Restoration Of Banknotes

Are you talking about folds and creases when you say "bends"?

Without a pic or two it's difficult to say, but if the notes are fully creased, then even ironing will unlikely remove evidence of them.

Once the fibers of the material used for banknotes has been bent or folded so far that it breaks, it is broken for good and impossible to correct the problem.

I have to say the polymers used in Australian notes seem superior to the British mayerial when it comes to returning somewhat to flat. Once folded the British notes will never lay flat on a surface again, the auatralian stuff seems a little more elastic.

With regards to pressing paper notes it is seen to drop the value but pressed notes may appear nicer in photographs and it is possibly not a hinderance to online sales. This practice can leave notes appearing washed out and the embossing can be destroyed.

My notes sit in rather full albums which might have the effect of lightly pressing, but recommended practice is not to try restoration.

Thanks for the tips. I have left these banknotes under several layers of thick books so far. In a month I have a long trip ahead of me and on the way I will be at the airport in Moscow and probably exchange this money for rubles. The only problem is that they will give me a very small amount of rubles, especially when exchanging Thai baht. But this is a trifle, the main problem is that I'm just shy and shy of the look of the cashier who will have to exchange for a change of currency and print checks every time, and I'll get about $10 in total.

For reference, I now have : 9 Singapore dollars, 80 baht and 2 Malaysian Ringgit.
The cashier will have to punch different checks for me every time and count everything.Also, the rate at airports is very low.

I'm on the same page as @Sap & @Coinfrog on this. When I saw the title of your thread, I was expecting to see a rare Panamanian Balboa in terrible condition (or something old & super tough like that). True rarities sometimes get restored but the value of these almost always goes down. Sometimes misguided collectors will pay to have a rare note restored for various reasons (I won't get into these). The bottom line is that the restoration usually will give the damaged note better eye appeal (but destroys embossing). Often restoration is carried out with the intention to get a higher price for the note but typically, processing a note has the opposite effect (lowers the value) as most collectors avoid them in favour of original items.

However, with your examples, which are common modern notes, you should ask yourself, "why am I collecting these?" Are they keepsakes from your travels? Do they have some kind of sentimental value? If so, great, knock yourself out. (Flatten all you like). But circulated low denominations like that don't need to have their appearance improved: they're nice the way they are. Circulated notes, printed in the 10's or 100's of millions are just not that collectible anyway so you can melt it- and it doesn't really make much difference (except it might be harder to cash in).

Most currency collectors acquire banknotes for 2 reasons: outstanding condition or. That's why there's a premium on great, crisp, UNC notes.

Then there's the globe-trotter collector who saves worn notes found on one's travels. I know many who collect like this. Great! Most of these guys don't care what kind of condition their note is in (they have them as souvenirs of their trips) & great condition isn't a priority.