1899 $5 Oncpapa Silver Certificate BEP Replica

Official Government Replica of First and Only Native American Note!

Only one paper currency issue in our nation’s history has used a Native American as its central motif: the 1899 $5 Oncpapa Silver Certificate. Featuring a powerful engraving of “Ta-to-ka-in-yan-ka,” also known as Running Antelope, Chief of the Oncpapa (Hunkpapa) Lakota Sioux, the note is one of the most popular American currency notes ever issued.

The note and its remarkable design received a boost from the government when it played a significant role in the U.S. Mint’s 2001 Buffalo Silver Dollar commemorative program. In addition to striking a one-year-only silver dollar, the Mint had the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) produce a limited edition of just 50,000 replicas of the famous 1899 $5 Oncpapa Silver Certificate using high-quality cotton paper. Though not legal tender, these replicas feature the exact same eye-catching design that made the original notes so coveted.

When the original note was first issued in 1899 it caused some ill will among the tribes of the Great Plains because it depicted Running Antelope as a chief wearing a Pawnee headdress. An authentic Lakota headdress was too large to fit on the so the engravers at the Bureau of Engraving used a Pawnee headdress not realizing that the Lakota and Pawnee were mortal enemies! Running Antelope was also a close advisor to the great Sitting Bull and one of four principal “shirt wearers” or chiefs during the Plains Indians Wars. He eventually had a falling out with Sitting Bull because Running Antelope believed that compromise with the whites was in his people’s best interests.

Bring this historic replica – one with the U.S. government’s stamp of approval – home to your collection for thousands less than what one of the sought-after original 1899 notes would cost!