Greetings:

My educated guess is that what Dave held was a $10,000 Federal Reserve Note. The bank is in a funny position. According to the Treasury Department order of 1969, the bank can only return that note to the Federal Reserve or to the Treasury, and it cannot pay it out to a bank customer. On the other hand, the numismatic value is considerably more than $10,000. So the note stays put for now. Maybe one day the Treasury will lift the surrender rule, as it eventually did for gold coins and Gold Certificates.

The $100,000 Gold Certificates were only used to settle accounts among Federal Reserve Banks and the U.S. Treasury. A private bank would not likely have one in its vault.

--- Steve