Not all $100 bills accepted for exchange in China

I had an interesting experience on a recent trip to Beijing. I had reached the daily maximum at the ATM in the hotel lobby and wanted a bit more cash, so I tried to exchange three one hundred dollar bills at the hotel’s front desk. To my surprise, the clerk politely declined to exchange one of my bills. When I asked why, he told me that it was a ‘series 1996′ bill, and because those bills were frequently counterfeited, the hotel clerks had been instructed not to accept them. Luckily, I was able to find another bill with a different series number on it, and was able to get the money I needed. However, I noted that of the ten one hundred dollar bills that I had brought along to China with me, four of them were marked as ‘series 1996′. (The series number is written in small letters in the lower left hand corner of the bill–to the right of the large ’100′ in the bottom left corner.) Had I been relying solely on cash for my currency exchanges, I would have been in an unpleasant situation. So be forewarned–if you intend to exchange cash while in China, carefully examine the series numbers on the bills–it may save you much aggravation!