What happens to very old money/bills? Do they just get used until the last person gets it and it eventually disintegrates?
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Banks can send old bills to the Federal Reserve for replacement. So as old bills get deposited, the Fed will give the bank fresh bills and destroy the old bills afterwards. This is how most bills get destroyed.
If you have any old money or money that has been damaged (with at least 50% of the bill in tact) banks will replace those for you.
Banks trade them with the government for new ones, like when your clothes wear out and mommy and daddy throw those away and get you fresh ones.
Banks will replace old cash for you if you ask them to, or if you just deposit it into an account. The bank will send the old cash to the federal reserve who will destroy it.
Or if you spend it and give it to a business, then it will get replaced when that business takes it to their bank.
Banks take them out of circulation and shred them. They can actually be recycled in several ways.
Whenever a bank receives a note, it’s inspected. When it’s found to be too worn, it will be sent back to the central bank. They will count the bills, burn them, and then count the ashes. You’ll be surprised to see that they are recognisable even after burning.
Officially, when banks receive bills in poor condition, they can send them to Fed as “mutilated” for replacement.
Unofficially, enforcement of Fed’s standard for “mutilated” is… capricious. Wife claims she sent bills in her capacity as Vault Teller that were basically dishrags for replacement and promptly got them back.
I did a tour! Federal reserve bank-
When the money comes in , they have these huge machines that count and sort the money. If there is any problem with the bill, the machine automatically removes and destroys the bill, and accounts for it.
The 3 foot by 3 foot cubes with like 5Million bucks in them were cool to see… but the automated counting/sorting/destroying machines were impressive to see in action.
Within an ATM, notes that are damaged, or in poor condition are often sent to a divert bin, thus only dispensing notes of better quality. The divert bins’ contents are collected upon balancing, and sent back to the bank, where they are reported to the central bank and destroyed.
Source: former ATM tech
Every few years they create a new note.
New colour, new design, new anti- fraud methods.
Old ones get taken out of circulation by banks up to a cut off date.
This is of course in a modern currency system.
Not one of those that have currency notes all the same size and colour.
There’s a really been several heist movies with this as a core concept;
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0305648/
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