Hello forum people, i was recently in the U.S. in Las Vegas and got handed the attached 100$ bill which immediately caught my attention. It has a smaller head than all the other bills i've seen and despite it is from 1988 it is in perfect condition. Could it be worth more than the 100$ printed on it or should i just exchange it at my local bank? Greetings from europe (Germany) Maize
I say yay because it is in exceptionally nice condition and these only had a small window of time where they were allowed to circulate before the introduction of Series 1990 notes, which was the first series to have an embedded strip and to use microprinting. After Series 1990 $100 notes were introduced in 1991, all preceding $100 series notes were designated for summary destruction by the US government.
Grüße aus Rottenburg am Neckar! Ich kenne mich leider gar nicht aus von Banknoten. Wo wohnst du in Deutschland? It also occurred to me that you might not speak German, so I thought I’d message in English too. I don’t know if it’s worth much, I don’t collect bills, but the effort you go through listing, selling and shipping will probably not make it worth the effort. Where are you in Germany?
To me it's $100. Think how much value this note has lost in the last 25 years. 25 years ago it was worth $100. Now, 25 years later it is worth $100 and prob can only buy 2/3 of what it was able to buy 25 years ago. I doubt it has any premium over $100. But let's say you save it for 20 more years, and then it will be worth $110. $100 today is worth more than $110 in 20 years. If you don't need $100 and you like the small head notes of course you can save it and get years of enjoyment, just owning it and looking at it, and it will still retain it's $100 value and can still be spent, so you aren't losing too much. I just don't believe it has much or any premium above face value. It's still a modern note, it's not rare, it's only my opinion.
If you can keep it, keep it. The older bills look so much better. I received an older Ten about six months ago in change - I'll keep that forever. Guten tag!
To repeat what others have said, it may be a long time before this note has a significant collector value above the $100 face value. If you like it and can afford to keep it in your collection, then it would make a nice addition. If you want to keep it because you think it will increase in value over time or you could use the money for other things, then IMO you should spend it.
Thank you all for your replies. This was a very interesting read. I am located in Heidelberg, and do indeed speak german. I'll keep the bill because i really like how fresh it looks regarding its age - just like me, who was born in about the same year Also, it is probably the only 100$ bill that ever left Vegas with me when usually all the paper money stays there. A neat little achievement. Vielen Dank an alle und noch eine schöne Woche
