Peru gets picky over US Dollar Bills

Hello. RT here.

I noticed this article today when I was checking the paper. The translation is below, but it basically says that any money with rubber stamps on the security areas (the ID strip, or the watermark, for example) won't be accepted by the Peruvian banks. This could trickle down to those bills not being accepted in restaurants, casinos or by money changers.

For the most part, US bills are not stamped in the same manner as many Peruvian bills, but if you're coming to town with a fistful of dollars, you might want to look them over before you get on the plane.

**********TRANSLATION OF ARTICLE*****************
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Banking Association: "We cannot accept dollars with spots or stamps on the security areas" [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]What looked like a minor group of some 100 people carrying posters in Arequipa’s banking district ended up becoming a national level alert.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The moneychangers dealing in American currency denounced that the Banking Association (Asbanc) determined two weeks ago that the banking agencies would reject all American bills stamped by the money exchange houses, a safety measure practiced in the country for years.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On that matter the general manager (president) of Asbanc, Enrique Arroyo, maintained that it is an agreement enacted on January last year and that it is not an action against the moneychangers of Arequipa, but for all Peru. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“THERE ARE MILLIONS OF STAMPED AMERICAN BILLS IN CIRCULATION”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Now we are more flexible and we accept American bills damaged up to the fourth degree [very worn, but conserving their texture] and with up to three tears in the edges if these are less than half a centimeter (3/16&#8221 each [...] but we cannot accept American bills with spots or stamps on the security areas like the strip, the fluorescence or the water seal”, he explained. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The president of the Association of Moneychangers of Arequipa, Lucy Gutierrez, explained that two weeks ago they began to receive, with more and more frequency, complains from their clients when the money they took to the banks was rejected. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The leader made the very same question their clients made to her: “What we are going to do with that money?” Gutierrez said that there were millions of dollars in circulation in the parallel market, and for that reason its rejection on the part of the banking organizations could cause panic among those who acquired them. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“IN THE USA IT IS A FEDERAL CRIME” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Until yesterday the moneychangers were charging a S/.3 commission for every US$20 bill to collect the stamped bills and take them to Chile or Bolivia to change them there. “In the USA it is a federal crime to mark a bill, not here and we understand it [...] but the 0nly possible thing to do is to collect them and change them at the Federal Reserve because the Central Bank (of Peru) will not do it here”, added Arroyo.[/FONT]

 

Yup... one day, when I was checking in at the airport, the girl at the executiva counter (she knows me ) basically begged me to give her a new twenty for four slightly soiled fives. There was nothing wrong with them (at least in the US) and she knew it. She also knew that she would get a hard time at the end of the day if she kept them.

I figure it never hurts to keep the ticket (and upgrade!) agents happy, so I did the swap. They spent perfectly well back home.

 

A year or two ago there was a criminal organisation which had been turning perfectly counterfeited USD 100 bills. It was huge. Even banks were accepting them and ATM machines giving them. It was said that all counterfeit bills made by this guys had "B2" or "CB" series and they were so hard to tell from the real ones that most places simply stopped receiving such bills. In fact, most ATMs stopped giving USD 100 bills. Some (like BCP) still work 0nly with 20s.

Since the criminals were caught and thrown into jail, and so long time has passed, most people has forgoten the issue but some still do.

 

RT here.

I was shopping today, and I saw this sign: