Sandra_D

I once got a couple of $100 bills from the 7/11 Cititank ATM machines as well. When I turned around and gave one of the $100 bills to the 7/11 clerk, she took out one of those money checker pens. I asked her why she felt it was necessary, especially since she saw me take the money out of the ATM machine. Her response: "Just because it came out of the ATM... don't mean it's real to me...." What's even more funny was that the 7/11 had a sign on the counter that said NO BILLS LARGER THAN $20 ACCEPTED AFTER 11PM.

travisc

You could have slipped/swapped the bill in your hand with a fake $100 while she wasn't watching. Of course I doubt she was thinking about that, just trying to CYA.

camsean

In Australia the largest commonly used note is the 50. You don't see 100's much, but you also wouldn't have any problem using them.

Here in Indonesia the largest note is 100,000, or about US$11.00.

jpatokal

...and it's still uncomfortably large for many purchases, so most ATMs dispense Rp 50,000 notes (~$5.50). And even that can be too much if you're just trying to buy a bottle of Tehbotol or something.

CaptainMiles

I needed to transfer money from Bank C to Bank S for instant availability. I took out $800 out of Bank C's ATM, and got 40 $20 bills. Then walked them over to bank S to deposit. For some reason they suspected those bills, photocopied every single one of them, and made me sign a statement that the copies were of the bills I gave them for deposit. I asked why, they explained it was in case they were counterfeit. OK, I signed, and never heard about it again. I guess they were not counterfeit.

I can't wait for some bank to photocopy the dollar coins.

GenevaFlyer

In Switzerland, you regularly see CHF 1'000 bills used, although most gas stations or grocery stores will decline them. (CHF 1 = USD 1 at the moment)

The ATMs happily spit out CHF 200 bills, although many can give you a mix of CHF 20, CHF 50, CHF 100 and CHF 200.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

choster

I used 10,000 and 20,000 kip notes quite a bit in Laos; at the time the exchange was about 10,000₭ = US$1. It was the first time I'd ever been a currency millionaire in cash. Then, I crossed over into Vietnam, previously mentioned. The "quick cash" options at the ATMs were 500,000, 1 million, 2 million, and 4 million, usually given in 50,000s and 100,000s. At the time it was around 16,000 VND = US$1.

A co-worker once told me of families bringing shopping bags full of Egyptian pounds to buy plane tickets. The nearest I got to that was in Malawi, whose largest note is 500 kwacha, about $3.28 when I got there. This made getting my ticket out a little dicey: the travel agency didn't take credit cards, the maximum ATM transaction is 5000, many ATMs run out of cash midday, and every last ATM in sub-Saharan Africa seems to have 8 people in line at any time of day. Fortunately, the locals had the saintly patience to wait while I pulled out 55,000 for my one-way flight from BLZ to DAR.


On the subject of notes from ATMs, I've gotten US$10s and US$20s domestically, but had to go to St. Maarten to get US$50s— and US $5s! There are many reasons why the U.S. is less of a cash society than the rest of the world. On the pro-card front, national telephone service was much cheaper, driving down the cost of electronic card processing; the (for) now-gone era of easy credit gave everyone a card; and except for Depression-era grandmothers, people still place high trust in financial institutions. On the anti-cash front the U.S. has a bad reputation for street crime and relatively easily counterfeited banknotes, despite (still) being the de facto international reserve currency— both meaning merchants are reluctant to accept big bills.

I wouldn't expect to see $50s from ATMs any time soon, though I do wish they would hurry up and abolish the penny.

adventureadam

Any decent restaurant won't bat an eye at a 1000 or 2000 crown bill. Neither will supermarkets usually (Tesco, etc.) And usually the Vietnamese in potravinys will take them. It's just the Czechs that work in tabaks and other small shops or bars that freak out.

(The 5000 bill is worth a little more than $250 US right now)

Dandel

As already stated above it really varies by country. In Italy 200 and 500 euro notes are pretty common and it's not difficult to use in stores, even most supermarkets and shops will accept the 200 euro notes, and 500 isn't impossible. In the Netherlands where people are more used to paying with debit cards it's more difficult.

as219

Mint condition US$1,000 banknotes are extremely rare and very in demand as collector pieces. Could be worth from 2 to 20 times face value, depending on the date, precise condition, serial number, and Federal District of issue. Do you still have it?

cordelli

No, it was probably used to pay the funeral home. Back then they were still in circulation, not being made any more, but still not uncommon to pay a large bill with.

There are many coins and bills I wish I held on to, that was one of them, but I don't think anybody really believed they were going away at the time.

rankourabu

Until 1994, it was very common to see these in Poland



I also picked up a couple of these in Serbia

bobsmo

€50 are quite common in Euro zone ATM as are CZK 1000 and 2000 in Czech ATM's. 5000 CZK is not in any CZ ATM I'm aware of though.

CMK10

I had the same issue. I actually won about 130 Euros at the casino in Barcelona and no one wanted to take my 50s. I had to have them break them. Hell, I had trouble getting people in Barcelona and Lisbon to take 20 and even 10 Euro notes!

kebosabi

Everyone in Japan uses 10,000 JPY notes (roughly $118.71 at today's rate). Even elementary school kids have no objection to use it to pay for their 600 JPY Happy Meals at McDonalds, and the cashier just gives out 9400 JPY in change without even blinking an eye.

On the other hand, Japan experimented with 2,000 JPY notes (roughly $23 today) seeing how well $20 and €20 notes were well in circulation amongst other nations. However, people just found it easier to just pay two 1,000 JPY notes or whip out a 5,000 JPY note instead. So all in all, it's guess just a cultural thing.

BTW, I believe Japan also has the highest denomination coin in regular use in the world: the 500 JPY coin (worth close to $6 today)