Thread: Do you think they'd keep McKinley on the $500 Bill if they reissued it?

Well, they kept Thomas Jefferson on the $2 bill when they reissued it, so, do you think William McKinley stands a chance to keep his place on the $500 bill if it is reissued? I hope they keep him. I also hope they keep the big 500 in the oval on the reverse, just like the old $500 bills, but I have a feeling that, like the Jefferson $2 bill reverse, they would probably change the McKinley $500 bill reverse as well to something "better" but believe it or not, the $500 bill's reverse is my favorite design of all U.S. coins and currency. I know it sounds strange, since there are so many other designs that most people like, and there is not much to the $500 bill's reverse's design, but I just love that oval with the stylish oval with the 500 in it with the middle zero in the 500 slightly bigger than the five and other zero.

I talked with a BEP customer service worker on the phone a while back, and asked if they thought the new $100 bills would be released this year or not, due to the error bills, and she said "I'm not sure, thats not up to me. Thats up to the printers of the currency, but I would say there is a chance of it being this year" and I asked her "One more thing. I know that this is a long shot, but with the growing demand for $100 bills and inflation, and the fact that I read a Congressional testimony back in 1998 that stated reissuing the $500 bill was not on the planning boards yet, but was "on the radar acreen" and "not a front burner item, but definately on the top of the stove" do you think that the Treasury might reissue the $500 bill in the fairly near future?" and she said "Well, judging by what you said, I would say that there is a definate possibility, but the reissue of the $500 bill would be a little ways off due to the current problems with the new $100 bills and we would need to print a lot of new $100 bills first, and feel free to call every month or so to check on the status of the new $100 bill's possible release date" And I told her, "Wow! Thanks for giving me the go ahead to call and ask the status of the new $100 bill's release date every so often" and she said "No problem"

So, maybe there is still a chance for new $500 bills to be issued. I think I am going to stop advocating the $1,000 bill for now, and only advocate the $200 bill if the $500 bill does in fact, get reissued. No point in advocating $200 bills until they are needed to help make change for $500 bills and once the government starts saving money by printing $500s, there would have to be an act to Congress for the $200 bill due to the fact that the U.S. government has never been authorized to print a $200 denomination, and would have to authorize it, however, $500s and $1,000s (as well as $5,000s and $10,000s) can still be printed, should the Secretary of the Treasury or Federal Reserve order them. However, I have heard and read that the Secretary and/or the Fed would likely consult Congress before reissuing any large denominations of U.S. currency. I don't understand why though.

I wish I knew someone high up in the Federal Reserve, who I could get to order some $500 bills, because, according to law, if the Fed orders $500 bills, or any authorized denomination for that matter, the Treasury MUST instruct the BEP to print these bills and they MUST be provided to the Fed.

I don't think they will do a $500, crikes they canna even print $100's lately if you have seen the news. Frankly the govt would like to have us carrying bundles of teepee like the Zimbabweans did rather than being accommodating to "terrorists" and money launderers.

The current $100 has the purchasing power that a $10 did back in the 1960's. But we have a lot more plastic money now than then too.

I hear the reserve currency of choice in the world of smugglers, etc are now Euros due mainly to the fact of 500 Euro notes. This is worth almost $700 so even if the US came out with a $500 bill, it may not change that fact.

I agree that the government has a lot more interest in inconveniencing drug smugglers than actually facilitating trade.

Umm, we have had €500 notes (and pre-euro equivalents in DE and NL for example) all the time. Sure, some use them for illegal activities. But there may well be perfectly legitimate reasons for having and using them. Besides, there is also the Swiss franc. They even have a 1000 CHF note - which is more than 1000 USD.

But as scottishmoney wrote, while the purchasing power of a $500 note would not really "enormous" any more these days, there are other, more convenient, ways of handling such amounts. So in my opinion it does not make sense to try and reintroduce the 500 dollar bill ...

Christian

Originally Posted by scottishmoney

I don't think they will do a $500, crikes they canna even print $100's lately if you have seen the news. Frankly the govt would like to have us carrying bundles of teepee like the Zimbabweans did rather than being accommodating to "terrorists" and money launderers.

The current $100 has the purchasing power that a $10 did back in the 1960's. But we have a lot more plastic money now than then too.

