Jim D -

In my area, I have the opposite ATM problem. I don't know how general it is, as I only use ATMs with reciprocal waiver of fees for Credit Unions, but about two years ago all the CU ATMs began dispensing $50 bills. Since you can only withdraw in $10 increments, at most you can get one $10, one $20, or two $20s. The rest of a larger withdrawal is always in $50s.

When they first started doing this, I had several refusals to accept the $50 bills; although none of them indicated it was because of "regulations." Businesses, especially small ones, simply didn't keep enough change on hand to be able to take larger bills. The businesses seem to have adjusted, since most places hardly notice a $50 anymore. A few places, especially large grocery stores, barely even look at $100 bills. Bills of $50 and larger often get "marked" with the felt tip pens the cashiers keep to "reveal" the new anti-counterfeit markings, but $100 bills with those markings have not been released yet so far as I know.(?)


For those interested in variations in US notes, a second hand copy of the 1914 $10,000 Federal Reserve Note I mentioned early in the thread is reported as an image from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's website.

John