50 Dollars

The Free Lakota Bank, operating under the authority of the Lakota Nation's 2008 declaration of independence from the United States, issued this piece as functional private currency explicitly rejecting the Federal Reserve system. The bank, based in South Dakota, argued that the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty — never formally abrogated — granted the Lakota sovereign authority to conduct financial affairs outside U.S. jurisdiction. Whether that legal argument holds water is contested, but the bank operated openly for several years, selling silver rounds as transactional instruments rather than collectibles.

X#2 in the standard reference places it among "fantasy" or non-government issues, though the Lakota would dispute that framing entirely.