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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 1564454, member: 11668&quot;]Sure it did.&nbsp; Back then, there were basically no other ways to handle large payments over significant distances, besides a big sack of gold or some high-denomination bills.&nbsp; Checks were difficult to clear outside a bank&#039;s local area....&nbsp; So if you were, say, buying some real estate that wasn&#039;t located near your bank account, you might very well have paid with a few high-denomination notes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Certainly, most people never had $500 in any form, let alone in one note.&nbsp; And even if you had the money to do it, you wouldn&#039;t carry that kind of cash in your wallet every day.&nbsp; But every now and then, there was a real purpose for these denominations.</p><p><br /></p><p>Think about how many times in your life you&#039;ve sent (or received) a high-value cashier&#039;s check, or a big-dollar wire transfer.&nbsp; For most of us, it doesn&#039;t happen often but it&#039;s happened occasionally.&nbsp; A hundred years ago, those transactions were done with big bills.</p><p><br /></p><p>By the middle of the 20th century, there were better ways to transfer funds cross-country, and the high-denomination currency was seeing dwindling usage.&nbsp; The number of big bills in circulation fell by about half between 1945 and 1968:</p><p><br /></p><p>Outstanding 12/31/1945:</p><p>903,404 $500&#039;s</p><p>797,852 $1000&#039;s</p><p>1405 $5000&#039;s</p><p>2327 $10,000&#039;s</p><p><br /></p><p>Outstanding 12/31/1968:</p><p>488,295 $500&#039;s</p><p>291,894 $1000&#039;s</p><p>634 $5000&#039;s</p><p>383 $10,000&#039;s</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s why the Treasury didn&#039;t need to print any notes over $100 during those twenty-odd years--demand was dropping so fast that, even though some notes wore out over time, there were still plenty left to satisfy the demand.&nbsp; In 1969, the supply of $500&#039;s finally fell low enough that a new printing was needed; but the Treasury decided it wasn&#039;t worth the trouble, and instead discontinued the large denominations entirely.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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