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I just read today in an Irish paper that Banks are not exchanging USD $100 bills.It seems that they are worried about counterfit bills right now and wont change these for Irish punts.

I'ts not only here in Ireland that there are problems with $100 bills. I had to go to a bank in Boston in March of this year to change some $100 bills as I could not use them in the shops. No one would take them!

Don't feel so bad, it happens everywhere. When my mom was here this summer, I took her to my bank so she could change some of her travelers checks. Well, they changed them because I have an account there. However, the next time we went in, they said they could only change so much due to this problem of conterfeit. She had American Express travel checks and they still said they have problems with those. Since they know me, they explained all the details of what goes on and I fully understood. You won't find this happen all the time, here in Italy, as it is usually a seasonal thing, but I am sure in places where you are not a known customer, there is a limit for everything.

Eamonn, By law a store must accept a bill even if it is a $100 bill. If they refuse, just walk out of the store with the item you were trying to purchase. I got a months free rent this way once. I went to pay my rent, they had a sign saying they would accept only checks. I put down my rent in cash and they refused to take it. I had the secretary sign a statement that I had tried to pay my rent in cash and was refused. After she signed it I said thanks for the free months rent and walked out. The owner came to me later and tried to get the money. I told him I would see him in court - which he didn't have the nerve to try as he knew he was wrong.

You must be a charming tenant, John. And so I suppose if you walked around with only a one thousand dollar bill and tried to buy things and stores wouldn't take it, that you can legally walk out of the store with the items? You are so full of it!

The Department of the Treasury removed $1000 bills from circulation years ago, so anyone refusing to take one as legal tender for any transaction would be well within their rights. (U.S. President featured on it was Grover Cleveland.)

I can't verify John's position. However, any retailer (I think) has the right to choose with whom they do business. Therefore, as long as the don't discriminate against a protective class, they can decide not to do business with people who only use 100 dollar bills, etc., or so I would think.

Haven't I seen signs in 7-11's and gas stations that say they will not accept anything larger than a 20$ bill? Are they all in violation of the law? You mean I could walk out with anything in the store if they wouldn't accept my $100 bill and I'd be within the law? Hard to believe!

I think, actually, they would accept the $100 bills (at a 7-11, etc.), but they just may not have change therefor. There is no law that someone maintain tons of change (smaller bills and coins). So, give em a 100 and get change for a 20!

I think those signs are so they don't have to make change for the large bills. I'm sure they'd be happy to take the $100 for just about anything in the store. (The law only says they have to take the money as payment - doesn't say they have to return change.)

I'm confused. So you're saying I get a coke that costs $1 and give them a $100 bill and they give me back $19?

The concept of "legal tender" in the USA (I'm from Canada) goes back to the good old days of the Articles of Confederation, before the constitution. Like most politicians, colonial Americans found that the solution to their governmental finance problems was to print money. Naturally, goverment paper money was not considered worth anything after a while; merchants wanted coin (gold, silver) or a more reliable currency like the British currency. So the government passed a law requiring a creditor to accept any payment "tendered" in the "legal tender" of the country. (Seems to me it was the Massachussets Commonwealth that did this. Any History students here?) Most countries, once they started printing their own currency passed laws like this. Official government paper currency, as opposed to bank "Banknotes" or emergency scrip, is a relatively recent tradition. Canada does have a "nuisance limit". A merchant can refuse more than 50 pennies, etc. The previous poster is right, though. The merchant can escape the problem by offering to accept the cash, but promise to pay you your owed change later. Would you like to continue?(ha, ha) For Amex Travellers' Cheques, they aren't goverment legal tender, it's the merchant's discretion. There is also a common law that says if a creditor refuses an honest offer of payment on a debt, the debt is cancelled. A landlord who says "pay me the whole $500 or nothing!" will get nothing. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm sure someone who is can clarify the details of this...

Legal tender, good for all debts public and private. Remember when cash was king? The key to John's success was that he made an honest effort to pay his debt with legal tender, and then got a signed note that it was refused. The landlord was screwed by his own policy, as diligently upheld by his employee. I have often wondered about government establishments that post they will not accept cash. Although I can understand some of the reasoning (making change, lack of traceability/accountability), it seems rather strange. I have often considered trying the "John" approach. Does Tommy Hilfinger wear his own designs? There was a point where individual states and banks were printing their own money (not much of it was worth the paper it was printed on), this led (as in Led Zeppelin) to federalizing the printing of money. Of course, no one HAS to use money, there have always been alternatives. Dennis Moore, I think, preferred Lupins. I see that Confederate money is once again worth something.