$1000 bills in movies and on television

The only United States $1000 bills I have seen have been at coin show exhibitions and in museums.

They used to circulate, however, and occasionally turn up in motion pictures and on television programs.

Sometimes the bills are explicitly stated to be $1000 bills, such as in the two versions of "The Maltese Falcon".


The Maltese Falcon (1931)

A man gives detective Sam Spade $10,000 in ten $1000 bills. Later the woman gets them. The $1000 bills are portrayed by real US $10 bills.


The Maltese Falcon (1941)

A man gives detective Sam Spade $10,000 in ten $1000 bills. Later one bill disappears and reappears. The $1000 bills are portrayed by the common imitation Mexican "prop" notes.

Other films:

In John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden and the subsequent 1955 film Cal Trask (James Dean) attempts to prove to his father that he can earn money by showing him $14,000 in $1000 bills which he had to order from the Federal Reserve.

In William Lindsay Gresham's novel Nightmare Alley and the subsequent 1947 film Stanton Carlisle, a stage mentalist, hands over $150,000 in $1000 bills to Dr. Lilith Ritter to hold for him. Later he gets the money back from her but finds that she has replaced the money with $1 bills. The bills are portrayed by the common imitation Mexican "prop" notes.

In some films the $1000 bills are only implied, such as in the 1943 film "Shadow of a Doubt" where "Uncle Charlie" goes into a bank, states that he has $40,000 to deposit and hands the bank manager a small stack of bills. He does not say that they are $1000 bills but smaller notes would make a much larger stack.

There must be many more books, film, and television programs which feature $1000 bills as part of their stories.

 

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Many MISSION"IMPOSSIBLE TV episodes use both real and very close facsimiles.

 

For some reason, film companies like to use Mexican Revolutionary note designs for their imitation or "prop" notes.

This one such note:


Mexico Revolution Sonora 10 pesos note

 

I am just sad most Americans have no idea we used to make such bills. Like a frog in a pot, they simply take away liberties one by one in the name of "making us safer". The man depositing $40,000, (WAY more money then) today would find Treasury forms to fill out demanding to know how he got it. Are we better off today with this loss of privacy?

 

What liberty is taken away by the fact that the Fed no longer issues $1,000.00 notes?

The bank only reports that a transaction of more than $10,000.00 occurred. No one asks where it came from.

 

...and I am sure no one at the IRS ever has access to these records. Whatever happened to making bills in denominations people would use instead of forcing all transactions to have to be processed electronically? You do know every electronic transaction is automatically turned over to the IRS, right? I was in a data center where they receive the feeds.

I just like privacy. I would use a $1000 bill if they had them. It would very handy when traveling to coin shows or overseas.

 

I can count all of my $1,000 cash transactions over the course of a year on one hand and still have several fingers left unused. Most collectors that want the U.S. to start printing $1,000 notes again want it because they can’t find or afford any of the older examples and want to buy it at face value.

 

In 1968 my father won $5,000 in the very newly started lottery. He was paid with five $1,000 bills. When he laid them out on the kitchen table I was awestruck.

 

I missed my opportunity and I truly had 1 1K note and 1 $500 note when I was 19 yo I won a lawsuit and to me it was a joke cashing in the check. I asked if the bank had a 1K and $500 note the bank manager had both, not having a clue what I had I joked with some ppl retail about the $500 bill and I immediately deposited both into another account.

 

If only you'd have known the future!

 

Everyone has different reasons and different circumstances in life. If they made $500 and $1000 still I would always carry one or two on me, and would probably use them 5-7 times a year. I do not want one to collect, but to replace 10 $100 bills that I usually carry around in my wallet.

 

Curious, what year was that?

 

There are actually three film versions of "The Maltese Falcon." Watch "Satan Met a Lady" and be prepared to laugh at how bad it is.

 

I remember seeing some B-grade gangster movie (I am pretty sure was from the post-war 40's) where early on in the movie one of the main characters (think stereotypical Hollywood lovable but slightly crooked character) tells an underling that Grover Cleveland was on the $1,000 bill. Near the end of the movie there is a big knock-down brawl between the good bad guys and the bad bad guys over a bunch of money, which gets scattered all around the room in the brawl. The underling gets knocked down, and while on his hands and knees picks up a bill and exclaims "Grover Cleveland!" I cannot remember what kind of prop money was used.

 

Hey! I told the frog story in an earlier thread. Thanks to all that read my entry about the frog.
Anyway, there was a Perry Mason television show in the late 50's and early 60's. Several of the episodes referred to $1,000 bills. In one episode, a $1,000 bill was ripped in two, giving Mason half to represent him. There were also $500 bills in a couple of episodes. Perry Mason is on Dish. I'm a real fan of him. I've watched each episode at least twice. I can almost quote the script.

 

It was about 1968 that they told banks to not circulate $500's anymore right? Was the $1000 about the same time or earlier?

 

Both were removed from circulation in 1969.

 

William Philpott was Secretary of the Texas Banker's Association from 1915 to 1964. In that time he amassed quite a collection - at face value. [At one time, he had about half of the known $50 Federal Reserve Bank Notes.] He started selling his notes in retirement. In 1971 my brother and I arranged to meet him at a major Dallas bank, where he had his notes. We bought a couple of thousand dollars worth. My brother says we can pay cash if you need, but I'd have to use my $1000 bill I have with me. It was really beat up - a VG at best. "Mr. Phil" says no, your check is good. But we don't allow money in that condition in Texas; I'll trade you a nice unc for it; which district do you want? We get our new Minneapolis $1000 bill. Mr. Phil goes down to the row of tellers, wads up the old $1000 bill, and tosses it to a teller. "Put this in my account." "Yes sir, Mr. Philpott, yes sir." Then he took us to lunch at the Banker's Association dining room.

 

either 1997 or 1998

 

That was fun @willieboyd2. I like different witty stuff about money