I’ve had USD rejected both for being too new and for being too old in various corners of the earth - different cultures seem to want their currency differently aged.
I gave a bonus tip to a tour guide in one of these countries.
I'd brought USD notes from Europe to spend and as an emergency fund. They were all brand new (sequential numbers) $50 notes, just what my bank gave me.
At the end of the trip, I swapped about $300 of old notes the tour staff had for $300 of new notes. This included a very slightly damaged $100 note which the tour guide said had been a tip, which he was unable to use because of the damage.
It's been a while since I've tried to change money but even as recently as 10 years ago, money changers in a lot of places wouldn't accept even slightly wrinkled bills or bills older than a specific series. Every time before a trip I'd have to go to the bank and ask the teller for notes with series > X and not wrinkled/showing signs of being folded.
Uncirculated notes feel weird and also tend to stick together. Thankfully, it doesn't take much handling for them to wear in enough to not stick.
I did have a food stand on the boardwalk in New Jersey once refuse a worn bill, which was wild. I think it was a $1 and it may have been slightly torn near a corner. I'd expect that if using USD outside the US, but I guess Jersey is different.
It is more an artifact of being cut off from the US mint/banking system. For a domestic US bank they can swap any worn currency for new stuff for free.
So as US currency degrades over time it slightly loses inter exchangeability in the third world.
Nobody will accept a €500 note in Europe - not even banks - you have to get it changed at a central bank, and you can expect a lot of questions, like “what kind of drugs did you sell to get this?”
An easier option if you have one, is going to a forex office in Vietnam or somewhere - and even then they may not take it.
I was lumbered with a couple of them for a few years, until I dumped them in Uruguay.
That's weird. Can't think of a legal basis that would allow the bank to refuse it. They have machines that verify it's not counterfeit after all. People regularly pay for used cars with cash here, and I've never heard of anyone refusing a 500€ note.
Yeah, it's truly strange because up until around 2012, I used to pay my rent with €500 notes when I lived in Spain. Just go down to the bank and get them. Then there was some sort of crackdown on drug smuggling and no one would touch them. Barbaric, rather fascistic or communist way of dealing with a social problem, since of course this means normal people can't pay rent in cash anymore without a ton of bills, and the only real purpose is to track so much more of the casual, unofficial economy. Drug dealers do find ways around.
