Re: [82attendees] Old dollar bill not recognized at airport

["John R. Levine" <[e-mail]>]

The US has never recalled or revalued its currency, so every coin and 
bill ever issued by the US government remains legal tender.

But: most of the US currency by value is $100 bills, and most of the $100 
bills are outside the US, widely used as a store of value in countries 
where residents don't trust the local currency.  Not surprisingly, there 
are also a lot of counterfeit $100 bills in circulation, particularly of 
the older series that don't have the anti-forgery features of the new 
bills produced since 1996.  (There's a new series 2010 bill that hasn't 
been released yet because the anti-forgery features are so complex that 
they can't reliably print the bills!)

The bank is refusing your $100 because they think they think it may be 
counterfeit, or at least they're unable to persuade themselves that it's 
not.  I suspect all the banks in Taiwan have similar rules.  Joe's point 
about legal tender is irrelevant, since nobody has to accept a counterfeit 
bill.

Assuming your bill actually isn't counterfeit, perhaps one of the 
Americans at the conference would be willing to swap it for five $20s 
which are easier to negotiate here.

Regards,
John Levine, [e-mail], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly