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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 1060662, member: 11668&quot;]This is a common urban legend, I&#039;m afraid.&nbsp; The high denominations were discontinued simply due to lack of demand, not due to concerns about who was using them....</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Once wire transfers and such became available, the usage of high-denomination notes declined greatly.&nbsp; The last printing of $500&#039;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.&nbsp; At that point, the Treasury and Federal Reserve jointly decided that the costs of creating new-series $500 plates weren&#039;t worthwhile for the small printing that would be needed, so the high-denomination notes were discontinued instead.&nbsp; The press release announcing the decision presented it as a cost-saving measure, not as a crime-fighting measure.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Some years later, in the &#039;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.&nbsp; That&#039;s probably what led people to start believing that similar considerations had brought about the end of the $500 and up as well.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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