http://www.dallasnews.com/business/stories/369309_bigbills_17bus.html Cashing in: Bank makes a mint after finding, selling rare $10,000 bills

05/17/2001

Bloomberg News

NEW YORK – Bank One Corp. reaped an unexpected windfall from its efforts to deal with the year 2000 computer bug: a stash of rare $10,000 bills and other large-denomination collectibles discovered in the bank's vaults.

The fifth-largest U.S. bank sold the 401 bills earlier this year for $575,000, or 60 percent more than their face value. The currency, found during an inventory of cash holdings prompted by the Y2K software bug, was made up of five $10,000 bills, three $5,000 bills, 198 $1,000 bills and 195 $500 bills.

"We had some large-denomination bills in the vaults that weren't doing anything" and could only be exchanged for face value at the Federal Reserve, said Robin Yocum, a spokesman for Bank One Corp. Instead, "we invited buyers and brokers to bid on [them], and made some money for the bank."

The U.S. mint stopped printing bills bigger than $100 in 1945. While the larger bills are still legal tender, the government has been removing them from circulation since 1969, making the remaining notes more valuable.

"The Bank One sale was the largest hoard to come on the market that I've ever seen." said Martin Gengerke, a currency specialist at New York auction house R.M. Smythe & Co. "Most banks know the premium on these things and are very careful about them."

Midwest Estate Buyers in Zionsville, Ind., put in the winning bid on the collection in February.

Within a month, MEB and its partner in the purchase, St. Louis-based Scotsman Coins and Currency, resold the bulk of the bills, said Brian McCall, Midwest's owner.

Resale value

"We made 15 percent on over half a million dollars in 30 days, and that's not bad," Mr. McCall said.

He said all of the bills have been sold except for one 1928 $10,000 bill, which MEB is trying to sell for $62,000. The other four $10,000 bills sold for between $28,000 and $65,000.

For bills that large "each one would have its own price, they're so rare," said Michael Bates, curator for the American Numismatic Society Library in New York.

The largest note ever printed was the $100,000 gold certificate, issued in 1934 and used only for transactions between Federal Reserve banks.

400 to 500 in existence

The $10,000 bill, bearing the likeness of President Abraham Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, Salmon Chase, was the largest denomination that circulated publicly. Gengerke at Smythe & Co. estimated there are between 400 and 500 still in existence.Other kinds of discontinued currency, like gold or silver certificates or national bank notes, can also command more than their face value, though they are no longer redeemable for the precious metals which initially backed them

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001