Why did the US stop making 500 dollar bills?

Answer 1

According to the Treasury Department, the last high-denomination bills were printed in 1945 but all carried the series date 1934. Production ended due to low demand; as noted for most people $500 was a considerable amount of money during that time period.

The bills remained in circulation and could be obtained at major banks. However in 1969 President Nixon issued an order suspending distribution of all bills larger than $100. Banks were ordered to hold any that were deposited and return them to the Treasury for replacement with smaller denominations. The primary reason was NOT counterfeiting but the fact that high-value bills were being used by organized crime to move large sums without detection, a process called "money laundering".

Because inflation has reduced the purchasing power of a 1945-issue $1000 bill to (much) less than $100 today there have been calls for printing new $500 bills and possibly introducing a $200 denomination to parallel the European €200 note. It's not likely to happen though because most large transactions can be handled electronically and large bills could again be "laundered" by terrorists as well as other criminals.

They stopped making the 500 dollar bill because the United States government thought that if the bills got counterfeit, that they would put harm to the economy. You might be confused, but don't be. 500 dollars is still a lot of money, so is the 1000, 5000, and 10,000 dollar bill. That is the main reason they stopped making the high denomination bills. You can still purchase these bills online but at a very high cost. For example if you could counterfeit a 10,000 dollar bill over and over again you can become very "rich," and that is what the US government was worried about.

The 500 dollar bill was a very popular bill, as was all of the other high denomination bills. You would most likely find a 500, 1000, 5000, and/or 10,000 dollar bills in very wealthy peoples wallets. They would often use these bills for clothing, dinner, and many, many other things.