> In general banknotes have their design changed every 10-20 years, and very old banknotes are no longer legal tender
IIRC, the US has never declared any version of its old currency not-legal-tender, and no-one would have any problem spending any US banknote that in any way resembles the current ones in size or shape.
I don't believe US banknotes change design that frequently. In europe bank notes change design every 5-10 years and quickly stop being legal tender a 3-5 years afterwards...
> That’s another one of those US-isms that blow peoples minds: that dollar bills of any age are legal tender.
That's not so impressive when the National Bank of Sweden for instance is legally obliged to exchange any banknotes it issued for current ones, regardless of their age. You can theoretically get current money in exchange for a 17th century obligation or certificate issued by the bank, though even early 20th century notes are worth more as collection items than their nominal value.
Apparently, how money works in most places but not in the US...
I can't imagine it would be very controversial however, if US authorities announced that "in 10 years, banknotes older than the 1960's will be invalid, you can exchange them for new notes before that". Why would it be controversial? It would be a big change after having so old money being legal tender, but it would be understandable not least because old money without modern features is likely much easier to counterfeit than new.
In any case: banknotes expiring completely or being made invalid/replaced by new editions with the same denomination isn't anything strange, even if it would be news in the US. So in that light, removing some denominations of Euro notes wouldn't be controversial. Remember: all the EU countries already quite recently had ALL their original banknotes made invalid (after period of conversion, which I believe has ended a long time ago in the original EUR-countries).
Yes, the design is routinely changed to make the currencies more safe against falsification. And the old currency is often taken out of circulation simply by wear and tear. But it is the sign of a stable economy that legal tender does not have an expiration date.
"Note that it is U.S. government policy that all designs of Federal Reserve notes remain legal tender, or legally valid for payments, regardless of when they were issued. This policy includes all denominations of Federal Reserve notes, from 1914 to present as per 31 U.S.C. § 5103."
https://www.uscurrency.gov/acceptance-and-use-older-design-f...
> In my wallet I currently have a couple hundred in US currency from years 2003 to 2014
Confusingly enough the year on US Bank Notes is not when they were printed. For example, the current series is "2017A", which started being printed in 2019.
> You would need to completely remake all bills in circulation with a new style and make invalid the old style...
It takes a while for all the old bills to get out of circulation though -- a few years ago I got my hands on a $20 bill from 1970 and the kid at the corner store almost didn't take it since they had apparently never seen one that old, probably didn't help it was nice and crisp as well. Only thing I can imagine is someone was saving it from their birth year and had to spend it for whatever reason since $20 in 1970 was over $100 in today's dollars so they lost a bunch of value holding that bill.
It's still a loss of value. When they were new, they could be exchanged everywhere for their face value (minus a few percent for the commission). After a few decades, they can be exchanged for their face value only in certain places. Who knows what will happen after a few more decades? Will they still be accepted anywhere?
In my country, if you still have any local currency bills or coins from before 1994, they're worthless except as a collector item. Won't surprise me if the same happens one day to old US dollar bills.
>In a statement to L’Orient Today, the US Embassy in Lebanon said that “it is US government policy that all designs of Federal Reserve notes remain legal tender, or legally valid for payments, regardless of when they were issued. This policy includes all denominations of Federal Reserve notes, from 1914 to present.”
I don't know if the statement was actually made "that day" but the article is dated less than a year ago on 07 DEC 2021. Interestingly 80 years after PHD.
This seems like very up-to-date confirmation of a long-standing government policy, which some may think is therefore long overdue for change.
What if earlier issues were to be accepted for only a limited time to come, and further, exchangable for current bills only domestically? Depending on how far back the issues go which would turn out to be expired, this could amount to a little skirmish or even a significant salvo in something like a currency war.
If all brand new bills were prepared for this purpose, and all previous issues canceled, this would effectively require all foreign owners of US currency to register their "current" stake.
