Okay, I thought it would be a good idea to post a list of currency issues that exist in different destinations. We may want to create a log which we can update from time to time. I know of only four.

Thailand does not exchange currency issued in 1996.

Costa Rica does not exchange any bills which have a "B" as the second letter of the serial number.

Example:

A $50 bill series 1996, serial number CA 04328931 A Is accepted in Costa Rica, but not in Thailand.

A $50 bill series 2004, serial number EB 01791037 A is accepted in Thailand but not in Costa Rica.

This is probably due to some counterfeiting scheme run in each of these countries, so they just banned them altogether.

I also have frequently run into another problem in Costa Rica. You can take an otherwise mint bill to the bank or exchange place, but if it has even a small tear in it, they will not accept it. This has not ALWAYS been the case, but it has happened quite often...Even though I am a high balance bank customer there.

I have on several occasions in several countries had banks and exchange places refuse to exchange bills because they had writing, ink spots, fold wear across the serial number etc.

Anyone know of any other problems/locations where there are issues like this one?

In preparation for my trip to Thailand next week, I went through all my bills and was suprised to see that some $750 out of $2500 was series 1996. I had to replace them.

I also pulled some money out for a business trip to Costa Rica here in about a month and found that nearly 15% of all my bills had a serial number with "B" as the second letter.

Fortunately the stack of bills I have for Rio next month don't have these issues or I would have to make another trip back to the bank.

Only two or three had writing, ink or whatever on them, so I put them in the Rio stack.

This is really annoying to have to worry about this kind of crap, but is not as annoying as going to one of these places to monger and finding out when I got there that a god sized chunk of my money is no good there.