Here's what I did for bring-along money
 

Ok - I just ordered my "new" money from the bank. I had no idea whatsoever what I was doing, so here is what I did:

$300 in $1 bills
$100 in $5 bills
$200 in $10 bills

Is this OK or should I call and redo this?!
Thanks again everyone!!!!!

That's plenty. You may find it hard to give out 300 $1 bills, but if you do, you'll be the most popular person in Zambia. I would knock $100 off the singles, and bring some more $10s, or even $20s, which are better for tipping guides.

I would probably go $200 for each. In your 16 days, you would currently have to give away about 19 $1 bills per day to use them all.

By going with $200 in $1's, you will still have more than 12 $1 bills per day.

Drats...beat by seconds by the dreaded Thit Cho! ;)

Thanks guys! :-)

That's a lot of $1s. And where are the $20s which are good for total guide/ranger tips. I never bring more than 100/$1s and still have plenty left over.

Truth be told, mine aren't all new. Actually stood at the teller window last week counting everything and any bill I didn't like, turned it in for a replacement. Guess, that's what Sherry would consider "behaving badly" - but they're my bank buddies! Besides the teller laughing at my antics, the manager came over and said "she must be going to Africa, we go thru this with her for all her trips." Good that there was no one else waiting. That would be behaving badly!

When I recently got our US money at the bank, I made the mistake of;
a) getting the really detailed, not-so-bright little old lady that they keep on staff for some reason and
b) telling her I needed fairly new 'big head' unmarked US bills.
Now remember, we are in Canada, so tellers only have 'some' US cash in their drawers - but this teller took it upon herself to find me 500.00 worth of the BEST bills in the entire (very big) bank. One and half hours later she reappeared - absolutely pleased with herself but wondering why I looked so tired and bedraggled from standing at her wicket for 1 1/2 hrs....
Good side story here though about this teller - last summer (in the dead of the heat of the summer), she was handed a note from a guy who had his right hand tucked inside his very heavy overcoat, and had on a ski cap. She read the note, which as you all can guess said 'YOU ARE BEING ROBBED', She read the note, and very politely told the man she would be right back - she then proceeded to walk into the manager's office (his name was Rob) and tell him someone was asking for him. He read the note and immediately told her to get back to her wicket and give the guy her float without any more delay! So, back she goes, apologizes to the guy who by this time was frantic with nerves, and gave him her float - and, while doing this asked him if he would like her US money as well. 'Just give it all to me and quick' he said, so she did. As her was walking (well practically running) she called out and said 'Please make sure you get a good exchange rate on that US money!' The other tellers could not believe this lady...
Anyhow he didn't really have a gun, he was caught and they did not find any gun on him.
Just had to tell that story!!!

LyndaS, That was a hilarious tale!

So that's 100 $1-dollar bills for each cooncat! If you cut back to $200, as Thit Cho mentions, you will probably have enough room to carry on the binocs with no problem. Those bills are cumbersome.

You can start counting in minutes now to your departure.

Lynda - Too funny! I admit I had to read it twice to figure it out, but that's just me! ;-)


I know - I can't imagine packing all this cash, but... Oh well!!!!! I did switch to the $200 for each.

I'll be in touch ....

Lynda - funny story.

Gosh I learn something new on this site every day! Now I even know all about tipping.

Loved your bank story. Still giggling...

I know I am late to this thread, but can someone tell me the significance of getting "new" bills? I had not really thought about getting all of this tip money, but now I see the necessity, so I will get to my local bank branch before I leave. But why is it I need the new bills??

Thanks, I am new to this!

Mary

Mary,
The bills don't have to be brand new, just not too worn and preferably the more recently minted "large head" ones. I don't make a special trip to the bank as I don't bring that much USD cash with me. I just look through my bills and pull out the obviously torn and really old ones. Once in Kenya, I hit an ATM and use shillings for tipping local staff.

The reason why they want relatively "new" bills is because of counterfeiting concerns. The bills with the large heads are relatively new and more difficult to counterfeit than the older bills. The US$100 bill is the most counterfeited bill in the world with $20s and $50s not far behind.

I don't know how widespread counterfeiting is in Africa, having never been, but I do know that its a big problem in South America. I was in Peru last year, and was warned ahead of time not to take any $100s that started with a specific serial number. Apparently, a large number of counterfeit notes were being circulated with those numbers. I ran into a number of Americans who suddenly found that nobody was taking their money because it had the suspect serial numbers. Also, people didn't like bills with dirt or smudges because those could be indications of a counterfeit bill. Also, tears in the paper tended to indicate a poor quality of paper - again, an indicator of a counterfeit.

I imagine that suspicion of currency based on these indicators of a possible counterfeit have extended across all denominations as a matter of course. There really is no reason to suspect a $1 bill of being counterfeit since the economics of counterfeting such a low denomination bill make it an unlikely candidate. However, the practice of not accepting torn, discolored, dirty, smudged, etc.. bills has become so ingrained that it extends to everything.

Thanks, lifelist, for stating the actual reason. I was trying to come up with one and all I could think of was "that's just how they like their bills" :D

When we were in Ecuador, it seemed like the merchants would always give us their dirtiest, rattiest looking bills as change. By the end of our trip, we had quite a collection ;)

I also heard that because some of these country don't have their money backed up, they feel that old bills will no longer stay in circulation. Print new bills and old ones become obsolete. Kind of like confederate money.
Sherry

Sherry,

That's a possible reason. A large percentage of US currency is circulated outside of US borders. This is because of its stability as a currency. Unlike in the US, older bills will continue to circulate and thus become worn. In the US, the banks will routinely exchange the most worn bills for new bills. The old bills are destroyed.

Also, many countries that are in economic distress have problems with their currency. Rapid inflation will cause bills to become worthless. In some countries, large stacks of bills are stapled together because the money has become so devalued that it takes a lot of it to buy anything. Other countries try to fix this by changing their currency. Ecuador took the simple step of adopting the US dollar as their currency. So, suspicion of currency is a habit in developing nations.

The US is deeply conservative about changing its money. We like a stable dollar, and don't change it very often. Other countries try things like different colors, sizes, plastic paper, and see through panels - all in the interest of foiling counterfeiters, and to a certain extent, improving the usability of the currency. For example, different sizes help blind people differentiate bills; different colors for each denomination makes it easier to recognize. For us, putting a big head on the money is a huge step, and even then, the bills still look like Monopoly money to me.

My wife and I traveled to Indonesia in October, 2004. We were told not to bring $100 bills with serial numbers beginning with CB. Evidently, there was a counterfeiting scandal involving CB bills in Thailand at the time, so no money changers would accept those bills. Not sure if that is still the case, but we will probably avoid those bills when we put aside our money for our East Africa trip this July.

What would you do with even $200 in 1 dollar bills? We've never been on safari before, but it seems hard to imagine how we would use all those bills. Please fill us in before we head to the bank. We were planning to focus on 10s and 20s, but maybe we've got it wrong.

mandelieu,
Where are you going?

I've been on a couple of safaris and find it hard to imagine what I'd do with 200 $1 bills too ;)