When U.S. Dollars Expire...

The U.S. Dollar is still the currency of choice across Africa with $50 and $100 bills receiving the best exchange rates and $20 and $10 receiving a 5-10% discount.  There is also discount for older series bills.  Apparently this is related to counterfeit bills linked to North Korea floating around for older series.  Lucy and I both receive our compensation with dollar-denominated checks that we cash (and receive dollars) at our organizations' respective banks.  We then either deposit the cash into a dollar-denominated account at Lucy's bank, hold on to it for dollar cash expenditures we have in the future, or exchange those often crisp 2006 Series $100 bills for Rwandan Francs (Typically ~RWF575 per $1).  In Rwanda, bills printed before 2003 are "expired" or "finished" (You can imagine how surprising it is when you are told that your money is no longer good when of course it is legitimate currency in the United States).  


There aren't really functional ATMs in Rwanda for expats unless you want to take a cash advance off your debit or credit card and that often involves dealing with bank branch management (two hour minimum commitment).  There are ATMs at most local banks but they only dispense RWF to those that have RWF accounts at that bank (they don't convert their own dollar accounts so that the ATM can spit out RWF), and our friends here who decided to get RWF accounts have never received ATM cards (some have waited three years).  Some regional banks like EcoBank and the Kenya Commercial Bank have recently entered Rwanda and could potentially expand the current ATM situation.  When we are traveling in other East African countries, we have been able to use my Bank of America debit card to draw money out of Barclays' ATMs (except in Ethiopia where foreign banks are banned from operating).  There is a relationship between BofA and Barclays that allows me to withdraw the local currency at that day's spot rate with no additional fee the same way I would withdraw dollars out of a BofA ATM machine in the U.S.  This makes the whole process much safer since we don't have to carry around wads of $100 and quite cost effective with no additional foreign transaction or currency exchange fees.


Many hotels, restaurants, safari companies, etc. only accept dollars (so some dollars do have to be carried when travelling), yet never have change in dollars  For example, U.S. citizens are required to purchase a $25 single-entry visas every time they travel to Kenya, but if you attempt to pay $30 (one $20, one $10) and expect change they will claim that they are not a bank and cannot provide you change.  Or the change they do have is an "expired bill" from say 1996 in the smallest divisible denominations possible (I was due $50 change last week and received four $10 bills from 2001 and RWF570).  Thus, we pawn off small denominations and old bills as quickly as possible to whomever will take them and maintain a steady supply of 2006 Series $100 notes (which of course I have never used and rarely seen in the U.S.)


What inspired me to write all of this was the U.S. Treasury's announcement last week that they are releasing a new ultra high-tech $100 bill in February 2011 and an excellent article outlining some of the history of counterfeiting money (WSJ: Outfoxing the Counterfeiters).  

I anticipate this really throwing Africa for a loop.