from the post yesterday thank you for all answers
one last question
i tape all the bills together and i am missing one half from 20 dlls bill is still valid without the other half?
if the bills are taped together still good for any store?
As a former teller, we would only accept damaged bills as long as you had one and a partial serial numbers. If you do not have a full and a partial serial number you may be out of luck. Your best bet would be to check with your bank.
Better look harder for the other half. It isn't valid, so people aren't cutting bills in 2 halves to come up with $40.
Some store might take them. Depends on the manager and how much knowledge they have on store bank procedure.
It happens all the time. Every year the U.S. Treasury redeems over $30 million worth of damaged and mutilated currency. Some of it's been buried, water/fire/chemical damaged or chewed. I think I heard of one case where a bank robbers stash had been lost in the wilderness and some beavers packed it with mud and built it into their dam.
All the details are here:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/consumerawareness/a/replace...
How they go about identifying badly mutilated currency is here:
http://www.bep.treas.gov/uscurrency/damagedcurrency.html
If what you've ended up with is bills with many strips of tape on them, or edges that are not smooth, that will create problems for the people in a store who would have to handle them, and they will probably suggest that you take the money to a bank for exchange.
Banks accept and retire damaged bills all the time. If you have even a little bit more than half of that last one, that can probably be replaced, too.
Consider yourself lucky if you're only out 20 bucks from that little nightmare!
Your best bet is to take it to the bank and see what they say (they may be able to replace it, but make sure if you find the other half to take it in so they can appropriately dispose of it). Worst case, tuck it in your sock drawer and see if the other half turns up.
