# Drug & criminal money -- in bundles of crisp new $100's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 16, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723 "2025-06-16T21:18:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/21 "2025-06-18T20:17:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > We’ve had threads and threads on the topic of whether it’s ethical for money handlers like tellers and cashiers to scan through the cash they handle in the course of their workday and remove any items with collector value and replace them with identical face value of non-collector cash. > > A few folks considered it a legit perk of the job. Pretty much anyone who worked for a corporation, not a Mom’n’Pop, said it was a firing offense. Well, taking cash out and putting it in your pocket- even if you put the exact amount back is often a firing offense, unless you get a manager type to do it for you. But a big company really doesnt want those $2 bills, they cant be bundled. And they arent going to skim off those silver quarters- they are gonna be rolled in a machine and deposited- or handed out as change. So, yes, it isnt the “you are cheating the company for grabbing a silver quarter and replacing it with a new one” it is “You cant take money and put it in your pocket without authorization”. And sometimes you cant get authorization. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/22 "2025-06-23T02:36:55Z")
[Might be a hijack – if so, I apologize.] In the movie _F/X_, one of the characters has stashed away $15 million that he managed to steal from The Mob over the years. At the end, we see him retrieving it from a safe deposit box. It’s in a satchel about the size of a bowling bag. Here’s the problem: $15 million in $100 bills would consist of _fifteen hundred_ bundles of one hundred bills apiece. There is no way you could fit that in a bowling bag. (OTOH maybe it was in negotiable bearer bonds or something…) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/23 "2025-06-23T02:45:47Z")
In the early 1980s, when I was a teenage Target cashier, I once took a $500 bill. I don’t remember what the person bought, but I do remember that the bill was well worn. Around that same time, I met a woman (who I later found out was married to a conspiracy theorist nutjob) who said that law enforcement had some kind of radar or laser gun they would aim at people’s houses, and they could tell how much money people had in their homes. I didn’t believe it then, and don’t now. The one person I have known personally who was involved enough in the illicit drug trade to do time for it had more than $100,000 in cash in his house when the police swept it. He and his wife got in trouble because they were making AND SELLING marijuana edibles out of their home kitchen. On a lighter note, my local symphony used to have a really big rummage sale (it stopped happening for reasons other than COVID, albeit around that time) and it was held over several days. We’re talking about them renting a former grocery store building, that kind of rummage sale. Anyway, when I came to drop off a donation, I overheard one woman telling another that they needed to make deposits every couple of hours, instead of waiting until the end of a day like she previously did. She took $14,000 in cash to the bank the symphony used, and was taken into a closed office and asked some very pointed questions. She had no idea bankers did anything like this! ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/24 "2025-06-23T04:51:39Z")
It seems like the job of money laundering has gotten exponentially harder in recent years. Like a few years ago it was suspicious to end up with a lot of cash but there were plenty of cash only, or largely cash, businesses. Nowadays it seems there are vanishingly few even mainly cash businesses, it almost seems the only the reason to end up with a whole bunch of cash is you are selling drugs. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/25 "2025-06-23T05:51:31Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Is prop money available as worn out bills wrapped with rubber bands rather than crisp bundles? The crisp bundles might be what’s used in movies because that might be the only money prop they can get. It’s not the only option but it is the cheaper option. [This site](https://propmoney.com/) offers prop currency from $100 to $1 in just about any state imaginable from single “hero bills” to folded with a rubber band to banded in a duffel bag. They are available as crisp new or RealAged™ and the bands and bundles can be Full Print where every bill looks real or Filler Pack where only the top and bottom do, the ones in the middle having just the edges colored to resemble genuine currency. An aged $10,000 strap of full print 100s is $22.50 while new filler pack straps are 5 for $50 – ten bucks each. Edit: Mine’s a different company than ECG’s. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/26 "2025-06-24T06:19:45Z")
I’ve definitely heard of marijuana dispensaries forming credit unions, because banks wouldn’t deal with them. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/27 "2025-06-24T13:35:45Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I overheard one woman telling another that they needed to make deposits every couple of hours, instead of waiting until the end of a day like she previously did. She took $14,000 in cash to the bank the symphony used, and was taken into a closed office and asked some very pointed questions. She had no idea bankers did anything like this! Note that this in itself is the criminal offense of “structuring”. If you deliberately break up cash transactions into smaller ones for the specific purpose of avoiding triggering the $10,000 reporting limit, that is a crime. (But if you do it to avoid becioing a lucrative target for thieves, it’s not…) About a decade ago it was a big deal, the feds were seizing bank accounts due to suspicious cash transactions. there was a news article about some popular seasonal mom&pop restaurant that went bankrupt because the feds had frozen their bank account while they investigated, and they couldn’t pay thier bills. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2025, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/28 "2025-06-25T11:25:50Z")
There is talk every now and then about recalling all 100s and demonitizing them after a period of time. Every individual could exchange (some maximum number) of old 100s for new 100s. This would (allegedly) cause a collapse in the drug trade (and other suspicious transactions). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2025, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/29 "2025-06-25T12:31:06Z")
Except that a lot of people overseas hold one hundred dollar bills even if they have no involvement in the drug trade. That would screw over many people. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/30 "2025-06-25T12:50:19Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > There is talk every now and then about recalling all 100s and demonitizing them after a period of time. Every individual could exchange (some maximum number) of old 100s for new 100s. This would (allegedly) cause a collapse in the drug trade (and other suspicious transactions). India did something similar but with smaller bills - the result was chaos. For one, they never printed enough bills. For another, how would you regulate the exchange process with foreign banks? It wasn’t really a problem with India because there was very little currency in bulk outside the country. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/31 "2025-06-25T12:59:54Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > High denominations are preferred because they take up less space and are easier to keep hidden while transported out of the country. [**Yup. In the world of the cartels, size definitely matters.**](https://robertkaplinsky.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/money_cover.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723/32 "2025-06-25T13:34:39Z")
Their hubris was that they intended to stamp out much of the cash economy at a stroke. In a country with a vast unbanked population. That trick was doomed to fail from the start. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-criminal-money-in-bundles-of-crisp-new-100s/1019723.md?page=1)