How Can We Increase Circulation Of The $50

I have seen that suggestion for years now. I do not see it ever happening like it did in Mexico or France, but we can make a virtual change...

Eliminate the cent, nickel, and everything below the ten dollar bill. Add a two and five dollar coin to the mix.

The dime is our new cent, the half dollar the new nickel, the dollar coin is our new dime, the new two dollar coin is (roughly) the new quarter, the new five dollar coin is the new half dollar, and the ten dollar bill is the new "single."

As for spending power, this brings the coin vs. note use in line with what it was around 1950.

Oh, feel free to shrink that half dollar if it makes you feel better.

I like cash, too. Use it every chance I get. But, as mentioned earlier, in the past few weeks it's been hit/miss. I went to a store the other day for a Coke and paid with cash. They had no change whatsoever and so I picked up my $1.22 Coke for $1. That can go on very long. (I gave them 22 cents the next time I was in.)

By the way:




Point taken. I have no wax cylinders, but I still enjoy listening to my 8-tracks / cassettes CDs / especially vinyl LPs. Old school and proud of it!

Most of the banknotes produced are for replacing worn notes, but every year there is a net increase in most denominations

Net increase in millions of notes FY 2018-2019
300 $1
100 $2
100 $5
80 $10
100 $20
62 $50
812 $100

The problem is that the $100 banknote has more bills in circulation than the $20 or the $1 banknote. Mostly because the $100 banknote circulates overseas, when a new series and especially a new design is released, people are clamoring to replace the old notes with the new notes.




When the Bureau of Engraving and Printing began producing the first color $100 banknote in February of 2010 they made 1.44 billion notes in the first 20 months to replace the 6.56 billion $100 notes in circulation at the end of September 2009. The new color notes had massive problems with cracks in the design when the bill was folded. The new color notes were not issued to the public until October 8, 2013.

There is now so much reliance on the US $100 banknote in world finance that efficiently replacing them almost all at once is becoming a logistics challenge. Circulation is up to 14.25 billion $100 notes as of the end of 2019. Probably only the Chinese RMB100 has more banknotes in circulation, and they only circulate in China and is only worth $14.28

We need another denomination to circulate around the world and take some of the pressure off the $100 banknote. There are only two choices: (1) increase circulation of the $50 banknote, or (2) join the Euro-Area and Switzerland in producing a $200 banknote

If you want to increase the usage of $50, its really simple go to the bank and get them and use them. I've never had any one refuse a $50, but I also only use cash when there is an advantage. There is no advantage to use it at Home Depot or the supermarket or at the gap.

I get $100 in $2 bills about every other month and I use them as tips. People really like to get $2 bills.

$50 and $100 Aussie banknotes are the money I normally use to get on with my life.
Just a week ago, I paid $7,100 in cash for some house renovations.

I have always paid cash for everything throughout all of my life. That includes payment of utility bills at the Post Office.
I have used a debit card for emergency purposes on two occasions only in the last year.

If the banks temporarily shut down for a few months, I can survive without much of a problem. Some may not get paid in cash until such times as until the banks open again, and that would include utility companies.
If I run out of cash to pay for the maintenance and running of my car, I would be happy to walk everywhere, everything is close, and I would need the exercise anyway.

By the way, I just love those green 50 Francs Swiss Banknotes! I was in Switzerland a couple of years ago, and I had quite a stash of them for my normal daily living. Cash budgeting works just fine for me.

The €50 denomination banknote is heavily favored in the Euro area. Out of 24.9 billion banknotes in circulation, 11.7 billion are in the €50 denomination. Only 4.26 billion are in the €20 denomination. The €50 denomination is 43.4% of total cash by value and 47.2% by quantity of bills. If you go to an ATM in Europe you expect to get €50 bills.

On 4 April 2017 a new series of €50 banknotes was issued by the ECB, but 46% of the old series €50 notes are still in circulation after 3 years and 1 month. There is no fear that the old notes are counterfeit, just as there is no fear that old designs of the US$20 banknote is counterfeit.

While the Euro doesn't circulate outside of its home area to the same extent as the USD, it still has extensive circulation in Africa and Asia. I presume that all denominations above €20 circulate, while the only USD denomination in wide circulation internationally is $100.

The ECB had to produce 11 billion banknotes in 2009, probably because the trust in banks at that time period was at an all-time low since 2002. The BEP in the US had to produce over 11 billion notes only once, in fiscal year 1999, because of Y2K mania, but 31% were the $1 bill which has not changed since 1963. Big-headed monochrome $100 banknotes were produced from 1 Oct, 1995 until 31 May, 2010, but averaged far less than 1 billion per year.

The BEP produced some new color $100 banknotes in fiscal year 2010, but they had such terrible problem with creasing that they had to go back to the monochrome notes in fiscal year 2011 where they produced a mere 0.7232 billion notes of the old pure green design.

The production of 4.6368 billion color $100 banknotes in 2012 to 2013 was a huge task, but on the heels of such a spectacular failure, there was a fear of issuing the new notes until there was a huge supply.

I don't think you are giving proper consideration as to what it will entail replacing the current $100 banknote design. There are currently over 14 billion in circulation, and it looks like there will be at least 20 billion by the time the design needs to be replaced. The current design has been in circulation for a little less than seven years, and the nominal replacement period for US currency is a decade.

It will be a lot less stressful if there is another note that can assist through the replacement period. With the cumulative value of the circulating $20 and $50 denomination being 13.4% and 6.5% of the value of circulating $100 banknotes they are insufficient for this task.

As far as the USD as international currency there is effectively only the $100 bill.

My Tannoy is only ten inches and half the power.


I agree. The 50 is easy to spend, just as easy as the 20. However, around here, for some reason, the 100 is typically no-go unless the total is well over $100. I can break a 50 on a ten dollar lunch tab, but get evil looks trying to use 100 to pay for a 70 dollar family dinner. This only fueled my preference to plastic.