Old large U.S. bill
 

I found a 10,000 bill in a stamp collection that my father left me.

It looks like this and it was made in 1928.

I thought it was counterfeit, but it looks real.

They made them for a while.

Is it still valid currency ?

YES

however there is a catch

they are not easily exchangeable
you need a MAIN office of a bank your local branch will not break it down to 100 $100

at least it is not a $100,000
these are USA treasury ONLY bills

"$10,000 Gold Certificates: 1928 $10,000 gold certificates were printed. However, only one is known to exist; it resides in the Smithsonian. It is certainly possible that others are out there.

$10,000 Bill Value: Prices start at $30,000 for a note in poor condition and go up quickly from there."

http://www.oldcurrencyvalues.com/10000_Dollar_Bill.html

Luck dog.

Hi...

If that is real, I would get it into a safe deposit box ASAP! :eek:

Regards...

Any United States Currency instrument is always worth its face value.

If the bill appears to be on the same rag-paper that you see today on a $1 bill, then the odds are very good that the bill is genuine, and that it is worth far more than its face value to a collector. This is, so to speak, your lucky day: "thanks, Dad."

- - -

I'll overlook the fact that the serial-number on the picture you posted is the same as the one on the old-currency site.

- - -

And, by the way, there are people who collect counterfeits and fakes! I once knew of a fellow who owned a print-shop and one of the things that he and his friends would do late at night is to print copies of old currency. So far as I know, they always made an alteration so that the bills were not, in fact, counterfeit. What they wanted to do, again so far as I know, was to see if and how well they could do it. They even made cotton-rag paper. Dunno... maybe that's how they paid for the shop. :rolleyes:

Send it to me.

I'll let you know. ;)

Sure but the postage is $30,000. :-)

A numismatist said the bill was worth in the range of 40,000 -> 45,000.

If you want to sell it, find a bona-fide dealer who can transfer certified funds to your attorney, who is acting as a "transfer agent." Don't ask for the highest or lowest price: "the value of an asset is what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller." Take a price that you mutually agree to. You know that the buyer intends to profit, himself.

Your attorney takes custody of the asset, in a bank vault, and promises the buyer that he will hold the asset in-escrow until the funds have cleared, at which time he will surrender the asset to him. (PayPal does much the same service for eBay transactions.) Your agent executes a surety bond, to benefit the buyer, which guarantees that the transaction will be consummated as agreed: if you try to split the coop with your piece of paper, he gets his money back and then some.

Your attorney will also include in the sales-contract many vital clauses: that you represent in good faith that the bill appears to be what you say it is, but that you are not yourself an expert in old currency, and therefore that the buyer wholly relies upon his or her own judgment and cannot sue you if the bill turns out to be counterfeit. He will know how to secure the services of an armored truck in moving the bill from place to place. He will also know what to do when the IRS wants their piece. Do not tread these waters without bona fide legal counsel, specifically experienced in such matters.

Since you appear to possess an asset that is so rare that a copy is in the Smithsonian, you might wish to take your time here, and let the word get out. Publish (not here ...) an actual copy of both sides of the bill that you possess. Store it in one of the higher-security bank boxes that can be found in major bank offices, which require two owner-keys to open, one of which is your attorney's. Quietly let it be known that the bill is in a safe place that can't be accessed by means of murder or extortion. :eek:

(Yeah, I'm serious.) :(

Engage a truly knowledgeable attorney from the start. If this bill really is what you say it is, who knows what someone might pay for it. One day, you might walk into the Smithsonian and see two bills on display. You can say, "look, there's great-granddaddy's dollar bill." Or, you might frame a copy of a bill-collector's magazine in the front entrance of your new mansion.

That's all good advice. Probably look to sell it via specialty auction considering that it is a rare find.

I do not think the IRS has any grounds for taxes.

It was a gift.

The Internal Revenue Service will collect taxes on the money you gain in selling the item ... and, if you are not careful, they will happily tax it at a punitive rate. :rolleyes: After all, they consider it to be their proper business to collect as much money as they can steal get.

You need to be talking to an attorney who is qualified to give guidance in the sale of items of extraordinary value, and in the appropriate tax treatment of such transactions. You're wading into a pool of sharks. You need qualified opinions, not the sort of advice you might get on a Linux forum. Attorneys who specialize in the field are experts in that field, and you need to be listening to experts. (Believe me, you've got the money with which to pay them!)

If you've ever read numismatic magazines, you'll read plenty of stories of people who agonized over creases and the size of paper in millimeters. (And who, apparently, were dumbfounded to learn that someone boosted the value of a note by ironing it...) You'll also read about bills that disappeared and promises that were never kept (or paid for). This being your first and only foray into this strange world, you need a guide. And a vault.

You previously stated that it was in a collection that your father left you. That sounds like it was part of your dad's estate. You need the advice of a tax attorney on how to handle that so that you don't find yourself owing a capital gains tax on whatever you get when you sell it.

It was not a "gift" in the normal sense. It was an estate disbursement either described as such or not.
The amount should fall below the wonderful "Death Tax" rate depending on what else you acquired.
There is no Texas Death Tax like other States.


There is a tax on collectables up to 75% in some cases. You'd need to find the cost basis and go from there. If you can't find the cost basis then you'd have to assume $10,000 is the cost basis.

You don't really need any attorney. All the information you could want is on the IRS site. It will tell you the tax rate for collectables like you have.



"$10,000 Bill Value: Prices start at $30,000 for a note in poor condition and go up quickly from there."

This stuff is like guns, you can go to an auction site or web site and let bidders bid. You can go to a bank and set up an escrow account.

If you want you can take to an auction house but expect a very high fee.

I am talking with an attorney.