I'm curious how many on this board use hundred dollar bill frequently. I can't even think of the last time I used cash at all. I probably haven't used a $100 bill in a decade or longer.
The $100 bill is far and away the most common U.S. paper currency, dwarfing even the $1 bill. The number of bills bearing Benjamin Franklin’s mug more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, faster growth than any other denomination, according to the most recent Federal Reserve data.
For all its prevalence, the $100 bill is more effective for storing money than spending it. Even when cashiers do accept the bills, they hold up checkout lines to verify they aren’t counterfeits. (Or, at minimum, give an eye-roll along with your change.) Economists have called for slowing down the printing press, due to their use in illicit activity.
“Everyone almost questions you and your legitimacy for using a $100 bill,” said Sage Handley, 23.
Some 60% of all payments are made with debit or credit cards, according to Federal Reserve data. Cash use dropped sharply during the pandemic in 2020, and it hasn’t fully recovered. Today, cash is the third-most used payment method in the U.S. by number of transactions.
While more than half of $100s are held abroad, there were enough in the U.S. for every living American to have 55 in 2022, according to calculations by Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University.
