United States gives the $100 bill a makeover The $100 is the largest note in circulation and the second most common after the $1 bill. There are an estimated 8.6 billion "Benjamins" - as the $100 is sometimes referred to - compared to 10.3 billion $1 notes. The United States Secret Service is best known for protecting the president but is also tasked with preventing counterfeiting. America continues to weigh scrapping the penny - the virtually worthless one cent coin - with President Barack Obama suggesting that it had only survived because people had become "attached emotionally" to it.