US dollars

[Mikko]

I recently went through the foreign money that I have left from travels abroad and noticed that I have some fairly old American money. Most of them are from the middle of the 90s, but one 10 dollar bill is from as far back as 1985.

Is there a risk that these bills will expire (assuming that they haven't already)? I'm not planning on going to any country that uses US dollars in the near future, but it also seems a bit pointless to exchange them just for the sake of it.

[Death Mage]

AFAIK they don't expire, and if they did, they'd then be worth more than face value as a collector's item.

[KingPin]

In general US dollars do not expire. The date is used to get a general determination of when they will be taken out of circulation. US dollars are pulled out of circulation when they are older or worn out. Your US currency is good... until our Government self destructs!

[Fried Egg]

Hmmm...interesting.

In the UK, our notes are changed every few years. Alledgedly to make it more difficult for counterfitters. There are deadlines for getting your old notes into the bank before they become obsolete. Infact, it probably also helps insure that people don't hoard money somewhere. It forces people to either spend their money or invest it in a bank.

[extropalopakettle]

No, they don't expire. Does money expire anywhere in the world?

I've got a 5 dollar bill on my desk from 1963 that I got as change the other day - I set it aside only because it's different in a few ways (and I don't thing all 5 dollar bills from 1963 were like this) - it says "Unites States Note" instead of "Federal Reserve Note" at the top, and the serial numbers and treasury seal are in red instead of the usual green.

[Duke Gnome]

That does msurprise me. In the UK the mint is always adding fancy new security methods to banknotes, and they are still only a couple of steps ahead of counterfeiters. Surely it would be relatively simple with todays printing technology to mass produce 1950's era banknotes?

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Warning, the above comments may contain traces of nuts

[Maroon]

What did the 5 dollar bill say to the 10 dollar bill?

[Beartalon]

I once paid for a fast-food meal with an old Canadian $20 bill, and my change was counted, I didn't understand when I received more than $20 back. I finally realized that the young cashier had probably never seen our old money before and he had assumed it was an American $20.

Our money keeps changing too, but except for the changing of $1 and $2 to coins, I don't recall a push to make people give up their old bills. I do know that as the banks take in the old currency, they simply forward it to the mint, thus taking it out of circulation.

[casinopete]

I've got a '57 $1 bill. It has the serial number and seal inked in blue. Perhaps more interesting is that it says "Silver Certificate" across the top, and "One Dollar in Silver Payable to the Bearer on Demand" across the bottom.

If it wasn't so cool in and of itself, I would be tempted to walk into some federal bank and make such a demand.

[Quailman]

Casinopete: The US Gov't took silver cretificates out of circulation in the 70's and ceased honoring that offer.

Mikko: The bills you asked about will indeed expire shortly. If you can gather enough, say $1,000 face value by contacting freinds and family, You may mail them to me and I will pay you thirty cents on the dollar for them. I'll even pay you in whatever currency you want, but I need to receive them by August 15.

[ZutAlors!]

From the horse's mouth: Even though the US Treasury has been redesigning US currency (one denomination at a time), they say this about honoring old designs: "[t]he Treasury Department has historically continued to honor previous designs of our currency. Furthermore, the Department has never recalled currency when introducing a new design."

On US Notes: "Both United States Notes and Federal Reserve Notes are parts of our national currency and both are legal tender. They circulate as money in the same way... United States notes serve no function that is not already adequately served by Federal Reserve notes. As a result, the Treasury Department stopped issuing United States notes, and none have been placed into circulation since January 21, 1971."

On Silver Certificates: "On March 25, 1964, C. Douglas Dillon, the 57th Secretary of the Treasury announced that silver certificates would no longer be redeemable in silver dollars... You may be interested to know that [this action was taken] because there were approximately three million silver dollars remaining in the Treasury Department's vaults. These coins had high numismatic values, and there was no way to make an equitable distribution of them among the many people holding silver certificates... Silver certificates are still legal tender and do still circulate at their face value."

[Courk]

Since we're talking about money, I have a ~1953 $2 bill that has a completely different picture than my other, ~1995 $2 bill. The older one has a picture of Monticello on the back, and the newer one has a picture of the signing of the Declaration of Independance on the back. The older one has a more jungle green color to it, while the newer one is more forest green. I like the newer picture better, but I like the jungle green color. I wonder if the declaration picture was added for the 220th anniversary.

[extropalopakettle]

There are still silver certificates in circulation, and they're legal money, but you can't get silver for them anymore. I still have a plastic vial of silver pellets that I got as a kid in the mid 60's by turning a few in during a one year period when you could do so.

Regarding counterfeiting, it might be easy to produce large quantities of counterfeit cash, but spending lot's of it is risky. You can't buy a house or car with it. You can buy groceries, and keep the change (real money), but do that enough times in one area and the Secret Service will be watching soon enough.

[Death Mage]

Last I checked, creating counterfiet money was not a crime. Attempting to spend it is.

[MatthewV]

I am told that in some parts of Russia you can buy 20 dollar bills for 5 dollars. Sounds like an excellent deal [hint of sarcasm]

If you find a quarter made before 1964 you should keep it- the amount of silver in them makes them more valuable than 25 cents

[Death Mage]

It's a 1975 quarter that you need to keep an eye out for. They claim they didn't make any that year because they were preparing the machines for the special 1976 quarter, but that isn't true. The machine broke early in the year, and it took them so long to fix it they decided to heck with it and modded it for the 1976's, but some 1975's slipped out. They are very, VERY rare.