Ever heard of a $40 note?
Many of us would remember the introduction of the one dollar coin or the $100 note in 1984, or even the decimal currency system itself in 1966. But have you ever heard of a $40 note? Neither had we, until we heard this amazing story from a member of the Homeloans community.
Cathy, of Western Australia, recently withdrew money from a Westpac ATM, but later realised that one of the $50 notes withdrawn was missing a small portion. The bill had all of its serial numbers still intact, but the corner had been torn off.
Keen to do the right thing, Cathy took the note into a Westpac branch, expecting them to simply swap it for a new one. But to her surprise, she was told that the note would need to be sent to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) for assessment. Then a few weeks later she received a phone call from Westpac, advising that her bill had been deemed to have a value of $40, and they proceeded to deposit $40 into her account.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked,” a puzzled Cathy told us. “Surely the value of a $50 note is either $50 or zero!”
According to the RBA website, if less than 20 per cent is missing, the banknote is regarded as unfit and full face value is paid. But the biggest regret that she has of this episode, is not that she didn’t kick up more of a fuss at either Westpac or the RBA, but that she didn’t take a photo.
“Somewhere out there someone has the corner of the note, which is apparently worth ten dollars!”