in regards to a US $500 bill, am i way off base to say you can walk into your local bank branch and request one ? i have heard you can do so, however they don't have them on the spot, they order them. can anyone tell me if this info is wrong ?
Yes, this is wrong.
Only thing you can request a bank to order is Eisenhower dollars and $2 bills.
$500, $1000 bills (although still considered legal tender) are not orderable from a bank. You CAN still bring them to a bank to deposit and get $500/$1000 for them, but you would be (not smart) to do that since they are worth so much more to any collector (even on ebay). Once a bank receives such a bill from some idiot bringing it in, they are required to call the Treasury in order to have it picked up.
Hell, if you have enough money to throw around, you can still buy a $5,000 and $10,000 bill. Highest to exist is a $100,000 bill, but was never issued to public.
I work with a guy that had seen $500 and $1000 bills before. He is 65. He worked at the Horse Races as a teller. So, he accepted them on rare occasion for betting.
The high range in prices on the bills are due to their quality and issuing rarity.
Buying from ebay? Ick. The issue is that you take the risk AND if you're getting ungraded, then you don't know the actual quality.
