The dog chewed your money? Don’t throw it away! – A guide to dealing with damaged banknotes.
Next time you accidentally put a banknote through the washing machine, don’t immediately throw it away. That mangled piece of paper could still be worth something, because as long as a certain amount of the note remains, the bank will probably replace it for you.
Both the Bank of England and the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing will generally replace damaged banknotes as long as you still retain over 50% of the original note. If you have less than this you can still try to claim but your chances of success are much lower. This is because the bank can’t be sure where the other half is, and someone could later try to claim the larger piece.
However, each authority has a special claims department that deals with your enquiries, and they have even been known to accept burnt notes – apparently some people keep their money in the oven for safekeeping (who knew?!). So whatever the condition of your chewed, disintegrating note, it’s worth checking whether you can claim.
What’s more, you can also claim for money that is no longer in circulation.
Both the Bank of England and Bureau of Printing and Engraving still view withdrawn currency as legal tender. This means they’re obliged to accept discontinued banknotes and pay you their face value. Some individual banks and building societies may also accept the withdrawn currency, but it is entirely at their discretion.
Of course, if you do find old currency it’s always worth checking how valuable it is. A keen collector may be willing to pay you much more than the bank!
Talk to your particular authority for further information, and be aware that you’ll need to fill out the relevant claim forms for damaged notes. For the UK and US these are the pages you’ll need:
UK: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/Pages/damaged_banknotes.aspx
US: http://moneyfactory.gov/damagedcurrencyclaim.html