> “Small-faced bills are not accepted.” The face in question is Benjamin Franklin’s. The black market generally offers 3 percent more for newer $100 notes with Mr. Franklin’s enlarged portrait because they are harder to counterfeit.
I fear we are headed this way even in the U.S. For decades, I've been holding within my residence some for-emergency-use currency in $20s, $50s, and $100s, but am now slowly replacing all my older Benjamins ($100s) with newer ones I get from the ATM every 4-6 weeks. I haven't had much problem spending the older ones (I guess higher prices means making change isn't such a burden for retailers anymore), but they do often get more scrutiny, testing with the special pen, etc.
> Old paper £50 notes will still be accepted in shops for some time.
I find that amusing because I suspect that in practice not many shops accept them. It's hard for me to know because despite having lived in the UK for about half a century I've never had a £50 note.
Perhaps they have a plan to bring the new £50 notes into use. If today's cash machines only have the hardware to dispense two kinds of note they could replace the 20s with 50s. But inflation is low and cash is generally on the way out, so probably not, I would guess.
Generally when there is a major change to a currency (such as the move to polymer banknotes [an awesome Australian invention] in Australia 15 years ago) the old style bills only remain in circulation for a short period, perhaps a year or so.
Within a couple of years, the old style notes become so exceptionally rare in everyday transactions that the presence of one raises eyebrows, and is inspected carefully. While our older style notes are technically still "legal tender", I doubt you'd find a single retailer across the country that would accept it.
Bills are redesigned and go out of circulation all the time. USD is a bit special because it has been a de facto currency in many places outside the US for a long time, but that doesn't change the fact that anyone who sits on a $100 bill in whatever country, must be prepared to head to a bank and exchange it for a new $100 or two $50 before that $100 bill is no longer valid.
When there is a new design for any banknote, which happens every now and then (new security features added and so on) the issuing authority usually puts and end date to the old version a few years into the future. Otherwise it becomes very hard for the central bank to know how much money they have in circulation, and also they don't get the full benefit of the new security features if a lot of "old" money circulates along side it. As an example, I don't think any of the paper money I have in my wallet is of a design that has been valid for 15 years, or will be valid in 15 years from now. I have lived through the retirement of at least 10 different designs over the last decade, and at least three denominations were removed entirely.
That said, the use of US dollars outside the US might not be too sensitive to changes. I remember german D-marks still being a thing in the balkans even after the germans themselves switched to Euro!
> but issue different paper money while exchanging the old bills out of circulation
While they're at it they could bring the notes into the 20th century by making them distinguishable from a distance and less easily damaged. If you need to distinguish the old notes from the new ones to prevent anyone getting scammed, might as well kill two or three birds with the one stone.
> nearly every dollar bill I've had in the US has been grimy and darkened and felt like it was three seconds from falling apart.
Yeah, that's how they are, but feeling like they're going to fall apart and actually falling appart are two different things.
> Though your $20 notes are usually in excellent condition for some reason compared to the british equivalent.
$20 bills tend to get picked up at the bank, spent at a merchant, and deposited at a bank. Banks will send worn notes to be retired. Many businesses don't take bills larger than $20, so don't use $20s to make change. It's uncommon to pay vendors and employees in cash, so merchants end up with a surplus of $20s that need to be deposited.
$1 bills are used in change, so they tend to get exchanged frequently. Few consumers will deal with $1s at a bank, and many businesses won't ever deposit them, but may need to make withdrawls in $1s so they can make change. They tend to pass through many hands before they get back to a bank where their condition can be checked.
Not if you consider the fact that the USA has 10x the rate of counterfeit notes: 1/4,000[0] Vs 1/40,000[1]. Obviously there are other factors too but this is likely one of the reasons for deprecating old notes like this.
IIRC, the US has never declared any version of its old currency not-legal-tender, and no-one would have any problem spending any US banknote that in any way resembles the current ones in size or shape.
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