I just received a text from my childhood buddy telling me his stepson received a $500 bill from the teller at his bank today. Anybody call BS on this? BTW I do recognize the idiot who wrote on the bill did irreversible market value damage to it. That doesn't change the fact that a $500 bill was acquired in circulation in 2019.
From wiki: Although they are still legal tender in the United States, high-denomination bills were last printed on December 27, 1945, and officially discontinued on July 14, 1969, by the Federal Reserve System,[10] due to 'lack of use'.[11] The $5,000 and $10,000 effectively disappeared well before then.[nb 1]
Yup, same question though. Do you or anyone else think it's plausible to have received it from a bank teller?
It's possible. It's still legal tender. The bank took it, and if they had to turn it in to get redeemed, or, since it is worth more than face value anyone could have paid $500 for it and taken it. Maybe the teller didn't want to be stuck with it and was able to get someone to take it off their hands so there wouldn't be any hassle or paperwork at the end of the day. My credit union doesn't even have half dollars or dollar coins on hand, but they will take them if someone needs to cash them in. A bill like this used to be 550-600 because of the folds/ ink writing. But these days I bet this is $700- $1000. Why would they want to make up this story? There are better stories to make up. Maybe it happened. Maybe it didn't. Great dark ink on this bill not faded or circulated very much. Someone probably had it stashed away for 50 years and it just came to light recently.
I am going to say no way ! anything like this would be yanked from circulation Immediately and checked as a possible counterfeit by bank officials so there,s No way that they would send this back out, would go strait to the Fed.
It's a cute bill even with the extra writing. What's the rest of the story? What was the stepson doing that he would be receiving $500.00 or more from a bank anyway? Was it offered to him? Did he ask for it? How was he aware it was there? Does either of those people know anyone at that bank personally? Is there a standing request to "tell me about anything strange or different"? etc.,etc.
I won a small lawsuit about 22 years ago and when I took the check to the bank I jokingly asked if they had any $500 or $1000 bills and she said IDK ill ask and a moment later the bank vault manager came to me and said she in fact had one of each so I bought them not knowing they were worth more than face value I took them to my bank and deposited them. Moral is yes it is possible because there are people out there that dont know what they have I just wish I knew more about paper money then.
Older notes come out of the weeds every day. As MEC2 mentioned, safe deposit boxes are emptied and collections are dispensed.
He buys and sells foreclosures for a living. Lots of frequent and large transactions. I can absolutely see him keeping it. My doubt comes from knowing him for 35 years. He can easily be known as a bit of a prankster. But it could also very well have happened. Hence my wavering on believability.
A teacher friend of mine had a wife who worked as a teller at the bank. She called him one day to come look at 4 $500 bills someone brought in to deposit. He snatched them up ASAP. This was about 10 or 12 years ago...
The only time I ever had a $500 bill was in 1963 when I purchased some stocks at a William C Roney stockbroker firm in Flint Michigan. Haven't seen one since.
On Let's Make a Deal Monty always had genuine 500 and 1000 dollar bills that he would use to pay people with, and this was late 60's and even early 1970's. Just because they stopped making them and (in 1969?) the 100 was the largest bill, they still circulated. It's just that it was A LOT of money in those days so it was rare to use one or see one.
Any bill or coin that no longer circulates is going to be worth more than face value. Too bad this bill has so much useless writing on it but at least we know the person that wrote on it can count.
Likely that it could have been found in circulation. However, that would be a "once in a blue moon" occurrence. Eish, unfortunate that someone defaced the bill that way. I've never checked if banks have such high denomination bills, because I wouldn't be able to afford them to begin with.
Oddly, from time to time when I go to my main branch CU I ask if they have any. Nope, never do. I figured the main branch CU is a good hay stack .. might as well ask if anyone's seen a needle ...