…Someone else beat you to it on Monday.
In Augusta Georgia, when a bank teller refused to open a new account for 31-year-old Alexander Smith, he got angry. However, the teller refused to open the account because Smith presented a fake million dollar bill. Now, normally, I would consider this more stupidity than anything else, I’ve heard stories about what people try to get change for at Wal Marts and it’s nothing new really. However, what I found interesting in this story is the fact that Smith got angry with the bank employees and started cussing up a storm. The teller called the police and he was arrested for disorderly conduct and two counts of forgery. The second charge came when the police found out that this guy also bought cigarettes using a stolen check.
What really interested me in this article was the last line. “The federal government has never printed a million-dollar bill” and that got me thinking, what has the U.S. government actually printed and where did this million-dollar bill come from?
According to the U.S. Treasury, the largest bill ever printed was worth $100,000 and was not available to the public. It was used to transfer large sums of money between banks before electronic banking.
But what about this million-dollar bill? That, I think, is the best part of the Treasury’s website…
“Question - Did the Treasury Department ever produce a $1 million currency note? I have one that I want to know about.”
Apparently enough people ask whether or not it’s real that it makes it to the FAQ!
“Answer – We receive many inquiries asking if the Treasury Department ever produced a $1 million currency note. People have sent in copies of these notes. We have found that they are nonnegotiable platinum certificates known as a ‘One Million Dollar Special Issue.’ These notes were from a special limited copyrighted art series originally sold by a Canadian firm for $1.00 each as a collectible item. They are not official United States currency notes manufactured by our Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). As such, they are not redeemable by the Department of the Treasury.
“You may be interested to know that the BEP learned of these certificates in the spring of 1982. All related correspondence was forwarded to the United States Secret Service to decide if there were any violations of Federal currency laws. The Secret Service subsequently advised, however, that these certificates did not violate any United States law.”
If you like history, I recommend reading the rest of what the Treasury has on their page that I posted the link to, I think it’s interesting, especially what they were doing during and because of WWII.
So, if you have a million-dollar bill, rest assured, it’s not real and you can’t open an account with it. However, I imagine it would be fun to try and fool friends with it 
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