Old banknotes
 

I have a bunch of 1000Y and 500Y from the 70's ("Series C", I believe).
Are those still valid, do I have to go to a bank to exchange them, or am I totally out of luck ?

Thank you for helping.

Here is a .pdf showing valid Bank of Japan banknotes. The 500yen and 1000yen notes you are describing are shown on page 2 and should have Iwakura Tomomi and Ito Hirobumi pictured on the face respectively. I don't know how much success you would have in exchanging these at a currency exchange in another country although you shouldn't have much problem in Japan.

You should be fine. The cashier might do a double take at the 500 yen notes, as the current smallest bill denomination is 1000 yen, and has been for 15 years.

Whatever happens, you won't end up like the man arrested for using $2 bills. ;)

Slightly OT but that is a great PDF! I had no idea that there used to be 500 yen bills let alone 100 yen and even 1 yen! Very cool :cool: Now I want to see if I can find any of these bills...

OP if you have any problems using the bills I'd love to at least buy a few of them from you (not necessarily to use).

Ebay has a selection of these smaller banknotes, postage will probably be more than the selling price.

Thank you for the tip, I do see a bunch on eBay. ^

I have a hard copy of that PDF from the Currency Museum in Tokyo, a little known not often visited museum, but nice displays on the history of currency.

http://www.imes.boj.or.jp/cm/english_htmls/index.htm

I would keep a few 500yen notes, if not for just collectors purposes, since they no longer use 500yen notes, only coins now.