#Non sequential bills full#

For a money launderer, terrorist henchman, or blackmailed husband, resorting to $50 bills would require two briefcases.

#Non sequential bills full#

A Zero Halliburton attaché case full of $100 bills in their mustard-colored straps can only hold about $1 million. But removing large notes such as these would make life extremely difficult for criminals. But recent calls for eliminating the large euro bills have set the wheels in motion, despite the preference in German and Austrian to pay cash for many purchases.ĭo you know how heavy a briefcase full of $100s is?Ī world without a $100 or €500 note would be an inconvenience for the relatively small group of people that actually likes making big-ticket purchases in cash. Eventually, the €500 was approved-apparently without much of a fight because Germany really wanted it-and the $100 is obviously still around. Back then, Treasury Secretary Summers maintained that large denominations were 'highly irresponsible and mostly would be a boon to corruption and crime.' He even proposed killing the U.S.'s $100 bill to walk his talk. In his op-ed, Summers remembers opposing the high-denomination €500 in the late '90s when the euro was being designed. The dubious use of high-denomination bills has actually even earned the €500 note a nickname: the ' Bin Laden.' According to the study, only 1% of shady transactions are seized by authorities, and this has a massive effect on the world by way of tax evasion, corruption, terrorism, and garden-variety money laundering for criminal enterprise. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Summers cites a new study from Harvard's Kennedy school by banker Peter Sands-he's President Emeritus of Harvard-that made a strong case for the elimination of the £50, the €500, the Swiss CHF 1,000, as well as the $100 because large currency notes such as these are the 'preferred payment mechanism of those pursuing illicit activities, given the anonymity and lack of transaction record they offer, and the relative ease with which they can be transported and moved.' Summers has called for the $100 bill's execution, just as the Financial Times reported that the European Central Bank is planning on killing another big bill overseas, the €500. Now, former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence H. Even bank robbers eschew these bills ('give me non-sequential $20s, no $100s'). Most people feel compelled to apologize and ask for permission before they pay with a $100 bill at shops and restaurants, and some stores won't even accept them. building on it (Independence Hall is in Philadelphia), and one of two that doesn't feature a president (Hamilton's $10 is the other). It's the only bill that doesn't have a D.C. The $100 bill represents wealth and success, as a currency's largest denomination well should.īut the $100 has always also been the black sheep of American currency.

On the one hand, the 'It's All About the Benjamins' attitude has been a strong staple in popular culture. The $100 bill has always had a complicated relationship with the public.