What is the highest denomination US bill available at a bank?

Answer 1

Since 1969, $100 bills have been the highest denomination available.

Before July of that year, banks were authorized to distribute denominations of $500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000 on request. Very few of the two higher-value bills were ever printed so in practice only $500 and $1000 bills were available. Even then not many were used because they represented much more substantial amounts nearly half a century ago. The last printing had actually been back in 1945 so any that banks did have were quite old.

While their high purchasing power (at least 20 times as much as today) meant the bills didn't see much use in ordinary commerce, they became increasingly popular among criminals as a way to readily move large sums for drug deals, money laundering, and other illegal activities. To thwart that use, President Nixon issued an executive order forbidding banks from distributing any bills higher than $100 and requiring any that were deposited to be returned to the Treasury. While there was never any formal recall, that "soft withdrawal" soon removed most of them from circulation.

In recent years there have been occasional proposals to re-introduce $500 bills and/or possibly print a $200 bill, similar to €200 and €500 denominations issued by the EU. However the side of electronic currency and fears of use by terrorists mean that the US is very unlikely to print anything more than $100 in the foreseeable future.