Replies

I found a $100 bill on the sidewalk outside of a convenience store. There were three young dudes inside paying for their chips and beer with messy wads of large bills they had crammed in their pockets. Hereabouts that is a mark of petty drug dealers. I asked if anyone was missing any money meaning to request that the amount be identified. No one could tell and they all ended up saying no they guessed not. I put the bill in the poor box at church. That is where all found money goes if there is not a verifiable or credible owner, including coins. It is not mine.

North Korean made U$ hundreds are so good that only the US Treasury is capable of identifying them. The marker pens show genuine, all the little stripes and bands are present. They are North Korea's largest export and are sent in shiploads into Southeast Asia. The government of Việt Nam has striven for 15 years to keep the value of the đồng at an even rate against the USD but can't make it happen. Those norkish $100s are sufficient to be the driver of all the inflation against the dollar in that time. The banks in VN won't accept $100s because they cannot identify the fakes and if they get used in legitimate international trade the US Treasury is apt to get its hands on them and value disappears. The gold shops change them readily, though, because they face no such risk.

All the changes the US has made in the money for anti counterfeiting purposes is for nought in SEA. Every time there is a design change the norks have their new bills on the SEA market even as American banks are beginning to receive the new officially real ones.

Years I was vacationing with my family in Pensacola, FL, and leaving a beach side shop, my wife found a $100 bill on the ground. As she headed back into the shop with it, I asked her where she was going.

She said she was going to turn it into the clerk in case someone came back for it.

I said Yeah, right. It’ll just go in the clerks’ pocket. I’d rather have it in mine. So I went back inside, gave the clerk my card, and told her we had found something that someone might want back. And if they called me and identified it, I would return it.

Never heard from anyone.