Acceptance and Use of Older-Design Federal Reserve Notes (2024)

FAQs

Acceptance and Use of Older-Design Federal Reserve Notes? ›

Can I still use older-design notes? It is U.S. government policy that all designs of U.S. currency remain legal tender, or legally valid for payments, regardless of when they were issued. This policy includes all denominations of Federal Reserve notes, from 1914 to the present.

"Old" Federal Reserve Notes, 1928, 1934, 1950, 1963, etc. Most circulated Federal Reserve Notes from more modern series are worth no more than face value. Some of the early series notes (1928 and 1934) do carry a small premium, although for circulated notes this premium is small, usually 10% to 30%.

Damaged bills typically include dirty, worn-out, slightly torn, or defaced bills. These bills can be simply exchanged at your local bank.

Old paper £20 and £50 notes are no longer legal tender. We explain what to do with your old banknotes and where to exchange them. (Image credit: Photography taken by Mario Gutiérrez.) Old £20 and £50 paper notes stopped being legal tender in the UK on 30 September 2022.

Instead, Federal Reserve notes are supported solely by the government's declaration that "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" in the United States. Today, Federal Reserve notes circulate as money throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world wherever dollar-denominated transactions take place.

Exchanging old banknotes

Many banks accept withdrawn notes as deposits from customers. The Post Office will also accept withdrawn notes as a deposit into any bank account you can access at the Post Office. And you can always exchange withdrawn notes with us.

The difference between a United States Note and a Federal Reserve Note is that a United States Note represented a "bill of credit" and, since it was issued by the government itself and does not involve either lending or borrowing, was inserted by the Treasury directly into circulation free of interest.

As long as you have at least half of the bill left, most banks will gladly exchange it for you.

Is it too late to change old notes? ›

There is no deadline to exchange old banknotes with the Bank of England.

Pay them in at your high street bank or Post Office.

You can also exchange old paper banknotes for the same value in current polymer notes at 30 selected Post Office branches – you can view the full branch list on the Bank of England website. This includes the old paper £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes from the last series.

We'll give you new notes for old

Hand us your withdrawn banknotes. We'll give you the same value in current, valid polymer notes. Done.

They shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, or at any Federal Reserve bank.

If the banknotes are not genuine, Federal Reserve Banks send them to the U.S. Secret Service. If they are genuine and still in good condition, the notes are sent to depository institutions to fill new orders for currency.

Most of the $100 bills that sell for five figures, six figures or more are vintage currency from the pre-1914 era when bills became Benjamins. But plenty of C-notes from the modern era can also be worth big money — and they usually derive their value from their serial numbers.

Most $2 bills in circulation are worth exactly that: $2. And even though you don't see a lot of $2 bills in everyday life, they are still being printed. The Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) planned to print up to 204 million $2 bills in 2022, CNN reported.

Unless it has a unique feature, like a low serial number or misprint, a newer $2 bill likely isn't worth much more than $2, even if it's uncirculated.

If you think you might have possession of a bill that's worth more than its face value, you can go online to look up the serial number. To test it out, we looked up the number on a random $5 bill at MyCurrencyCollection.com.

“A serial number '1' for a 1976 $2 bill would be worth $20,000 or more. But [for] a majority of those people holding 1976 $2 bills, they are only worth face value. There are very few that actually exceed face value.” Other high-value serial numbers include what collectors call “solid” or “ladders.”