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At an ATM in Acapulco last summer a guy tried to get me to exchange a 10,000 peso note for US$500 or 5,000 pesos. The trouble was the 10,000 peso note was not a "new" peso and effectively worthless.
The largest actual real money note I've had was a 100 euro note. When I had it, it would have been worth US$137, if I held onto it until today it would be worth $148.
The largest US note I've had is a Ben Franklin.
The note with the biggest number on it was the 20,000 colon note from Costa Rica which is worth about US$20.
Bizarre. I saw this story yesterday and googled US currency denominations because I was curious. I was shocked that $100 is the highest bill currently printed.
The reason they took the $1,000 dollar bill out of service was basically the drug trade. Supposedly it made it to easy to move large amounts of money around. I remember the coverage when it happened, it was a story that got some play.
In the UK every few years they'll change one of the banknotes. We just had a new design for the £20. One reason for this is that if people have buried their loot somewhere but end up in prison for a few years, the money's likely to be useless when they get out.
There's always plenty of publicity for several months ahead of a new note being introduced, and people can always still take old notes to the bank to be exchanged, as long as they're not in an amount likely to cause suspicion.
They change the notes and you can't use the old ones anymore, essexjan? They change the bills and coins here, but I don't think that means you can't use the old ones anymore. At least, it better not, otherwise, I'm owed at least 13 cents from people who gave me old pennies.
Of course, that's like $750. But still, being paid a fat stack of awesome maroon banknotes with the color scheme of a dentist's office circa 1985, often in a Very Not Obvious Plain Brown Envelope Wink Wink Nudge Nudge, made my job seem much cooler than it was.
They were almost impossible to use anywhere in town, though, unless you bought something big, as very little cost more than $10 or so. Train tickets to Jakarta, a week's worth of groceries, a month of rides on public transit - none of these things came close to 100,000 rupiah in value.
I've seen a 1000 dollar CDN bill I'm sure. My dad was a bank manager at one point, and during one of my visits with him...I'm almost certain I did.
My own personal wacky money story is that for the longest time I had a ATM receipt that showed a withdrawal of $100,000.00 - of course, it was actually about 33.30USD in Mexican pesos, and apparently 1992 ATMs in Mexico didn't print a symbol for pesos, assuming there is one.
Clearly, I am too lazy to google anything tonight.
I've seen a $500 US bill... my grandfather had one when I was a kid. I think it was his dad's, because he showed it to us, then deposited it in the bank.
Asking someone if they wanna meet Salmon P. Chase doesn't quite have that ring to it. Like a hot Woodrow Wilson in your pocket, it sounds more like an obscure sex act.
The largest denomination printed in the Euro zone is a EUR500 note, and I'm pretty sure I've seen one of them (though I could be confusing it with a 50, which always seems a lot of money to me).