History Main / RareMoney

* In an episode of ''Manga/GunslingerGirl: Il Theatrino'', Hirshire tips a restaurant waiter with a 500 euro note (very rare), after Henrietta attacks the man upon mistaking him for an assassin. It's not clear what the waiter is more surprised by: by the fact that a tiny girl manhandled him so badly or by the banknote he probably saw for the first time in his life.

* Japan has the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_yen_note 2,000 yen note]]. Introduced in 2000, it's not normally issued by [=ATMs=] or accepted by vending machines and many stores don't like to deal with them as their registers don't have places for them and as such don't see a lot of circulation.

* One of Mikoto's earliest interactions with Touma in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has him encountering her attacking a vending machine for eating her 2000 yen note (not often seen in circulation) and Touma promptly [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] her use of such a rarely seen note in a vending machine.

* Japan has the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_yen_note 2,000 yen note]]. Introduced in 2000 it's not normally issued by [=ATMs=] or accepted by vending machines and many stores don't like to deal with them as their registers don't have places for them and as such don't see a lot of circulation.

* Gold sovereigns, one of the best known modern gold coins ''in history'', are still legal tender for their face value; 50 pence for half sovereigns, £1 for a full sovereign, £2 for a double sovereign and £5 for a quintuple sovereign. However, considering how the price of gold continues rising, you'd be an absolute moron to hand them over in your change.

* Japan has the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_yen_note 2000 yen note]]. Introduced in 2000 it's not normally issued by [=ATMs=] or accepted by vending machines and many stores don't like to deal with them as their registers don't have places for them and as such don't see a lot of circulation.

** The rarity of $2 bills is such that there are stories of clerks at stores and restaurants rejecting them and sometimes trying to call the police because [[AluminumChristmasTrees they thought they were fake]].

* There are also tales of groups who are accused of not contributing to a community (I believe the one I heard was about the Navy) using $2 bills to show that, yes, they do contribute.

* A rare, but real, denomination (Example: a $2 bill in the United States, or the Japanese ¥2,000 note. For some reason, they're rarely used).
* An outdated design on the coin or bill (Example: a previous monarch being shown on the currency).
* A ''rare'' design on the coin or bill (Example: commemorative coins or bills)

* A coin that's made from a precious metal, usually silver (Example: 90% silver Pre-1964 United States dimes, quarters and half dollars, and 40% silver Pre-1970 United States half dollars, all of which occasionally circulate, but are almost immediately pulled out of circulation and hoarded by individuals for their metal content.)

* An unusual serial number (Examples: an extremely low one or one with a lot of the same digit.) This includes [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replacement_banknote "star notes"]], where a special symbol in the serial number marks the bill as a replacement for a misprinted one.)

* ''VideoGame/FarCry4'': Money issued prior to Pagan Min's reign is officially worthless, but you can still sell it as ShopFodder. It's implied that Pagan printed his own money just so he could plaster his [[spoiler: body double's]] face all over it.

* A rare, but real, denomination (Example: a 2-dollar bill in the United States, or the Japanese 2,000 yen note. For some reason, they're rarely used).

* A coin that ''used'' to be a bill or vice versa. (Example: Canada used to have 25-cent, 1 dollar and 2 dollar bills. All denominations are now coins.)

* A discontinued coin or bill (whether it has any current value is beside the point, it ''once'' did). This includes coins and bills of discontinued currencies. (Example: $10,000 US bills, or many European currencies after the advent of the Euro).

* A rare, but real, denomination (Example: a 2-dollar bill in the United States. For some reason, they're rarely used).

** Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak uses the bills' rarity to troll cashiers and clerks in epic fashion. He buys uncut sheets of $2 bills directly from the Federal Reserve, makes booklets out of them, and uses them to buy things while claiming he "just printed them this morning!" [[http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/78.html This got him in some hot water with the Secret Service at one point]] (back when they were part of the Treasury, and investigating counterfeit money was under their purview).

!!Examples

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

* One of Mikoto's earliest interactions with Touma in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has him encountering her attacking a vending machine for eating her 2000 yen note (not often seen in circulation) and Touma promptly [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] her use of such a rarely seen note in a vending machine.

[[AC:ComicBook]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' mentions a currency called the Triganic Pu. There are eight Ningis to one Pu, but since a Ningi is a triangular rubber coin six thousand miles along each edge, nobody has ever collected enough to own one Pu.

