The Role of High Denomination Notes – Myths and Facts

Every now and then the role of high-denomination banknotes is criticised by claims that their use is only for criminal and tax evasion purposes. Recently, author Oliver Bullough did this in his book ‘Everybody Loves Our Dollars – How Money Laundering Won’, published in January this year. Bullough’s book consists of 12 chapters addressing different forms of money laundering, one of them dedicated to banknotes.

In the banknote chapter, Bullough notes that ‘in pretty much every country on earth, cash is being quickly or slowly outcompeted by electronic payment methods’, and calls banknotes ‘an analogue technology in a digital age’ (pages 110-111). He continues that ‘ordinary citizens are not demanding banknotes’ (p112). Therefore, it’s not surprising that his fixed idea is that cash in circulation is increasing only because of its use for criminal purposes, and the evil is in the printing of high denomination banknotes.