Damaged US $20 bill

[jb68]

Not quite sure how, but DH has somehow managed tear one of the $20 bills we have rolleyes2).
The note is torn horizontally from the top of Jackson's head, running between 'United States' and 'of America', about as far as the R in America.
The note is still in one piece, but is clearly damaged.

In the UK we would just tape this with some Scotch tape and stores would accept it and send it to the bank.

Can anyone advise me what the position is with this damaged note please?
Will it be accepted in stores? Should we tape it or leave it?
Should we take it to a bank when we arrive in the USA? Would a bank exchange it?

I would be grateful for any advice on this
Thank you

 

[Jex]

A bank will exchange it, if you tape it a store should as well.

 

[Southernmiss]

Not quite sure how, but DH has somehow managed tear one of the $20 bills we have rolleyes2).
The note is torn horizontally from the top of Jackson's head, running between 'United States' and 'of America', about as far as the R in America.
The note is still in one piece, but is clearly damaged.

In the UK we would just tape this with some Scotch tape and stores would accept it and send it to the bank.

Can anyone advise me what the position is with this damaged note please?
Will it be accepted in stores? Should we tape it or leave it?
Should we take it to a bank when we arrive in the USA? Would a bank exchange it?

I would be grateful for any advice on this
Thank you

You can tape it here, too. No problem. It will still spend.

 

[FireDancer]

As the others have said it will still be accepted taped together. As long as more then 50% of the bill is in tact it is still legal tender. The actual definition is CLEARLY over 50% so there might be an issue if it is almost exactly half and at that point you'd probably have to go to a bank instead of retailer.

 

[jb68]

A bank will exchange it, if you tape it a store should as well.

You can tape it here, too. No problem. It will still spend.

Thank you both

 

[jb68]

As the others have said it will still be accepted taped together. As long as more then 50% of the bill is in tact it is still legal tender. The actual definition is CLEARLY over 50% so there might be an issue if it is almost exactly half and at that point you'd probably have to go to a bank instead of retailer.

Thank you

 

[bcla]

As the others have said it will still be accepted taped together. As long as more then 50% of the bill is in tact it is still legal tender. The actual definition is CLEARLY over 50% so there might be an issue if it is almost exactly half and at that point you'd probably have to go to a bank instead of retailer.

I won't get into your use of "legal tender" other than to say that very few people seem to understand what it really means.

As for torn up bills, I've actually taped them together and used them. I had no issue with using one in a bill acceptor. Most banks will not take bills where there's a substantial part missing. That's just too much work without any guarantee that they'll get it back. A corner missing maybe, but not if a third of the bill is gone.

And as for a bill where part is missing, at one time it wasn't 50%. The magic numbers were 1/3 and 2/3. The US Treasury would actually redeem damaged currency for half the face value if there was 1/3 to 2/3 of the bill remaining and the full value if there was more than 2/3. Other countries' central banks still do it that way. I remember seeing video of US BEP examiners working on bits of bills that were damaged by fire and determining if there was enough to meet the thresholds. They had grids and were laying out the pieces by hand.

They have a department in D.C. that actually handles this. I understand that individual Federal Reserve Banks used to do this, but no longer. They'll still redeem a bill with less than 50% if it can be documented that the remainder of the bill was destroyed. Most of what they get are bills damaged by fire, but they also get bills that have been buried or water damaged as well as bills chewed by animals (esp mice) or partially rotted after burial.

http://www.bep.treas.gov/uscurrency/damagedcurrency.html

If 100% of the bill is still there, most banks won't have an issue taking it in and then sending it to the Fed to forward to BEP for destruction.

 

[tvguy]

As for torn up bills, I've actually taped them together and used them. I had no issue with using one in a bill acceptor. .

That's what I tend to do....tape it up and use it in the pay at the pump machine at the gas station, or if I am using the self checkout at the store.

 

[MarciaBrady]

Tape it. Once I accidentally left a $10 bill in my pocket, the pants went in the laundry. When the laundry came out, there were two halves of the bill in the laundry basket. I taped it and spent it...no big deal.

 

[manning]

send it to me, I'll take care of it.