The other day I was watching an episode of the old Perry Mason TV show from the late 1950’s. I was stunned when Perry’s rich client presented him with a ten thousand dollar bill. This must be a bit of Hollywood fantasy I thought. There’s no such thing as a $10,000 bill.
But out of curiosity I did a little research and was surprised to learn that, yes indeed, there was a $10,000 bill. The government stopped printing them in 1934, and withdrew them from circulation in 1969 because nobody was using them. Today they are very valuable and a collector can get more that $400,000 for one!
There also used to be a $500 bill, as well as a $1,000 and a $5,000 bill. All were discontinued because people apparently didn’t want to carry that much money around. Today, all forms of cash are slowly being replaced by credit and debit cards. I guess all things go out of style at one time or another.
Just don’t let your faith go out of style for lack of use.