# Son of currency thread: Ban $100 bills?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [April 9, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659 "2008-04-09T20:48:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/1 "2008-04-09T20:48:25Z")
[Here](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_030.html) Cecil mentions a proposal to discontinue $100 bills because they’re often counterfeited. Um, ban the most useful & valuable bill, but keep the worthless cent piece? How…American.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/2 "2008-04-09T20:58:50Z")
It has been a long time since I used a $100 bill, and I very rarely use $50 bills. Practically all transactions at that level and above in the US are paid using credit cards, debit cards and cheques – except perhaps for illegal transactions, like paying for hookers & drugs, which I have no experience of. I agree that the penny should be abolished, but the $100 bill would not be missed either.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/3 "2008-04-09T21:24:14Z")
Cecil’s column was written in 1994, when prices were different than today. Heck, a penny had some value back then – not a lot, but some.
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### Author:  [@Vern09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vern09)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/4 "2008-04-10T06:22:34Z")
Ban the $1 bill. Ban the one cent coin.
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### Author:  [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/5 "2008-04-10T13:22:15Z")
The $100 bill is the most useful? To whom? Maybe you use them for lighting your cigars or something, but I can’t remember the last time I actually used a C-note.
RR
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/6 "2008-04-10T14:01:11Z")
I agree the penny has overstayed its usefulness, but how is the $100 useful?
They could do away with the $100 & $50 at this point. Neither are commonly used and stores generally dislike anything higher than a $20. Most larger purchases are now done with Debit or Credit cards and checks. Banks do transfers electronically and do not use the large bills for said purpose anymore.
Why not kill the $100 and the penny and then think about eliminating the $50.
Jim
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/7 "2008-04-10T14:54:18Z")
We use $100 dollar bills all the time, although I must admit it’s usually in Vegas. Dump the half dollar and the dollar coin - those are useless.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/8 "2008-04-10T14:56:49Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
We use $100 dollar bills all the time, although I must admit it’s usually in Vegas. Dump the half dollar and the dollar coin - those are useless.
[/QUOTE]
Could you live without it in Vegas? This sounds like the exception and not the rule.
I remember when $100s were used to buy used cars and expensive stereo equipment, but it really seems like these are all done by card or check now.
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/9 "2008-04-10T16:00:05Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
We use $100 dollar bills all the time, although I must admit it’s usually in Vegas. Dump the half dollar and the dollar coin - those are useless.
[/QUOTE]
In what way is the dollar coin useless? Or rather, in what way is it of less use than the dollar bill?
.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/10 "2008-04-10T17:04:56Z")
[QUOTE=andros]
In what way is the dollar coin useless? Or rather, in what way is it of less use than the dollar bill?
.
[/QUOTE]
They are coins, and therefore heavy, noisy and unwieldy. Bills are better than coins for just about all denominations.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/11 "2008-04-10T17:12:51Z")
[QUOTE=Giles]
It has been a long time since I used a $100 bill, and I very rarely use $50 bills. Practically all transactions at that level and above in the US are paid using credit cards, debit cards and cheques – except perhaps for illegal transactions, like paying for hookers & drugs, which I have no experience of.
[/QUOTE]
My bookstore is in a small town. During the tourist season, we probably receive ten $100 bills per week and perhaps two or three $50s. I’d argue that the $50 is far less commonly-used and far less useful than the $100.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/12 "2008-04-10T20:20:36Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
They are coins, and therefore heavy, noisy and unwieldy. Bills are better than coins for just about all denominations.
[/QUOTE]
But bills wear out a lot faster and aren’t as cost-effective to produce as coins. The UK and Canada widely use larger-value coins and it works fine.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/13 "2008-04-10T20:40:29Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
But bills wear out a lot faster and aren’t as cost-effective to produce as coins. The UK and Canada widely use larger-value coins and it works fine.
[/QUOTE]
Yes – the largest value coins in common circulation seem to be the Japanese 500 yen coin, the British £2 coin and the Swiss 5-franc coin. [500 yen coin - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_yen_coin) These are all worth more than USD 4.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/14 "2008-04-10T21:15:50Z")
From what I’ve seen, C-notes are used a lot by people who don’t have checking accounts and such because they don’t believe in them or whatever. They literally cash their checks, so for $800 eight $100 notes is much more convenient than forty $20 notes.
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/15 "2008-04-10T22:14:44Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
They are coins, and therefore heavy, noisy and unwieldy. Bills are better than coins for just about all denominations.
[/QUOTE]
I’m with you, but people who share our opinion in the bills versus coins debate seem fewer and fewer.
> [@Elendil's Heir](#):
>
> But bills wear out a lot faster and aren’t as cost-effective to produce as coins.
Perhaps, but having spent significant time in England, I found a pocket full of pound coins to be far more annoying than a pocket full of pound notes (which I got when I visited Scotland). But I am also a guy who doesn’t like thick wallets or big keychains, so maybe that has something to do with it.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/16 "2008-04-10T23:06:13Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
But bills wear out a lot faster and aren’t as cost-effective to produce as coins. The UK and Canada widely use larger-value coins and it works fine.
[/QUOTE]
To me, cost-effectiveness is a “Who cares?” argument. So we save a few million dollars by using coins. So what? Compared to what the government wastes _every second_, that money is less than chicken feed. As for what the Poms and Canucks do…we did have a revolution, you know. What others do doesn’t mean it’s right for us.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/17 "2008-04-11T00:00:58Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
To me, cost-effectiveness is a “Who cares?” argument. So we save a few million dollars by using coins. So what? Compared to what the government wastes _every second_,
[/quote]
Like the time a Mars probe was lost due partly to a careless engineer, but mainly because our refusal to adopt metric measures extensively.
> [@](#):
>
> As for what the Poms and Canucks do…we did have a revolution, you know. What others do doesn’t mean it’s right for us.
And it isn’t always right to keep things different out of sheer obstinacy and stubbornness.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/18 "2008-04-11T04:03:54Z")
The wear and tear on clothing, wallets and the like will be much greater than the money saved by the mint, and the costs will be directly born by the citizens who are forced to use coinage they don’t approve of.
Fight coins! Paper Foney for All Time and All Denominations! Fight the Man!
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/19 "2008-04-11T12:59:35Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
…
Fight coins! Paper Foney for All Time and All Denominations! Fight the Man!
[/QUOTE]
With all of the anticounterfeiting measures and bizarre colors nowadays, U.S. paper currency _is_ looking pretty “foney.”
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/son-of-currency-thread-ban-100-bills/444659/20 "2008-04-11T17:14:35Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
With all of the anticounterfeiting measures and bizarre colors nowadays, U.S. paper currency _is_ looking pretty “foney.”
[/QUOTE]
I like the colors, actually. I’m glad to see that the older large-portrait twenties are beginning to appear less frequently and the colorful ones are replacing them. Same with the tens, although I don’t see that many tens anyway.
And I just saw the new five the other day. The only thing here that I don’t like is the gigantic magenta **5** on the back. I know it’s for a good reason, but did they have to make it magenta?
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