+1

I just don't see large denominations returning, except in an unlikely sort of emergency issue if hyper-inflation ever demanded them. Another reason we will not see them is that educating the public about them, designing, printing and distributing new denominations of paper (or polymer) notes is entirely becoming cost-prohibitive.

The Treasury would more likely hand out credits in a financial crisis or maybe they'll just use Renminbi if it comes to that.

I think most Americans forget that most USA currency actually circulates outside of the USA - for instance I can spent it very easily in E. Europe where it is money of choice along with Euro because the local currency fluctuates in value too much and usually downwards. Anytime you have larger purchases, prices are in Euros or Dollars only - for instance want to buy house or car, or even some appliances.

So with all these new currency issues with colourised bills from $5 - $50 the Treasury had to have big advertising campaign targeted to areas where the dollar circulates - which is no small task. Changing money for just money that only circulated in the USA would be relatively easy. I have been the recipient of older bills, like those from 1980's etc because I can authenticate them and take them back to the USA to spend or deposit. Otherwise in E. Europe they are NO good at all. People do not trust anything out of ordinary and known.

The new colourised $100's were originally slated to be released into circulation next month but with the flaw they discovered it might actually be a couple more years.

Originally Posted by chrisild

Besides, there is also the Swiss franc. They even have a 1000 CHF note - which is more than 1000 USD.

But as scottishmoney wrote, while the purchasing power of a $500 note would not really "enormous" any more these days, there are other, more convenient, ways of handling such amounts. So in my opinion it does not make sense to try and reintroduce the 500 dollar bill ...

Christian

Only thing I dislike so much about Swiss currency is their nasty habit of demonetising it every 25 years or so. So all my old Swiss francs in paper are collectable only, but the gold francs - they have real value!

Yeah, i doubt they would bring the higher denoms back. While I would love to have one, I think that they are having too many problems with the new $100's so they will want to work those kinks out anyway. Also, we have gone so long without them that i think most people wouldn't even know what to do with them.

A little OT, I know but in many countries it is pretty common to take old money, be it coins or notes, out of circulation after some time. And judging from what you wrote, the fact that the US does not do that will not really keep people outside the US from preferring "familiar" notes ...

Christian

It would be nice to have the big boy,s back ($500,$1000) it seems one group of people can
Ruin things for everybody else in this case drug dealers, i can relate this to the AK-47 and
Assault weapons in general when a nut when on a shooting spree with one so now there
Our all kind of restriction,s on those as well! you cant even get a real one anymore

Originally Posted by mpcusa

It would be nice to have the big boy,s back ($500,$1000) it seems one group of people can
Ruin things for everybody else in this case drug dealers, i can relate this to the AK-47 and
Assault weapons in general when a nut when on a shooting spree with one so now there
Our all kind of restriction,s on those as well! you cant even get a real one anymore

You may not be able to get whatever it is you were trying to express there for unrelated reasons, but you can certainly get a better spell/grammar check on whatever it is you typed that post...


For your clarification, on 12/20/2010 CoinTalk Member Numbers in this post helped our understanding of this often misunderstood perception regarding large denomination notes:

This is a common urban legend, I'm afraid. The high denominations were discontinued simply due to lack of demand, not due to concerns about who was using them....

Once wire transfers and such became available, the usage of high-denomination notes declined greatly. The last printing of $500's and higher was in 1946, and they saw so little use that it took until 1969 for enough of them to wear out that the supply was running low. At that point, the Treasury and Federal Reserve jointly decided that the costs of creating new-series $500 plates weren't worthwhile for the small printing that would be needed, so the high-denomination notes were discontinued instead. The press release announcing the decision presented it as a cost-saving measure, not as a crime-fighting measure.

Some years later, in the '80s, there was a proposal in Congress to end production of the $100 denomination, because of concerns about money laundering, the drug trade, and the like. That's probably what led people to start believing that similar considerations had brought about the end of the $500 and up as well.

Indeed, it had more to do with the fact that personal cheques, banker's cheques, wire transfers, and credit cards took over the larger transactions rendering the larger denomination notes obsolete. That said, some people did continue to use them probably up until the early 1980's or so by which time they started becoming collectable as their relative spending power decreased because of inflation. I remember stories of drug busts where a $10000 was found in the cash.

Nice examples Scottish!!

Very cool notes SM! Thanks for posting.