outer size with a small opening for the bill. All that empty mat does the work. It reads as important because you gave it space.

An 11x14 with a single bill opening looks like a museum label. An 8x10 is the smaller version of the same idea. Both beat a 5x7 with the bill crammed in.

Show both sides

A bill has two good sides. Framing one and hiding the other is a waste. Two layouts fix this.

• A double-sided frame, so you can flip it or hang it where both faces show.
• A double opening mat, with two bills side by side, one face up and one face down.

The two bill version is our favorite for a first dollar wall. Use the actual first dollar for the front. Use any bill for the back view. Nobody will know, and the display finally makes sense.

Never glue, tape, or laminate

This is the one rule we will not soften. Tape ruins a bill. Glue ruins a bill. Lamination ruins a bill permanently and there is no undo.

A crisp uncirculated note can be worth many times face value. Tape it down and it is worth a dollar. We have seen a 1935 silver certificate turned into a dollar by a strip of Scotch tape.

Hold the bill with photo corners instead. Or let the mat hold it by the edges, which is what our mats do. The mat opening sits slightly smaller than the bill, so the bill rests behind it and cannot slide out. Nothing touches the face.

Do not trim the bill

Ever. Not a corner. Not an edge. Not a sixteenth of an inch to make it fit.

We cut mats to order, so the mat moves to fit the bill. The bill never moves to fit the mat. If your opening is wrong, we cut a new mat. That is cheaper than the bill you just destroyed.

UV acrylic is worth the money

Bill paper yellows and bill ink fades. The green goes first and it goes faster than people expect. A bright note in a sunny hallway will look tired in five years.

UV acrylic blocks most of what causes that. It is the cheapest insurance on the whole frame. Our currency frames ship with UV acrylic already, so that part is handled for you.

Uncut sheets are a different animal

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing sells uncut currency sheets, and people frame them. They are not bill sized at all.

A 4-subject sheet runs roughly 7.25 by 8.5 inches. That fits a normal frame with a mat. A 32-subject sheet is around 22 by 25.5 inches. That is a wall piece and it needs a real frame with real moulding behind it.

Measure your sheet. Sheet sizes vary by series and denomination. The number on the box is not always the number on the paper.

The legal part, briefly

You can own US currency. You can display it. You can hang it in your shop window. That is settled and boring.

Our reason for saying do not glue it and do not cut it has nothing to do with the law. It is about value. A bill you cut is a bill you cannot sell.

What we build most often

The order we cut most weeks is an 11x14 solid pine frame, a single mat, one bill opening, UV acrylic. Simple. It goes above a register or behind a desk and it looks right for twenty years.

The second most common is the two bill layout in the same 11x14. Front and back, side by side, one mat, two openings. We cut both openings to order so the spacing looks deliberate instead of accidental.

Questions we hear a lot

My first dollar is folded and creased. Should I flatten it?

Leave it alone. Do not iron it, do not press it under books, do not dampen it. The creases are part of the story and the flattening is where damage happens. Frame it as it is and let the mat hold the edges.

Can I frame a bill with a photo or a business card?

Yes, and it is a good idea. A first dollar next to a photo of opening day beats a first dollar alone. We cut a mat with an opening for each item, sized to whatever you actually have. Send us the measurements and we cut to those.

Will the mat opening hide part of my bill?

A little, and it has to. The opening runs slightly smaller than the bill so the edges have something to rest behind. Figure about an eighth of an inch on each side. Nothing important lives that close to the border on a US note.