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$100,000 US banknote//how much should I buy?


bergewitz

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Hi there, just decided to pick up a coin collecting hobby and started to contact old folks who I know own some great stuff. Some of them are friends so I'm likely to get some free, and some in "reasonable" amount. I happen to stumble on my friend's grandfather who claims he has a couple of 100,000 US dollar bill.

 

I thought he was joking so I made some research and found out that the US Treasury did make said banknote around December of 1934 to January '39. I printed pictures and got some details and went back to the old man. To cut the chase, I convinced him to convince me to prove that he's not pulling my leg.

 

He showed me one and it was the same as the printed photo. Pres. Wilson, black front, orange back, I even copied the numbers of the gold certificate. I also convinced the guy to let me photograph the banknote.

 

Now here's the deal, assuming it's for real, which I think is, how much would or should I pay because he's willing to sell but doesn't know the price range he should give it?

 

Any thoughts anyone?

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The 100,000 Dollar Gold Certificate is the highest U. S. denomination. Only 42,000 were printed. They were used only for transactions between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. These notes were never issued for public circulation. When the Government stopped using them, most were destroyed.

 

It's illegal for a private person to own one of these notes, and none has ever been in private hands.

 

So odds are whatever your friend has is a fake!!!!

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I have seen one, really :ninja: , at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. They probably don't give tours post 9-11, but when I was in High School my class toured the FRB there. I guess for most of us the most interesting part was going down in the vaults and seeing the money. They had a small exhibit with the large denomination notes, many of which are now on their website. They also carefully handed out and kept track of samples of counterfeit money for us to examine, and then made sure it all came back.

 

The largest note that most people will own is a $1000 bill, and even in heavily circulated condition they are going for over $1600 now. The $5,000 and $10,000's are quite rare, I believe on the latter there are only about 300 or so still in circulation that the Treasury has not collected. As a result they usually go for over $40,000 apiece.

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Any thoughts anyone?

 

 

Quite a few, starting with this one..... Yeah, right!

 

Rule # 1 about making things up: At least make your story believable. :ninja:

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I'm agreeing with Brett. But who knows? The 1933 Saint Gaudens wasn't available to the public either. You either have an illegal ultra-rarity, (very highly unlikely), or a copy, (much more likely). Can you show us some of the pictures you took? It'd be a lot easier to answer if we could see the actual notes/serial numbers.

 

Just searching EBay, I came up with this :

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/1934-100-000-Wilson-GOLD-CERT-Copy-New-Example_W0QQitemZ200073356459QQihZ010QQcategoryZ40030QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcm

dZViewItem

 

It's possible you might have one without "COPY" stamped on the bottom.

 

Welcome to Coinpeople!

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The 100,000 Dollar Gold Certificate is the highest U. S. denomination. Only 42,000 were printed. They were used only for transactions between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. These notes were never issued for public circulation. When the Government stopped using them, most were destroyed.

 

It's illegal for a private person to own one of these notes, and none has ever been in private hands.

 

So odds are whatever your friend has is a fake!!!!

 

I never quite understand American currency when it comes to collecting rarer notes & coins. I believe that also owning a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin of a certain year is also illegal and (as with this $100,000 note) will be confiscated (sp) if the federal reserve knows you have one

 

Why though? It's their own error if they managed to get into circulation.

 

When the Bank Of England was designing Edward VIII coins a few threepence brass pieces got into circulation & rather than them being illegal & confiscated (sp) they usually go up for auction at very high prices.

 

In some cases if it is a rare one (such as a 1933 one penny, although you are highly unlikely to ever see one of those anywhere) the Bank Of England has been known to take an interest in them & even offer if they're rare and not in their museum, usually if it is roman coinage or coinage of say Henry VIII

 

The Bank Of England never seems to deem them illegal, even banknotes with printing errors although they do advise that they should be sent back if only to stop arguments with shop keepers :ninja:

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for the 1933 $20...i think the story is some worker stole around twenty pieces and replaced them with his own coins from earlier years. so the books listed all coins accounted for, and they believed all pieces destroyed. he smuggled them out, and sold them to collectors and a king...whose coin is the only one legal to own, i think. i've heard of the 1964 peace dollar...but i'm not too familiar with the illegal SBA.

 

but back to the $100,000 note...it was never made available to the public. it's sole purpose was to facilitate the transfer of large sums of money between the federal reserve system. if one made it out of the system and into the hands of someone in the public, that's federal grand theft. i'm not too familiar with buying/selling stolen property...but if you pay someone for a $100,000 note and the government finds out, i'm sure they would get their stuff back and not reimburse your loss.

