Follow Mike Poole's advice - old currency like that is worth more than its face value. Although silver certificates cannot be redeemed for real silver anymore, there is a collectors' premium for those notes and it would be virtually impossible for those to remain in active circulation. They likely came from a collection or an old stash - and in either event the parents should be alerted. If they intended the notes to be spent, they would be better off selling them to a dealer and putting the excess money into Junior's education fund!