In the USA high-denomination bills haven't necessarily been taken out of circulation, but the Mint hasn't printed new bills larger than $100 since the 1940s. La

In the USA high-denomination bills haven't necessarily been taken out of circulation, but the Mint hasn't printed new bills larger than $100 since the 1940s. Larger bills were really only used for large business and interbank transactions, and for that purpose they've been obsolete for ages. Certainly in the digital age, but before then even paper checks offered greater convenience and security. There might be some compression toward the center, but realistically most people only use cash for smaller transactions. $20 is a convenient denomination to get out of ATMs, and of course smaller bills come into play as cashiers make change for your payments. But I seem to remember hearing somewhere that economists now estimate that a majority of the US $50 and $100 bills are either circulating outside the country or circulating within the black and gray markets.