Cash & Bills: Everything you need to know about valid, invalid, or damaged currency

I was just wondering if anyone knows where I could go to exchange some old cash... you know, like swapping those old bills for actual dollars, if that's even still a thing people do? Somewhere around the Chicago area would be great. thanks in advance 🙂

Jerry Thompson6 said:I can’t seem to find any twenty-dollar bills anywhere. It’s becoming a bit of an issue. $1.75So, what’s the deal with them in the end? There aren't exactly many of them out there, so I'm wondering—how does one actually track them down?

They were pulled from circulation ages ago...

Hey there! I ended up with a 50 USD bill, but the local exchange booths are turning me away because it's an older design. I even tried at JPMorgan Chase and they gave me the same runaround. Does anyone know where I can go to swap this out here in the States? I might even try heading over to New York City if that works better.

This is the one I'm talking about:

The only option you've got is to send it via direct deposit.

I'm not quite sure what an automatic withdrawal is—could you break it down for me?

I’m fairly certain this bill still counts as legal tender regardless of how old it is, though banks and exchange bureaus absolutely have the right to turn it away if it lacks the necessary security features or looks too worn out...

Your best bet is to go through a process called redemption. Essentially, the bank takes the bill from you, but instead of handing you cash on the spot, they send it back to the issuer—in this case, the Federal Reserve—on your behalf.
The issuer then pays the bank the equivalent value, depending on the situation: if it's legal tender, you get the full amount; if it's damaged, the value might be slashed by a certain percentage; if it's been decommissioned, there's some kind of buyback value; and if it's invalid or a counterfeit, they aren't paying you a dime. Keep in mind, the final payout might also be slightly reduced to cover the issuer's processing costs.
When you submit a bill for redemption, your bank will typically charge you a fee—usually a flat rate per note—to cover the hassle of handling it.

The big prerequisite for any of this is having an active US dollar account set up so the bank can actually deposit the funds once they receive them.

Ethan Sanchez2 said:They were pulled from circulation ages ago...

Actually, they haven't been in circulation since 2007. I even saw one single note worth $1.75 selling for $6.75 on an auction site recently.
Does anyone actually know why those $1.75 bills were taken out of circulation?

They haven't been withdrawn. If the Federal Reserve is lying, then I guess I'm a liar too!

That’s the truth of it. Only the ones marked with October 31, 1993, are actually invalid.
But why on earth are they such a rarity?

It all comes down to the fact that minting coins out of $1.75 is simply more cost-effective. As for those $333 bills—they aren't exactly rare per se, but since they aren't used much, we really only saw that one single run back in 1993, and honestly, they haven't even worn out yet!

What exactly does it mean when they say they aren't being circulated anymore? The reality is—if we look back five or ten years—notes featuring $1.75 were everywhere. Nowadays, I see people offloading them online for $6.75 just to get rid of them. You used to be able to pick these up at any local corner store, but those days are long gone.

Hey there!

So, I just had a complete disaster on my hands... I was trying to pull a $500 bill out of this metal box (and please, don't ask me why my grandmother keeps her cash stashed in there 🤦), and the damn thing got snagged on a sharp edge and ripped right down the middle.

Is there any way to swap a torn bill for a fresh one? Anywhere at all? Is there even a chance?

restlessscout5 said:What exactly does it mean when they say they aren't being circulated anymore? The reality is—if we look back five or ten years—notes featuring $1.75 were everywhere. Nowadays, I see people offloading them online for $6.75 just to get rid of them. You used to be able to pick these up at any local corner store, but those days are long gone.

My take is that out of roughly 150 million bills currently in circulation, nearly 50 million are being replaced by newer ones every single year. Even though a $1.75 bill remains perfectly legal tender, once a worn-out one hits the Federal Reserve, they don't bother swapping it for a fresh banknote; they just issue a coin instead because the production costs are significantly lower.

boldfalcon13 said:Hey there!

So, I just had a complete disaster on my hands... I was trying to pull a $500 bill out of this metal box (and please, don't ask me why my grandmother keeps her cash stashed in there 🤦), and the damn thing got snagged on a sharp edge and ripped right down the middle.

Is there any way to swap a torn bill for a fresh one? Anywhere at all? Is there even a chance?

It’s the exact same process as it is for that Canadian dollar bill mentioned earlier... just head to a bank and handle it through a teller.

I picked up some cash at Citigroup yesterday and ended up with these old $20 bills that haven't been in circulation since June of this year... what am I supposed to do? They won't be any good to me here in the States, and I actually need them for something in two days—it’s not like I can just drive to a big city easily since I live out on an island. Am I even in any legal trouble just carrying these around?

You can actually exchange all those old USD bills at the Federal Reserve without paying any fees.

Kenneth Sanchez85 said:I picked up some cash at Citigroup yesterday and ended up with these old $20 bills that haven't been in circulation since June of this year... what am I supposed to do? They won't be any good to me here in the States, and I actually need them for something in two days—it’s not like I can just drive to a big city easily since I live out on an island. Am I even in any legal trouble just carrying these around?

I actually had something pretty similar happen to me a few years back when I was heading out on a business trip to London; I ended up with this weird mix of old and new bills and didn't even realize it until I walked into the first shop I visited... I just popped into a local bank and they swapped them out for me without any fees or even asking questions...

Just keep in mind that banks usually only handle things in the morning, and you'll mostly find just one or two staff members inside surrounded by a dozen different electronic kiosks...🙂

Hey, wondering if anyone's got experience or maybe some intel on where I could go in Washington, D.C., to swap out some old Austrian, Canadian, Canadian, German, and Czech coins for USD?

Hey everyone...
So, I got back from my graduation trip this summer with about $30 sitting in loose change—just a bunch of coins... I was hoping to swap them for USD so I could actually do something useful with the money... but all the currency exchanges and banks have been giving me the cold shoulder.
Does anyone know if there are any banks in San Francisco that will actually take coin (50 cents and up) and exchange it for cash? Thanks...

Joshua Davis said:Hey everyone...
So, I got back from my graduation trip this summer with about $30 sitting in loose change—just a bunch of coins... I was hoping to swap them for USD so I could actually do something useful with the money... but all the currency exchanges and banks have been giving me the cold shoulder.
Does anyone know if there are any banks in San Francisco that will actually take coin (50 cents and up) and exchange it for cash? Thanks...

Actually, just a few days ago, I saw this guy standing right in front of me in line at a Citigroup branch—well, it was down in Washington, D.C.—and he was successfully swapping out his coins... you should definitely give it a shot there, and since I think Citigroup has a branch in San Francisco too, you might have some luck with them... good luck!

Hi there.
Can anyone point me in the right direction for exchanging a damaged twenty-dollar bill?
Thanks.
🙂