The issue of white 100 USD bill in Lebanon
today.lorientlejour.com>In a statement to L’Orient Today, the US Embassy in Lebanon said that “it is US government policy that all designs of Federal Reserve notes 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 present.”
I don't know if the statement was actually made "that day" but the article is dated less than a year ago on 07 DEC 2021. Interestingly 80 years after PHD.
This seems like very up-to-date confirmation of a long-standing government policy, which some may think is therefore long overdue for change.
What if earlier issues were to be accepted for only a limited time to come, and further, exchangable for current bills only domestically? Depending on how far back the issues go which would turn out to be expired, this could amount to a little skirmish or even a significant salvo in something like a currency war.
If all brand new bills were prepared for this purpose, and all previous issues canceled, this would effectively require all foreign owners of US currency to register their "current" stake.
From what I understand Lebanon's Bekaa Valley has been the source of many high-quality counterfeit bills (article here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar ), so merchants' refusal to accept old bills is understandable.
Most of the stores I interact with accept it -as long as it passes a bill checker- but they take a commission -usually 4$- on it.
I don't think they'd take it at all if there was a risk to lose 96$ on it.
People who have access to a fresh dollar bank account[0] have the ability to deposit the old bill and then try to withdraw it again in hope of getting a new bill.
A couple of services spun up that take lower commission for bulk conversions e.g. 2$ instead of 4$ for each 100$.
[0] https://www.bbacbank.com/banking/personal/account/fresh-mone...
Makes sense to be wary of older bills. Newer ones have many more security measures. Makes more sense when you're in Lebanon where there may not be as much scrutiny over the circulation as there would be in the USA.
Sad for Lebanon whichever way you look at it