$500 Bill Tip Leads to Arrest: They haven't circulated since 1945

[Elmore Furth]

A word of advice: if you see a $3 bill or a $500 bill, don't take it.



http://www.coinsite.com/content/coinpics/images/Specimen$500bill.jpg

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 15, 2010
Filed at 7:53 a.m. ET

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysian police have arrested a Lebanese man allegedly carrying fake currency with a face value of $66 million after he tipped a hotel staff with a $500 note, an official said Friday.

The largest U.S. note currently in wide circulation is a $100 bill. But police found bundles of $1 million, $100,000 and $500 notes in the man's hotel room in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, said Izany Abdul Ghany, head of the city's commercial crime unit.

Hotel staff alerted police after a housekeeper received a $500 note tip and found out it was fake when she tried to convert it to local currency at a money changer, Izany said.

The largest U.S. note ever printed was a special edition one for $100,000 in 1934. Bills of $500 were last printed in 1945 and are now no longer in wide circulation, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.


$500 Tip Leads Police to $66 Million in Fake Bills

[rcrush]

1. Did he have Mr Burns' billion dollar bill to?

[Orrex]

2. Castro has Burns' trillion-dollar bill IIRC

[Aristus]

3. Don't take these, either:

[joeybee12]

4. Those circulated on the Lucy Show in 1962...

...she cashed a check for $2000 and got 4-$500 back...of course she lost them at the carnival.