Last night at work, someone handed me this 1990 $100 bill in CU condition - perfectly flat with no folds, creases, etc. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money on me at the time to buy it out of the register. Today I went back and bought it, but the damage was already done. It had been put into a stack of other bills held together with rubber bands. It no longer lays flat and there are several dents along the edge from the rubber bands. Lesson learned: keep more cash on hand. Have any other collectors had a similar experience? Any thoughts on whether or not I should keep it?
Small portrait $100 and first year of the polymer strip. I personally do not collect $100's that are not star notes or serial #12. Printed in October 1991....hard to tell if it will ever have a meaningful premium over face value. If you like it, and can afford to keep it, then slip it in a Mylar currency sleeve.
I prefer the small head notes, but to me it's $100. It's not worth keeping for 20 years to eventually get $110 for it.
Put it under a heavy book and it will be flat in a few days , nice note , but it wont have much premium if any over face value as it has no special serial or error and is not that old yet. But it's a keeper
At 48,000,000 it's the lowest printing of the 12 Districts for that series. I would have kept it too.
We'll never know for sure but don't feel too bad about the dents, bends, and creases. It is very common for a note found in circulation to look better than it actually is when it is first found. I see it all the time when I find high-grade notes from circulation. Notes will often look nice, flat, and crisp with no or few apparent flaws. I'll set the note(s) aside by itself for a day and I'll start seeing the note exhibit bends and creases I didn't know it had. What happens is straps and wallets help to mask these flaws but once a crisp note becomes "free" its true imperfections from circulation will start to show.
