Why can't I get a pack of fifty, new $1 bills from the bank?

@LuckyGuy Would you believe she was correct. Not that it’s a rule, but they don’t get new bills any longer, other than some around Christmas time. I called my bank. They only get used bills.

Hmm. That’s interesting. But someone gets new currency! It’s printed all the time to replace old, worn and damaged currency, and (given the pace of Quantitative Easing, since that’s what we’ve now agreed to call it), “new money” is definitely being created and may be required in the form of currency some day. (And there aren’t enough bills currently in circulation to meet the demand that could be created if that happens.)

Have you thought of asking for $2 bills, @LuckyGuy? Since there’s a lot less demand for them, they may be relatively uncirculated (but they may also not recirculate, which would tend to kill the fun, I suppose, even as it doubles your cost).

I worked at a bank this past summer and when the bank gets new bills in they are required to mix them in with the older ones before handing the bills out to customers.

It is a weird thing. They can’t ‘create demand’ for newer bills because, in a sense, it increases their value over the other bills. It is such a basic pattern of economics it is almost embarrassing to explain because people, psychologically, are so silly when it comes to demand/supply and how the mentality of what they want ‘and-they-want-it-now’ demand creates issues out of things you would never have guessed. Closest comparison I have for you is designer labels/counterfeit designer labels. It is all in their heads, but the demand is created and ‘voila’ you have a market for something that didn’t exist before. That simply can not be allowed when it comes to tenderable currency.

Having consecutive bills would make entering the data much easier. To enter bills into the Wheresgeorge system you must enter the complete, correct, serial number. Obviously it is much easier to do if the bills are consecutive and you can cut and paste everything but the last 2 digits. Oh well.
Often, I get consecutive $20 bills out of the cash machine. I figured $1 bills would be used and replaced more often than $20s.
@cazzie I’d gladly pay the US treasury a mark up of 10% ( $5 for 50 – $1 bills) It would save me so much time. Maybe that is our way out of the financial crisis. ;-)

I will go to the bank today and get 100 bills and pick out the nicest ones.

This might fix your problem. http://www.moneyfactorystore.gov/

these things are offered, for a premium price, in limited amounts.

and… I KNOW you would be pay extra for crisp consecutive bills, but that creates a systemic problem in the provision of currency for its face value. (the reason they don’t do it is because people don’t understand the problem it would create…, so I guess I should expect that people don’t understand ..) LOL

@cazzie I just went to the site above. It is from the US Bureau of Engraving. They are selling “Lucky 777” $1 notes for $5.95! Apparently, they are not too concerned about the economy falling apart if they sell some new bills at a markup of ~ 500%. I want to pay 10% more for bills that will go right back into circulation. Those 777 bills will only go into circulation when the owner is down to their last $ and decides to buy their last lottery ticket, some crack head steals it, or a young relative gets it in grandpa’s will. ;-)

No, @LuckyGuy those are items they aren’t expecting to OR counting on being traded as legal tender. Significant difference. Not ONLY that, the US Bureau of engraving is not the Treasury and they don’t actually have the power to put currency directly in circulation.

I kind of put that up as a joke because you obviously didn’t understand the point I was trying to make. Do you have ANY idea how much new currency is added to the system every month and how much old stuff is taken out? It is significant and can’t mess with its value.

But if mr crack head steals that 777 bill to buy his dime bag isn’t that legal tender? And isn’t it going into circulation? Or… do they figure it is too low a volume to be concerned with it?

I am sure the clerk at the booze shop will take the money and then put his own bill in the till and keep the special bill, if they have any clue at all. I think they may be marked in some way, though, so they don’t get put into circulation. I am out of touch with some of the new laws that came into effect. There was something passed in 1994 after there was a big screw up with some badly printed stuff being released… But that framed special stuff is a very, very small volume compared to the roll out of regular currency that goes on.

Again… I don’t live in the US, so I only remember some of the principals from learning economics at school YEARS ago.

I got my 100 bills, sorted them into three piles: nice, ok, and worn. I had about 35 in the “nice” pile and picked the best 15 from the “ok” pile . I then entered all 50 bills into wheresgeorge.com . It will be fun to see where they end up. The comment attached to each bill tells about the event I am hosting. The whole process took about an hour. Not too bad.

Well done, and it sounds like really good fun. Good luck!

Weird, I thought of another way of getting nice crispy currency. Walk into one of your large Walmart stores or the like and bring in some of the bills that weren’t so nice and crispy and ask if you could exchange them for some of their nice bills. If you have a friend who is the manager of one of those stores, you might be able to wrangle the favour.

I now have a pile of 50 wrinkly one dollar bills. I’ve been paying my restaurant bills with them. Last night I said to the cashier “Sorry for all the ones. My wife is a dancer at Enchanté.” She didn’t know if I was kidding or not.

hahahahaha! Brilliant.