I find that these days, if I pay for something with a $20 bill, and it requires $10 or more in change, the cashier will usually give me two or three $5 bills instead of a $10 bill (plus whatever other change.) Is this common elsewhere in Canada too? In the US, with American money?
(Yes, I am old school and usually pay for things with cash instead of a bank card.)
It seems like a US thing too in my recent experiences. (Past ten years or so)
Huh. I never noticed, but I think you’re right. I don’t handle many sawbucks these days either.
When I worked at a chain movie theater 5-6 years ago, we didn’t order tens from the bank, just ones, fives, and twenties (and quarters). I’d try to give tens in change if possible, but I didn’t have any to give unless someone had previously paid with one.
I have a ten in my wallet right now, but it’s the first one I’ve seen in quite awhile.
I agree. Tens seem to be the paper equivalent of the 50 cent piece. I personally like tens and will go into the bank to exchange my ATM twenties for tens. But I also prefer dollar coins to dollar bills so I suspect I’m in a minority.
I worked for a while at a casino convenience store. We had plenty of tens in our till and the store manager urged us to use them instead of fives. I never asked why but I bet it had something to do with the casino operation.
Yep, I’ve noticed it, too, when getting change. When I get cash from the bank, like $50, I get 2 $20s and a $10.
Huh. I never thought about it before because I primarily use an ATM that uses $10 bills. I’ve always just thought it was sort of odd.
I’ve certainly noticed it. I get fives as change all the time, even when it would make more sense to get a ten.
Maybe it does. At my local casino, cashing in (say) $50 in chips or a slot ticket will get you two twenties and two fives. Ten dollar bills don’t seem to exist there (though they will gladly take them).
This is a thread from 2006 asking the same question. One suggestion was that ten-dollar bills were less common because the merchant or bank has to pay for each bundle of bills they order, and the fee is higher for ten-dollar bills than for five-dollar or twenty-dollar bills.
Good find, Dewey Finn. I wasn’t aware that this had been going on for this long.
But I’m pretty sure Antinor1’s suggestion there was wrong. All currency notes larger than $1 come to banks in straps of 100. The fee for $10 straps would have to be more than twice that of $5s to make ordering twice as many straps of $5s preferable (and why would that be?). And that’s without taking into account the additional till space and counting time such would require.
I actually tend to see the opposite of this. Many places I frequent (convenience stores, auto checkouts at the grocery and a few mom and pop type places downtown) will give me two $10s rather than one $20 when I get cash back. I always assumed they dumped $20s (along with larger bills) into the safe on a more frequent basis than the smaller bills as a robbery preventative.
I’m in small town, midwest USA, FWIW.
As it happens, earlier today (before this thread), I was given two $5s back instead of a $10. And I did notice that the $10 slot was empty in the till. It varies from place to place, but overall I have no doubt that $10s and $50s (and of course 2s and .50s) are rarer than they should be if everyone was handling currency in the mathematically ideal way.
Next time I get cash, I’m going to get it entirely in those denominations.
Back in the dark ages, slightly after the Earth cooled, I ran a movie theatre. Tickets were $4.75. I started to get $200 in halves in my change order each week. The staff at the bank looked at me like I had sprouted a second head, complete with tendrils. The method to my madness was that two tickets were $9.50, so the box office would hand over the tickets and the half dollar. Patrons would look at it with a WTF expression, walk over to the concession stand, and spend it. At the end of the night, I would sell them back to the box office. The owner would get all butthurt, saying “Why did you get halves?”, which was followed by “Why is the per-head higher here then the other theatres in the chain?”. He was not the brightest bulb on the marquee.
Of course, I never mentioned that I was buying about three bucks of silver halves from the rolls each week, as well as silver certificates…
I have, even in these latter days, seen a few sports and music venues using halves at concession stands, where all items are priced to work out to multiples thereof. Everybody pays with paper (if not plastic), so it makes more sense than constantly handling pairs of quarters.
I’m in Toronto and I rarely get two fives instead of a ten, for what it’s worth.
Postscript:
Upon further reflection, my cash spending is disproportionately skewed towards buying lunch at fast food places where a meal is in the $6 to $10 range, so it’s not surprising that they would have lots of $10 bills on hand from paying customers.
If I did most of my cash shopping at a dollar store or a convenience store where there are lots of purchases in the $2 to $5 range, I wouldn’t be surprised at getting a lot of $5 bills in change.
I’ve been seeing more ten dollar bills in the last few months. Recently I got forty over on a debit card purchase, and received it as four tens. It’s definitely a first, and suggests the banks may be pumping more of them into circulation.