Currency Exchange To Find Old Bills?

These places are normally only where there are high amounts of international tourists. Look around airports, or major tourist destinations.

I never thought of this myself, but sounds possible.

Not likely to find old bills their. Tourists and recent immigrants using these services to send money home,haven't been here long enough to acquire old bills generally. You'd probably be better off to widen the circle of banks you deal with.

When I was in Indonesia earlier this year I bought a silver 1 Guilder Dutch coin from a street vendor for the US equivalent of $6. He also sold me a 1985 series US $10 bill for the equivalent of $9 he must have thought it was demonitized

You're lucky santafeboy! Which part of Indonesia did you go to?
Dutch currency are near impossible to come across because the hobby of numismatics isn't that big in Indonesia. I have some of the 1/4 sen pieces back home, gifted by my grandma.

In Indonesia inflation goes up very fast, stuff gets demonetised very quickly. I once did the calculations, a coin denomination only lasts 17 years on average before being withdrawn. I did the calculations for the bills too but I forgot how long they last. Now you can only get candy for Rp. 100,-. Four or five decades ago you can get a bowl of meatballs for Rp. 200,-
In fact I own a lot of demonetised Indonesian coins, I was saving all the brass issues that I could find in circulation just because they're rare. You'll get the aluminium coins most of the time. I recently read in the Bank Indonesia archives, that some Rupiah coins I own had been withdrawn and demonetised two years ago, and the rest will be demonetised in two more years.

Just saying, US$9 is slightly more than Rp. 100,000,- earlier this year, and in Indonesia that is big money. If you can get a meal for less than Rp. 10,000,- (well it's actually closer to Rp. 5,000,-) then just imagine how big of a money a Rp. 100,000,- bill is. Inflation now has pushed the Rupiah exchange rate much lower, 1 C$ is now Rp. 12,000,-. The competition for election of who's going to be president is pushing the economy down even more, not to mention the current president sucks And now one of the new candidate is a subordinate of a "dictator" and if he ever becomes president it's over for Chinese Indonesians I am mad he is allowed to run as a candidate!

Sorry for my rant, it's just the economy is awful now, and the country is pretty much in chaos If anyone is offended, I will remove it.


Ag, I'm not too interested in foreign currency, but if you can find Unc ones that's great! I'll see if there's a currency exchange near me. I'm going to leave Canada in 3 weeks through an airport, I'll try asking there too. I won't be returning until September.

I agree about Indonesians being very friendly, it is a part of our culture. There is a part of it called "gotong royong", which means helping each other

Can't say the same thing with government though, most of them are corrupt. We've only just had the first governor who actually worked to build the city in the so many people who held the position.
And yes, even though I'm here, I still follow the news and discuss them with my Indonesian friends.

You can get Unc bills easily in Indonesia, or at least back then, you can just ask from a bank. I remember when the Rp. 100,000,- bills were plastic and they were about to make a new design (they switched back to paper for some reason), my mom bought a bundle of these uncirculated plastic notes from the bank, just to keep. Same with the Rp. 100,- with the boat and Rp. 500,- with the orangutan before they stopped producing them.
I only used two banknote series in my lifetime, but the last series I used them when I was really young and don't remember too much about them.

They don't print Rp. 1000,- bills anymore now, they've replaced it with a light nickel-plated steel coin. Back then when the bills were circulating along with the thick and heavy bimetallic coins, you almost never see the coins circulating, I saved every one of them I find. I still have some of the bills at home, but with a wallet fold down the middle. That was from my non-collector, but hoarder years.

I still have Rp. 150,000,- with me, left over from paying airport tax. The Rp. 100,000- bill has four separate pairs of stapler holes on them. Just realised it's a 2004 printing, no wonder it's so shabby.

I'll try getting some Unc Indonesian notes when I go home. I plan on going to a currency museum too. I'll try currency exchanges if I can, but I doubt there's much good unless I'm in Bali or something.

I'll look up exchange rates before I try then. I don't drive either, so I have to take the bus going anywhere that's far. I do know changing currency in banks is always expensive. In Jakarta there's one street I know that has several currency exchange places close to each other, probably competing so prices won't be too high. But old bills are withdrawn in Indonesia, they don't remain legal tender for too long, so there's pretty much zero chance to find those in circulation. Indonesian money has some sort of "expiry date" once they stop printing them, they will demonetise it in a few years and you can't even exchange those for new bills from the government (I think this last bit is silly). The only old bill my mom found in circulation several years ago was a smelly 1992 from the fishmonger.

I can't really go to casinos, I'm underaged. Maybe in a couple more years.

I am leaving Canada by the end of this month so I'll be at an airport. I'll see if I come across a currency exchange there.

I don't have a relatine near where I am now, so no special rates for me. I will find the rates before I leave just so it wouldn't have time to change too much yet.

Don't think there are anymore coin arcades. All that I've seen are token run now, and it's only the games where you have to drop a token into a machine, and let your luck decide where it will land. I've never made a jackpot on that thing, I think it might be rigged or something. And to get those tokens you need something I can describe as being an "arcade debit card". You pay cash to fill that card, and you can swipe the card on the machine if you want to play.

There aren't many good coins in Indonesia now anyway, so hunting for them won't do much good. The brass ones have mostly been taken out of circulation and demonetised, all there is now is the worthless aluminium ones.

I like it too when a lot of the same business clusters at one spot, that pushes prices down due to competition