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for the 1933 $20...i think the story is some worker stole around twenty pieces and replaced them with his own coins from earlier years. so the books listed all coins accounted for, and they believed all pieces destroyed. he smuggled them out, and sold them to collectors and a king...whose coin is the only one legal to own, i think. i've heard of the 1964 peace dollar...but i'm not too familiar with the illegal SBA.

 

but back to the $100,000 note...it was never made available to the public. it's sole purpose was to facilitate the transfer of large sums of money between the federal reserve system. if one made it out of the system and into the hands of someone in the public, that's federal grand theft. i'm not too familiar with buying/selling stolen property...but if you pay someone for a $100,000 note and the government finds out, i'm sure they would get their stuff back and not reimburse your loss.

 

 

Yeah but if it's their mistake, which can happen (click link at the bottom of my post for a £10 note that should never have made it into circulation), then why should they take it back, it doesn't neccessarilly mean it was stolen, just that it got put into the wrong pile at the Federal Bureau and distributed out in error.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MISPRINTED-1993-BANK...VQQcmdZViewItem

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Thanks for the reply, guys! I learned the treasury made such note for gold transactions, made a few, and wasn't intended for public use. That's why I was curious to see the 100K note, on how the guy got a hold of one because like you guys said, it could be of ultra-rarity, or a fake, and I really don't know how to tell, but on the illegal part, I don't want to be tangled up with something like that. About the pictures, I'll download them in a couple of days or so if needed, shot it with old school camera (film), A00000417A/serial number.

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Yeah but if it's their mistake, which can happen (click link at the bottom of my post for a £10 note that should never have made it into circulation), then why should they take it back, it doesn't neccessarilly mean it was stolen, just that it got put into the wrong pile at the Federal Bureau and distributed out in error.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MISPRINTED-1993-BANK...VQQcmdZViewItem

 

Yes, but this denomination isn't even remotely close in face value to anything that could be issued to the general public, and would had been printed and kept seperately, far far away.

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yeah, you can't really compare the two. error notes are usually missprinted legal banknotes that sometimes escape scrutiny and quality control checks and make their way to the public/collectors.

 

a $100,000 banknote is u.s. government property, and has no business being in the hands of somebody not working in the u.s.treasury/federal reserve bank. there's no such thing as accidentally misplacing one of these. if it's out, somebody stole it with intention.

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Thanks for the reply, guys! I learned the treasury made such note for gold transactions, made a few, and wasn't intended for public use. That's why I was curious to see the 100K note, on how the guy got a hold of one because like you guys said, it could be of ultra-rarity, or a fake, and I really don't know how to tell, but on the illegal part, I don't want to be tangled up with something like that. About the pictures, I'll download them in a couple of days or so if needed, shot it with old school camera (film), A00000417A/serial number.

 

 

any luck with developing the pictures?

 

also, make sure the note they have is exactly the same size as a regular 1-dollar bill.

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yeah, you can't really compare the two. error notes are usually missprinted legal banknotes that sometimes escape scrutiny and quality control checks and make their way to the public/collectors.

 

a $100,000 banknote is u.s. government property, and has no business being in the hands of somebody not working in the u.s.treasury/federal reserve bank. there's no such thing as accidentally misplacing one of these. if it's out, somebody stole it with intention.

 

 

Fair enough, I keep forgetting it's high value & the fact in the UK the highest we have in circulation is a £50 note, although apparently £1,000,000 notes exist (for internal reasons obviously)

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I have seen one... at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. They probably don't give tours post 9-11

They still do give tours, Fridays at noon, you must arrive about 10 (or more) minutes early, you need current gov't issued I.D. No food or drinks, no cameras, no umbrellas (I went recently on a sunny day and they couldn't stress the no umbrellas ever-in any weather enough)...be prepared for airport style security measures. The public 'walk-up' tour is an abbreviated tour, you don't get to see any currency handling or processing but you do see the currency collection. If you have a group and book the tour in advance, it is a longer tour, you do see currency being processed.

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iot might be real, might not be even if it was real , is it worth the possiable hoopla and red tape you would have to go through

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Here is a link on this note at the BEP site: Bureau of Engraving and Printing Website - $100,000 Gold Certificate

 

I would note the last sentence on the page, "This note cannot be legally held by currency note collectors."

 

There is also one in the Smithsonian: Smithsonian $100,000 Note. Apparently it was a gift from the treasury in 1978.

 

I also saw an uncut sheet of these notes at the BEP's traveling exhibit at the Portland ANA in 2004. As I recall, the sheet did not have printed serial numbers and was overlaid with "Specimen" over the notes. In short, if your relative or friend or you actually have a real one of these notes, expect a knock on the door as the secret service will be interested in talking to you.

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