Is America Ready for Higher Denomination Bank Notes?
With $100 bills often declined and digital payments on the rise, some are asking whether it’s time for higher-denomination U.S. bank notes—or a shift away from paper money entirely.
A reader recently wrote, “Very few merchants accept $100 bills even though inflation has made them more common. More and more merchants who accept larger notes are declining to accept the older $100 bills due to lack of security features and counterfeiting of most older bill designs. As the dollar declines in value, I wonder if we will see $500 bills during my lifetime. Or will paper money be made obsolete by digital dollars?”
One of the problems with our physical currency is just how far our currency system is behind compared to countries elsewhere around the world. Not only have we failed to withdraw the $1 bank note in favor of a coin of the same value, but some countries have even higher denomination coins in circulation. Some of these nations have upped the highest bank note denomination they are willing to produce.
We get it that higher denomination bank notes could become a convenient way to hide and fail to report wealth, but that’s speculation. Considering it costs more than 3 cents to mint a 1-cent coin, how much longer will it be before the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) office mandates that it’s time to adjust our change? And it should be interesting to see what Elon Musk and the DOGE will have to say after they learn about the expense and time that has been put into trying to kick Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill in favor of Harriet Tubman (who incidentally already appears on several coins) at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Perhaps a $500 note shouldn’t be in the offering, but what about a $200 or something else that is friendlier to use, considering the higher cost of just about everything?
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