Yes, I had Canada in mind, and the British pound.
I believe that you can redeem Swiss coins all the way back to 1850(and US coins as well). British coins can only be redeemed back to 1970(I believe).
I can redeem German coins and currency to 1950. The stuff before then isn’t redeemable(for obvious reasons).
The problem with the arguments along the line of “it’s never been done” is that the counterfeiting technology has never existed before. I’m too lazy to look for a cite but there was a situation a few years ago where a Swiss printing press maker was shipping presses of the highest technology to North Korea. Presumably, these were being used to counterfeit greenbacks.
That should be enough of an incentive to withdraw old currency. We need to have modern day solutions to modern day problems.
Basically, our government does the right things for the wrong reasons and the wrong things for the right reasons.
The old money comes to mind a plot from a Janet Evanovich mystery. The guy was spending money and Stepahnie (the heroine) realized the money was too old and something had to be up with it, like it was stolen etc.
Sure you could keep money in a mattress for the last 30 years but you’d still have to explain it. If you could fine, but if it’s counterfiet how would you?
I’m pretty sure the biggest problems in money counterfeiting are not ma and pa with a copy machine, but rather sophisticated large-scale operations overseas. And it seems like it would be pretty easy to catch on to a huge number of old bills suddenly turning up in some random country.
For example, the most recent reason for redesigning bills comes from superdollars, which would have surely been detected earlier if they were old bills. And for the conspiracy minded, there is the theory that the CIA was involved in the production of superdollars. There could be forces at work we can’t even begin to make sense of.
This PDF on counterfeit currency published by the Fed provides some interesting background. It puts particular emphasis on the fact that foreign holdings of US currency is a good thing for the US and is based on the dollar’s perceived stability.
Anyway, rest assured there are people whose only job is to think about this stuff. Entire departments whose only job is to find the best ways to deal with these problems. People with decades of training and experience. If they thought devalueing money would be a good move, they would recommend it. Thus far they havn’t.
I am 100% sure they know what is better for our national interests than some yahoo speculating on the internet.
I think the closets the US ever came was after Pearl Harbor. All bills sent to Hawaii were stamped HAWAII. If the Japanese ever took the islands the US Govt would have immediately demonitized all said script (you can find them for sale on eBay).
I’m too lazy to pull that cite, but I recall the same.
But when the US updates its currency, I understand that it becomes more difficult to use the older $100 bills in foreign countries.
"Then they should buy gold. "
No they should not: gold is a rather volatile store of value. What you may have intended is, “That’s their problem.” But it isn’t, or at least it’s not their’s alone. The US makes billions annually off of Seniorage.
I’m pretty sure the wear could be quite easily faked - stick them in a tumble dryer with some dirty rocks or something. I’m not an expert, but I can’t see this being an obstacle to a skilled forger.
Why don’t they simply stop printing dollar bills? After all, there are the dollar coins.
What would this achieve?
The problem, internationally, is 100 dollar bills. No one counterfeits $1 banknotes.
It would save the US Treasury a lot of money.
That might be true in the ‘grand scheme of things’ but I had a buddy in college that printed off ones, fives and tens. Kept them in his pocket for a few days to wear them out, then used them for pizzas and keg partys. He wasn’t willing, I don’t think, to take the risk with big bills at real stores, but handing a fake $10 bill to a somewhat intoxicated doorman at 10:00 at night outside of keg party, was a great way to get some (real) change.
ETA, before anyone jumps on me, I had nothing to do with it. It was entertaining to watch him print, wear out and use them successfully, but I never had any part it in. He ended up getting caught anyways…that was bad.
Looks like a large, untapped market, then.
OP here, sorry for late reply as I had a medical procedure to contend with.
My goal with demonetizing is to screw over all those drug lords and other scum who hold wads of $100s (as some else mentioned, most of those bills are held overseas).
Anyone showing up with suitcases of old builds will have to do some explaining in order to justify the amounts they have. Jacques DrugDealer isn’t going to have a viable explanation and isn’t going to get his money exchanged.
Honest folk with bills to exchange have no need to worry.
Except if they find some bills stashed away much later than the exchange period.
What’s the point? Why do you want to destroy the world’s faith in the dollar’s redeemability? What’s wrong with people having bills stashed away?
Ok, I can see the OP’s point now.
But there are a lot of honest people who would be screwed over by this. Plenty of people of modest means in 2nd and 3rd world countries have hundred dollar bills socked away to protect them against high domestic inflation.
And organized bad guys have access to money laundering professionals. Sure, they would put a dent in their profits, but I doubt whether it curb their illicit activities much.
The word is scrip, isn’t it?
Well, it you want to be correct and accurate… :rolleyes:
Great. How 'bout letting us in on the secret?
He wants to, “…screw over all those drug lords and other scum”. So do I. That is beneficial. Some years ago Ed Koch recommended that we ban the $100 and $50 bill altogether for similar reasons.
But there are disadvantages as well, overwhelming ones.
Yes, it I want.