Several U.S. bills are being redesigned with watermarks and special 3-D threads so that counterfeiters cannot copy them. But what good does all this do if the old bills are still legal tender? Won’t the counterfeiters simply continue copying the old bills as long as they are still circulated?
Are there any plans to officially discontinue the old bills at any point in the future?
The old bills cycle out of the system rather frequently even though frequently would mean a few years. They stop making the old ones as soon as they make the redesigned ones but there are still some of the old ones to be released into circulation. This is 2007 and if you see an influx of crisp 2002 $20 bills come into your bank, that is a big tip-off that something is up and, over time, it will become obvious to the average cashier as well.
I am not sure why you are questioning the utility of such a thing. There is no other way to do it and it just takes a little time.
FTR I wondered the same thing and I guess the answer makes sense, but couldn’t a counterfeiter “age” the new bills?
SSG Schwartz
It’s surprising how obvious it is when you get the old style. I got two old-school twenties out of an ATM the other day. After a few years with the new bills they really jumped out. No fancy colors, Jackson’s head is so tiny…
Also, counterfeiting even the old bills is a tricky process, and a lot of it depends on familiarity. The person trying to pass bad money wants you just to take it without thinking because getting good bills is routine–nothing to see here, this is not the fake twenty you’re looking for–but when someone comes in with one of the old style bills you think “hey, that’s weird.” Hey, that’s weird is a bad reaction from the counterfeiter’s perspective.
Sure there is: Demonetization. But this route appears to be prohibited by US law:
I was puzzled by Shagnasty, too. Plenty of countries are happy to change banknotes at will. The new twenties still scare me, I’m sure ‘Adam Smith’ is a joke. Beyond a certain date, old English ones are only exchangeable at the Bank of England itself. For countries which have switched to the Euro, disposing of old notes is surely a central bank matter by now.
How do you ‘age’ a banknote?
Crumple it a bit? Put some of them through a washing machine? Put lots of them through low-level sweaty-pocket regimes?
Either (a) it’s really really hard to age banknotes, or (b) it’s so obvious that they’re doing it already and we’re screwed
I received change not too long ago that included a late 1950’s $10 bill. It had a very deep green color on the back. I thought it was fake, but it was real. Especially in contrast to the red and purple bills that have been coming out lately. I put that one in plastic to keep for awhile.
Does this mean old, pre-Federal Reserve, notes issued by private banks and state treasuries at still valid? :eek:
Notes issued by the US government, starting in 1862, are legal tender. Notes issued by private banks and States are not.
Someone had a old $100 bill with a gold seal, and the store thought it was counterfiet and wouldn’t take it.
That’s probably worth more than face.
I still occasionally get a silver certificate. I always wonder why people don’t see them and snap them up, but I figure they’re unobservant. Yesterday I was in a city watching a dollar bill on the sidewalk. After 25 people walked by and did not even seem to notice it, I went outside and picked it up.
Yes, but both are possible answers why the Gov’t still allows old bills to circulate- they are so rare due to being taken out of circulation due to several factors (collecting being one) that dudes would look upon being paid with a stack of them with much suspicion.
As a matter of interest I recently found a US dollar bill and a Canadian dollar bill both from the WW2 era. Are they still valid?
The silver notes that they’re finding probably aren’t the ones that actually say “ONE SILVER DOLLAR” on the bottom. Even though it still says “silver certificate” at the top in smaller print. Although still distinquishable from todays dollars via the blue seals, the later ones that don’t say silver on the bottom will be used (spent) rather then collected.
That is one approach. Every so often you will see a news report about counterfeiters getting caught because someone got suspicious as to why they were washing a bag full of “money”.
Of course they are.
The US bill is, unless you have a"occupation bill" in which case I am not sure, but it is certainly worth more as a collectable.
(The US printed some special bills in case the Hawaiin islands were occupied.)