Question for Americans about your money

knitqueen · 07-04-2007, 03:53 PM

We're going to California for a holiday in about 1.5 weeks from now. We bought a bit of US cash at a currency exchange place here yesterday and it looks weird to me. Some of the bills, I think the $10 ones especially but the $20's as well, are a weird color. They're not totally the usual greenish colour - parts of them are a cream colour. It's not that they're super old either, the ones I noticed the most said 2003 and 2004. Is this normal?? Here's a pic of two different $10 bills.

Ingrid · 07-04-2007, 09:07 PM

It's fine. They printed new money in the past couple of years, but the old bills are still in circulation. You're good. If you don't like it though, you can pop it in an envelope to me.

KnittingNat · 07-04-2007, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by Ingrid

It's fine. They printed new money in the past couple of years, but the old bills are still in circulation. You're good. If you don't like it though, you can pop it in an envelope to me.

:rofling:

brendajos · 07-04-2007, 09:15 PM

lol Ingrid!

knitqueen, the one on top is the new version of the $10. They are supposed to be more secure and less able to be counterfeit. I am pretty sure, though, that people had them counterfeit as soon as they were in circulation!

(btw... the one on the bottom is a relatively new version too. There are still some out there in the world with the picture centered!)

knitqueen · 07-04-2007, 09:19 PM

Yeah Ingrid, I'll get right on that!

Thanks everyone, I feel better now and that we didn't get ripped off.

FYI, because apparently it was a GREAT rate (I almost never go to the US so I'm not used to buying/selling money), we bought $100US for just $107CDN. Wow. My mom said that on one of their trips to the US a few years ago, it cost them $140CDN to buy $100US

syndactylus · 07-04-2007, 09:28 PM

things were very different 7 years ago...

suzeeq · 07-04-2007, 09:48 PM

Yes exchange rates vary and 6-7 years ago it was horribly unfavorable for CDN$, but great for US$. We had a weekend outing up over the border and stopped at a casino just on the US side, (because it was more than in canada) to exchange - $100US bought $136CDN. In recent year, the rate has come closer to even as you just found out.

Knitting_Guy · 07-04-2007, 10:23 PM

They changed the colors, inks, and altered the paper a bit in response to N. Korea printing millions of dollars worth of American funny money.

Lady Violet · 07-04-2007, 10:39 PM

now, in my opinion, we have the funny money.

BinkyKat · 07-04-2007, 10:51 PM

I remember once, when I used to work at a flower shop in our local mall, a Canadian shopper commented that she didn't like US currency. She gave me a $100 bill to pay for her items and said she didn't like it because it all looked the same...

She was sort of nice, but in my head I was thinking, "Um, a 5 is a 5, a 10 is a 10...but perhaps we could make them colorful like yours- so your total comes to 4 pinks and 1 blue" :rollseyes:

Nothing personal KnitQueen