1. The $100 is the highest value bill in circulation in the United States. The US stopped producing denominations larger than $100—$500, $1000, etc.—during WWII and halted distribution in 1969. While these larger notes are legal tender and may be accepted, the Federal Reserve Banks destroy any that are received.


2. Myanmar black market moneychangers will give you a better rate on hundreds than on $50s or $20s—and they better be clean and free of creases or they might just turn you away. Apparently Burmese moneychangers are a little OCD.  


3. Rumors of a new $100 have been circulating for several years now with not much to show from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It is supposed to combine micro-printing with tiny lenses—650,000 lenses for a single $100 bill—that will move the printed images as you move the bill. To me, this sounds like the optical illusion cards that come with Cracker Jacks.
4. The U.S. dollar has served for decades as the predominant coin of the realm for international black market transactions. Approximately three-quarters of all $100 bills circulate outside the United States. Strangely enough, the supremacy of the dollar in this shadow economy has given the U.S. economy a boost. Since most of these bills will never return stateside, this outflow of U.S. currency now serves, in essence, as a gigantic interest-free loan. A few economists have predicted that the relatively new 100 and 500 Euro notes will soon supplant the $100 bill as the worldwide shady currency of choice due to the Euro’s higher value and now near-worldwide acceptance.


5. Traces of cocaine are found on nearly four out of five bills circulated in the U.S., yet the $100, $5 and $1 have much lower traces than the $10 and $20. The truth is that probably only a fraction of these bills have actually been used to snort cocaine. Most contact with the fine powder probably comes from incidental contact in wallets, cash drawers, and money sorting machines. Random stat: Nearly 100% of Irish notes are said to contain cocaine traces.


6. The $100 bill represents 11.9 percent of all U.S. paper currency production, with the average bill expected to last 89 months in circulation.