[[AC:LiveActionTelevision]]

* This is invoked on ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' as part of a ViolinScam Jimmy and Marco are running. Jimmy claims to have a misprinted $0.50 coin where the picture of the president is inverted. Since the coin is rarely seen in circulation, the mark does not remember which way the picture should be facing and is easily convinced that the coin is a valuable misprint.
* In an episode of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' Andy pulls a prank on Barney to teach him a lesson, showing him a Buffalo nickel which is pointing the "other direction," so it's a rare and valuable misstrike. Andy sells Barney his nickel for $75. Then Barney compares it to his own nickel and discovers that they both face the same way.

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:UrbanLegend]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* ''VideoGame/FarCry4'': Money issued prior to Pagan Min's reign is officially worthless, but you can still sell it as ShopFodder. It's implied that Pagan printed his own money just so he could plaster his [[spoiler: body double's]] face all over it.
* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' the Legion Legion Denarii and Aurei are not [[CheapGoldCoins Cheap Gold and Silver coins]] as Caesar's Legion are the only ones making them (after the Brotherhood of Steel destroyed the New California Republic's gold deposits) and their... culture... isn't looked highly upon, so few traders in the Mojave made deals with them.
* ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza 1}}'' contains a sidequest in qhich Kiryu tracks down five 2000 yen bills (see Real Life for more info) for a collector who's interested in studying why they aren't circulating very well.

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'' has Bianca thinking she's rich after finding a one dollar coin on the street, only to check its value with a coin librarian and find it's not made of gold.

[[AC:RealLife]]

* One of Mikoto's earliest interactions with Touma in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has him encountering her attacking a vending machine for eating her 2000 yen note (see real life) and Touma promptly [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] her use of such a rarely seen note in a vending machine.

* Japan has the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_yen_note 2000 yen note]]. Introduced in 2000 its not normally issued by [=ATMs=] or accepted by vending machines and many stores don't like to deal with them as their registers don't have places for them and as such don't see a lot of circulation.

* In an episode of ''Manga/GunslingerGirl: Il Theatrino'', Hirshire tips a restaurant waiter with a 500 euro note (see below), after Henrietta attacks the man upon mistaking him for an assassin. It's not clear what the waiter is more surprised by: by the fact that a tiny girl manhandled him so badly or by the banknote he probably saw for the first time in his life.

* ''VideoGame/FarCry4'': Money issued prior to Pagan Min's reign is officially worthless, but you can still sell it as VendorTrash. It's implied that Pagan printed his own money just so he could plaster his [[spoiler: body double's]] face all over it.

* The UK also has £5, £20 and £100 coins. These are legal tender but are minted for the collectors market - most shops will have never seen them and will refuse to accept them.

* ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza 1}}'' contains a sidequest in qhich Kiryu attempts to track down five 2000 yen bills (see Real Life for more info) for a collector.

** There's also the very early run of circular 50c coins(the regular ones are dodecagons). Still technically legal tender but with an extremely high silver content that puts their worth about ten times their face value without even considering collectors value.

* In ''Oathbreakers'', a [[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Valdemar]] novel by Creator/MercedesLackey, Sunhawks who are infiltrating the city of Petras carry with them a coin called a Hawkspiece. It's worth little, but since it's virtually never seen out of the town of Hawksnest, it's useful as an identification piece in a city hundreds of miles away.

* In a story in Gold Key's ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'' comic, a psychiatrist is visited late at night by a well-dressed young man. The psychiatrist agrees to see him, and the young man recounts a recurring dream in which he is trapped on a sinking ship. The psychiatrist provides him with reassurance, and the young man vanishes while the psychiatrist's back is turned. The young man leaves behind a pile of cash to pay for the consultation, but when the psychiatrist picks it up, he notices that the old, large-sized US banknotes the Treasury removed from circulation in 1923. And they are sopping wet. Then he glances at a newspaper and sees that it is the anniversary of the sinking of ''UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic''.

* ''Series/TheMagician'': In "The Man Who Lost Himself", three crooks seem to be going to extreme lengths to discover the location of the relatively small sum of $24,000 stolen in a military payroll heist in Hawaii during Useful/WorldWarII. It turns out the cash is in the form of so-called 'Aloha money'; money overprinted with the word 'Hawaii' in case the Japanese overran Hawaii. Now valuable collectors' items, $24,000 in uncirculated bills is now worth $1.6 million.