1928 $10 Gold Certificate, Signatures Woods/Mellon Grades f+. Alexander Hamilton is the central subject of this scarce $10 gold note, issued because of a change in the size of United States currency beginning with all series dated 1928. This change in the size of America’s currency came about from a study that had determined that printing smaller currency would save the government a hefty amount of money in production cost. Because of the nature of gold certificates – each one accompanied the deposit of gold coins – they are somewhat scarce to begin with, as gold is far more scarce than silver. Add to that the decision to drop the gold standard by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, thus making owning gold coin (or notes promising gold coin) illegal, and you end up with a series of notes that was printed, then recalled less than six years after their initial issue. Many of the notes were destroyed when turned in, and few of them survived. Fortunately for collectors, the restriction for owning gold certificates as collectibles was repealed by Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon in 1964, but the damage had been done to the stockpiles of said notes. Not many remain of the millions that had originally been issued prior to the depression.