You want to go where?

Interesting. I have had the opposite experience regarding €50 bills. They seem to be the ATM bill of choice. I have never had €100 bills declined if it made practical sense (that is, I have never used one to buy a chocolate bar, but if the invoice was above €50, there was never a problem. I haven't tried to use €200, but do understand that these are much more likely to be refused.

I presume this difference in experience is due to different countries, as orudge suggests.

stimpy

I use €100 quite commonly across Europe. In some few countries, such as the Netherlands, they do not normally accept €200 or €500 notes but €100 is no problem. And you can spend those larger bills in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and several others.

However IME it is somewhat rare to find an ATM that spits out €100 notes. Most of them stick with 20's and 50s. I only know of one (CA) in my French town that gives €100 notes.

CPRich

I want to cash my retirement fund in some day for a small handful of bills

Sadly, there were Gold Certificates and no longer legal tender, or even legal to own.


In reality, I rarely carry around more than a $20, and recently got rid of the first $100 I've had in a while and was uncomfortable carrying around. I find myself taking $300 out of an ATM once every 2-3 months at most.

On the other hand, a co-worker from NY goes through $200-300/week in cash.

cordelli

They started phasing them out in the late 60's, using the excuse of drug dealers and others had it way too easy to move money around. Pretty funny considering we have threads here and on other forums hundreds of pages long about moving dollar coins.

When my father passed away in 1975 I remember our aunt giving us a brand new 1,000 bill, apparently she did not believe in banks and all of her savings was hidden in the house in large bills.

There was (probably still is) a pizza place in Manhattan with two ATM's on the outside wall, one did 20's and one did 100's. The guys in the pizza place hated it when the one with the 20's ran out and people would take out a $100 bill and walk in and buy a slice for $2.50 for the change. If you hit it right and they didn't have enough change, they would just give you the slice.

rankourabu

I ve only seen them once in my life, but we used to have these:



The largest denomination I picked up last summer in Zimbabwe:

cordelli

When we were in turkey so many people wanted one million notes (like a buck and a half at the time) to bring back to their grand kids, that was not that long ago.

tjl

Are ATMs in the US designed to give only one denomination, or do they have the capability (rarely or never used) to give out more than one denomination (e.g. give one $20 and one $10 when the user wants to withdraw $30) as ATMs in other countries seem to be capable of?

BryanIAH

There's one ATM I know of that gives out a combination of $50 and $10. Other than that I've never had a US ATM give out anything other than $20s.

FlyingHoustonian

ATMs can give out multiple currencies and denominations. Bank of America's ATMs on military bases in Europe for example will give dollars or euros depending on what you choose (others do this too). Most chase ATMs I use give me 10s or 20s$. There are several ATMs I've used where 5 USD$ is the minimum choice, and some in LAs Vegas where they only give 100s.

Ciao,
FH

youreadyfreddie

When I worked in a fast-food restaurant when I was in high school, we couldn't accept bills higher than a twenty, and we were supposed to look closely at the twenty for signs that it might be either an altered bill or counterfeit. Possibly, a manager on his/her own discretion might risk taking a fifty, but only upon close inspection.

When I worked as a teller for B of A, we handed out lots of 50s and 100s, but when accepting them we were supposed to scrutinize them very closely. I rarely carry bills in denomination higher than twenty, but sometimes will stash a one hundred-dollar bill in my car and in a small case in which I keep ID, one credit card, and a 100 keeping it separate from my handbag. One hundred dollars will only go so far, but in an emergency, it shows that you're serious.

Outside the US, I use whatever the ATM has given me and have never encountered a problem with local currency.

cordelli

A standard ATM can run four or five trays, and if they want they could put different bills in each one. It was not uncommon for banks to have one loaded with 5's and 20's so you could get virtually any amount.

When I was working at a bank we had these "efficiency experts" come in and they could not for the life of them get why we didn't load the machine with trays of large bills so we would not have to refill it as often. As we balanced the ATM's daily it really didn't matter because they all had to be counted every day and refilled if necessary.

The main reason banks don't use multiple drawers is should you put a tray of 100's where a tray of 20's should be, which could easily happen, you would lose a ton of cash as soon as the first person takes out $20 and gets a $100 bill. The chance of human error is pretty much eliminated when the machine has all the same bills in it.

Sandra_D

I have often wondered about that. Are there stores in the Euro zoen that actually accepts €500 bills? I once even saw an ailrine ticket counter agent declining to accept a couple of those €500 bills from a passenger. He ended up going downstairs to a bank and came back with €100 bills.

stimpy

It depends on the country and restaurant, but it is common for a decent restaurant or high end bar to accept €500 notes in many, but not all Euro countries. I've paid with large bills at certain nightclubs in Paris.

Mabuk dan gila

I took $500 out of a stand alone Citibank ATM at 7/11 the other day and was pleasantly surprised to receive four $100's and five $20's.

Mr H

Those are common. I have a much rarer Zim $500 note.