3 ms·

TIL there are $100,000 bills and they are illegal to possess https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-hundred-thousand-dollar_bill https://en.m.wikiped

TIL there are $100,000 bills and they are illegal to possess https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-hundred-thousand-dollar_bill https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-hundred-th...

cmckn 2y ago
Similarly, the Bank of England uses £100,000,000 notes internally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England_%C2%A3100,000,000_note https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England_%C2%A3100,000,...
- Eavolution 2y ago
  Somewhat vaguely related to this, not all bank notes in the UK are made equal. Good luck getting someone in England to accept an Ulster Bank, Danske bank, or Bank of Ireland note, despite them all being pound sterling notes issued in the UK worth the exact same amount.
  - shawabawa3 2y ago
    That's not really them not being made equal, that's just people being ignorant of them you have the same problem spending $2 bills in the US
  - gsck 2y ago
    Ulster Bank notes are some of the few notes in the world that are portrait in orientation, probably doesnt help with the acceptance of them elsewhere in the UK
  - bitdivision 2y ago
    Danske bank? Isn't that Danish? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_pound_sterling#Everyday_use_and_acceptance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_pound_sterlin... Looks as though it's just Ulster, Scotland and the Crown Dependencies nowadays Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danske_Bank_(Northern_Ireland) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danske_Bank_(Northern_Ireland) Danske bank is a Northern Irish bank (I had never heard of this)
- nxobject 2y ago
  I wonder: if these are essentially just a “paper trail” for deposits made at the BoD by issuing banks, why bother with a physical banknote at all? In the case of an insolvency of a bank, the bank’s notes would still continue circulating, after all.
trogdor 2y ago
Wikipedia claims that they are illegal to possess, but their source for that claim is an Investopedia article that doesn’t cite any law or other source. I’m skeptical.
- nlh 2y ago
  (Professional coin & currency nerd here) They’re illegal not because of a law but because they were never issued for public use. They were used (briefly) for internal treasury / fed transfers. (Sort of like the mythical trillion-dollar coin that gets talked about every time the debt ceiling conversation comes up). Because they were never issued privately or meant for use outside of the treasury system, if an individual were to own one it’s because it was stolen or otherwise improperly taken from the treasury. There are rumors that a few exist in private collections (and I’ve heard of one a single degree away from me), but I’ve never seen it or confirmed that it’s anything more than a rumor. There is one in the Smithsonian national collection however, and if you get an appointment to view the collection you can see and hold it. Pretty cool.
xenadu02 2y ago
Only illegal because they'd have to be stolen. Unlike the 500/1000/5000/10000 notes the $100,000 notes were never issued to the public. They were a relic of the days of physical currency transfer between banks. Not that many 500/1000/5000/10000 notes were used in practice either. Less than a thousand of the big ones and a few hundred thousand of the "smaller" ones even exist. They're all in collections now as the Fed requires banks to return them for shredding if deposited. Collectors will pay a lot more than face value for them so you'd be nuts to try to spend one.

cmckn 2y ago

Similarly, the Bank of England uses £100,000,000 notes internally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England_%C2%A3100,000,000_note https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England_%C2%A3100,000,...

Eavolution 2y ago
Somewhat vaguely related to this, not all bank notes in the UK are made equal. Good luck getting someone in England to accept an Ulster Bank, Danske bank, or Bank of Ireland note, despite them all being pound sterling notes issued in the UK worth the exact same amount.
- shawabawa3 2y ago
  That's not really them not being made equal, that's just people being ignorant of them you have the same problem spending $2 bills in the US
- gsck 2y ago
  Ulster Bank notes are some of the few notes in the world that are portrait in orientation, probably doesnt help with the acceptance of them elsewhere in the UK
- bitdivision 2y ago
  Danske bank? Isn't that Danish? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_pound_sterling#Everyday_use_and_acceptance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_pound_sterlin... Looks as though it's just Ulster, Scotland and the Crown Dependencies nowadays Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danske_Bank_(Northern_Ireland) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danske_Bank_(Northern_Ireland) Danske bank is a Northern Irish bank (I had never heard of this)
nxobject 2y ago
I wonder: if these are essentially just a “paper trail” for deposits made at the BoD by issuing banks, why bother with a physical banknote at all? In the case of an insolvency of a bank, the bank’s notes would still continue circulating, after all.

trogdor 2y ago

Wikipedia claims that they are illegal to possess, but their source for that claim is an Investopedia article that doesn’t cite any law or other source. I’m skeptical.

nlh 2y ago
(Professional coin & currency nerd here) They’re illegal not because of a law but because they were never issued for public use. They were used (briefly) for internal treasury / fed transfers. (Sort of like the mythical trillion-dollar coin that gets talked about every time the debt ceiling conversation comes up). Because they were never issued privately or meant for use outside of the treasury system, if an individual were to own one it’s because it was stolen or otherwise improperly taken from the treasury. There are rumors that a few exist in private collections (and I’ve heard of one a single degree away from me), but I’ve never seen it or confirmed that it’s anything more than a rumor. There is one in the Smithsonian national collection however, and if you get an appointment to view the collection you can see and hold it. Pretty cool.

xenadu02 2y ago

Only illegal because they'd have to be stolen. Unlike the 500/1000/5000/10000 notes the $100,000 notes were never issued to the public. They were a relic of the days of physical currency transfer between banks. Not that many 500/1000/5000/10000 notes were used in practice either. Less than a thousand of the big ones and a few hundred thousand of the "smaller" ones even exist. They're all in collections now as the Fed requires banks to return them for shredding if deposited. Collectors will pay a lot more than face value for them so you'd be nuts to try to spend one.