7. The clock on the back of a $100 bill shows the time as 4:10. According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, “There are no records explaining why that particular time was chosen.”
8. There have been calls to demonetize the $100. (I had no idea that demonetize was a word.) Given its predominance in underworld transactions, and the lack of ordinary businesses that still accept $100 bills, some economists and pundits have called for the elimination of the hundred. We’re not just talking about removal from circulation, mind you, but a total demonetization (spellcheck thinks it’s a real word, too). Basically, give people a year or two to turn in all their hundreds, and after a certain point, they would no longer be valid U.S. currency. This would cripple money laundering enterprises, shut down major black market enterprises, and hurt our enemies, the proponents say. I say that if we can’t get rid of the penny, what hope do we have of writing off old Ben?
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#3 the optical illusion cards that come with Cracker Jacks.
It is called lenticular printing.
posted by JFRANKO on 1-8-2010 at 2:20 pm
No. 2 is true in D.R. Congo, as well. If it’s not crisp they won’t take it but Congolese money can be wadded up, smugged and smell like a gym sock (and usually does).
posted by Jared on 1-8-2010 at 2:21 pm
A couple of things..
I work in a bank so I am very familiar the the $100 bill. You would not beleive how many older people have no idea that the largest bill we could supply them with was a hundred. I wish I had a thousand dollar bill for every time I’ve heard “Don’t you have thousand dollar bills?”.
Also same older people often like to draw out very large amounts of money to stick under their mattress or something. I once had to sit in a back office with an older gentelman and another teller while he counted the $70k in cash he wanted. It took him over an hour and that was with hundreds (suprise he thought we could do thousands). If I had to do that with twenties or even fifties there is a chance that I would have killed him. So never ever get rid of the hundred.
The penny though, that can go. Stupid Illinois, I blame them for the penny.
posted by Brit on 1-8-2010 at 2:45 pm
Cracker Jack. There is no “s”
posted by Lee on 1-8-2010 at 2:58 pm
If there is cocaine on 4 out of 5, I bet there is fecal particulate on 5 out of 5.
And no, I’m not interested in proof.
posted by sean on 1-8-2010 at 3:20 pm
@Brit – I also work in a bank (credit union, technically), so I totally grasp your pain with the $100s and elderly.
I think it’s a general rule that anybody traveling outside the country must have clean hundreds — I’ve heard that of European and Central American countries. I think China, too.
I like the large (much easier to count back than fifties or twenties), but I’m so ready to get rid of pennies.
posted by OkieMelissa on 1-8-2010 at 3:21 pm
Didn’t Nic Cage say it was a different time (i.e., not 4:10) on the clock on the back of the c-note in “National Treasure”? Does this mean that there are different times on different bills? Or did Hollywood say something untrue? I find both to be highly implausible. ;-)
But honestly, why would the writers of “National Treasure” make up such a meaningless (in terms of plot) fact? What’s to be gained by the inaccuracy? And since they actually show a close-up of the clock tower with hands corresponding to the (apparently) wrong time announced by Nic Cage, that means they had to have a fake $100 bill. Wouldn’t it have just been easier to borrow a real one from somebody rich and use that for the shot?
End of rant. If I had a life, I’d go back to it now. ;-)
posted by Frozen in ATL on 1-8-2010 at 4:57 pm
@Frozen in ATL – a quick google search answers your (and my) question. In the movie Nic Cage says the time is 2:22, which is different than reported here! Except…that means the hands are in the same place, just that someone (Nic or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing) is reading the minute hand as hours and vice versa. I’m glad someone else thought of that too!
posted by Daphne on 1-8-2010 at 5:20 pm
The money exchange houses here in Mexico give you a better exchange rate for the $100 than for the other denominations.
posted by Steve C on 1-8-2010 at 8:02 pm
If they drop it then what will P.Diddy sing about?
posted by chris n on 1-8-2010 at 9:32 pm
Excuse me…”cripple money laundering enterprises,shut down major black market enterprises, and hurt our enemies”…I think there is a big “DUH” here. Wouldn’t these enterprises accept Fifty and Twenty dollar denominations? Money is money. Can someone explain why removing the Hundred would get rid of all these “enterprises”???
posted by M. Forrest on 1-8-2010 at 11:02 pm
Everyone is entitled to an inexplicable paranoid (likely crack-pot) theory or two – mine being that I am weary of our over-reliance on plastic as a payment method. I pay in cash whenever that’s an option. The thought of them demonetizing the $100 makes me want to wave my hands in the air and exclaim “the end is near, Big Brother is coming for you!”
posted by Lynnie on 1-8-2010 at 11:36 pm
4:10, April 10 is the 100th day on the calendar.
posted by Randy on 1-10-2010 at 11:29 am
Yeah, no ripped/dirty notes accepted in Russia either.
And (while it makes no difference to me) you should totally get rid of the penny. I’m from New Zealand originally, where there is now no coin smaller than a 10c (10c, 20c, 50c, $1, $2) and now that I live in Europe it’s such a pain handling all that small change!
posted by Gwan on 1-10-2010 at 1:03 pm
well Irish notes are euros so its not all our fault, its the europeans in general
posted by sookieboo on 1-11-2010 at 5:15 am
When I returned to the US from an extended stay in China, I had currency from both China and Hong Kong that I needed to exchange – and I was unable to exchange some of it because the moneychangers here at home wouldn’t accept anything less than pristine bills, and they wouldn’t take the coins at all!
posted by Mama9cats on 1-11-2010 at 10:16 am
If they demonetize $100 bills, what happens in 20 years when I find a that briefcase full of Bens in the wall of an old house?
posted by Codius on 1-11-2010 at 10:35 am
@codius— sell it to a museum of antiquities?
on a side note; reCAPTCHA:
Man emulsion… ew
posted by Fate on 1-26-2010 at 3:31 am
@Randy: I’m not sure if that’s right, but I love it! :) Hey, a theory is better than no theory!!! ‘eh?!
posted by Drina on 3-16-2010 at 2:49 pm
If your the police you didn’t read this, but as someone who “previously” produced and sold large amounts of cannabis to America. I have to say that eliminating the $100 bill wouldn’t have mattered. It would simply make my clients have to buy bigger briefcases.
posted by PushDaKush on 2-5-2011 at 9:45 pm