Why the share of $100 bills in circulation has been going up for over 40 years – Quartz

$100 bills, not $20 bills nor credit cards are #bitcoin's main competitor right now.

Nearly 80% of all US currency in circulation is denominated in $100 bills. (As of June 30 , 77%.) Seems somewhat strange doesn’t it? After all, we find remarkably few of our pockets jammed with those pesky C-notes . And it’s not just us. Economists acknowledge that at face value, the proliferation of hundreds doesn’t seem to make sense. Writing about the growth of the cash supply as well as the preponderance of $100-dollar bills back in 2010, economist Edgar Feige wrote that the numbers: “Imply that the average American’s bulging wallet holds 91 pieces of U.S. paper currency, consisting of: 31 one dollar bills; 7 fives; 5 tens; 21 twenties; 4 fifties and 23 one hundred dollar bills. Few of us will recognize ourselves as ‘average’ citizens. Clearly, these amounts of currency are not normally necessary for those of us simply wishing to make payments when neither credit/debit...

Full article: http://qz.com/29561/why-the-share-of-100-bills-in-circula...