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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 925879, member: 11668&quot;]The reason is lack of demand for anything larger.&nbsp; There used to be a real purpose for the likes of $10,000 notes--banks needed them to transfer large balances around.&nbsp; Once we established a nationwide check-clearing system (and later wire transfers, electronic payments, &amp;c.) there just wasn&#039;t much call for high-denomination currency any more.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The last printing of $500+ notes was in the mid-&#039;40s.&nbsp; The Federal Reserve continued to circulate them whenever they were requested; it just didn&#039;t happen often.&nbsp; It took almost 25 years, until 1969, for enough notes to wear out that the supply of $500&#039;s finally ran low.&nbsp; At that point, the Treasury and Fed jointly decided that, with demand so tiny, it wasn&#039;t worth the trouble of creating updated designs for a Series 1969 $500 in order to print up a new supply.&nbsp; Instead, they just announced that denominations over $100 would no longer be issued.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Some years later, in the &#039;80s, there was a proposal in Congress to discontinue production of the $100 note, because of worries that it was being heavily used in money-laundering.&nbsp; The idea obviously didn&#039;t become reality, but it was discussed a lot at the time.&nbsp; That&#039;s probably the reason why many people now seem to believe that concerns about crime were what killed the $500 and up.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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