Sunday 11 October 2009

Funny Money Alert!

I went to the ATM today and drew out $300 in cash. I got two fifties and ten twenties. All of the twenties were crispy-fresh, but four of them look like this:



And six of them look like this:



Crispy-fresh OLD twenties? WTF?

For the record, their serial numbers are:
EWR6868939
EWR6868944
EWR6868945
EWR6868947
EWR6868948
AYL5936480

That last one is one digit short.

This would be good time to launch funny-money. Long weekend, banks closed.

This is fishy, yes? Anyone know anything about counterfeit money?

UPDATE: The teller at the bank said the money was fine. I asked her to exchange it anyway. No problemo.

I just hadn't seen an old twenty -- in any kind of condition, let alone brand-spanking new -- in years.

So, now we know. Old money is good.

9 comments:

deBeauxOs said...

Was it an actual bank ATM or one of those generic cash dispensers that work with Interac?

With the former, I feel pretty confident that if you go the bank on Tuesday with your withdrawal slip to challenge the authenticity of those $20. bills, I expect there'd be immediate accountability if they were counterfeit. It isn't necessarily their own branch staff that stock the machines, but I believe the banks have the means to look into it.

As for one of the generic ATMs, the store owners would likely refer you to whatever company services them.

fern hill said...

Actual bank, dBO. So, maybe I'm good?

Xist, I hope so. I really can't lose $120 at the moment. But then, who can?

Anonymous said...

fern,
major-league scam going on here in Western Australia involving Maccas (McDonalds for those not hip to Aussie-slang) and serious ETPOS/Credit Card theft (to the tune of about Au$150,000+)...

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,26189503-5017962,00.html

Becoming scary to deal in anything other than cash...'till your story came along...YIKES!!!

Poose

Anonymous said...

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't see a problem.

The last note's serial number looks legitimate with a three letter prefix and a seven digit number.

All the bills you enumerated have a 3 & 7 configuration. The last note is not a digit short.

The AY_ series probably dates from later than 2003--the date of my book Canadian Government Paper Money--and probably bears the signatures
Knight Dodge.

Again, I don't see what's wrong with the 3-7 combination in the last note. Can you further elucidate?

fern hill said...

Torontonian, you are obviously not ignorant.

The problem is that I thought these old bills were taken out of circulation and yet the ones I've got are brand new.

The bank branch opens at 8 -- I just checked -- so I'm going there first thing and find out.

Will report.

Anonymous said...

I've seen the occasional 1991 series notes in circulation. Granted, they are rare but they are there.

fern hill said...

Torontonian: As I said in an update to this, I took the bills to the bank and they're fine.

I have a question for you -- where were those spanky-new bills for the last however-many years? Why wouldn't they have been released before now?

OK, that's two questions.

Anonymous said...

Janet,

The AYL note was part of a 140,000,000 print run of notes from AYA to AYP.

The EWR notes were part of a 80,000,000 print run of notes from EWR to EWZ.

Just because legal tender has been supplanted by a newer series of notes doesn't mean it's lost any value at all. I surmise someone overestimated the number of notes needed and when the new series of $20 notes came out in 2004, they had an awful lot of the older ones in stock.

Why shred them if they still have a useful life?

The information comes from page 306 of Canadian Government Paper Money.

I hope what little I've offered answers your questions.

fern hill said...

140 million and 80 million. Zow. That's a lot of paper.

Thank you very much, Torontonian.

Post a Comment