Are the 1996 dollars valid?
According to National Bank Resolution No. 502, commercial and state banks are obliged to accept old-style dollars, issued in 1996.
You can go to the bank with a whole 1996 hundred dollar bill, and the bank must exchange it for a 2009 bill of equivalent value.
In addition, banks must exchange dollars with minor damages for new ones. For such an exchange, a commission set by the bank must be paid.
The bank can send the banknotes for examination, which can last quite a long time.
In reality, unfortunately, it can happen differently.
The cashier can easily exchange bills, can send them for verification, and only after that exchange them for the commission set by the bank.
The fact is that the cashier's activity is regulated not only by the NBU, but also by the bank's internal regulations.
No bank has the right to refuse this operation, although some cashiers refuse to do so.
Exchange of old dollars.
Which are accepted, what may be the problems
Banknotes issued after 1996 used new security technologies.
That's why bank tellers sometimes can't tell the difference between fake and real dollars and don't want to take the risk.
In different banks of Ukraine, dollar bills can be exchanged for various damages:
torn and glued, badly worn,
scorched or burned, with a change in the color of the bill,
if no signs of payment have been preserved (there is no protective tape, various inscriptions and traces of paint / grease, etc. are applied to the signs of payment of the banknote),
Some dollars can be sent for verification and exchange abroad, where the correspondent bank is located.
This procedure can last quite a long time and will cost from 10 to 50% of the face value, depending on the degree of damage to the bills.
After the Cabinet of Ministers approved in 2021 the strategic directions for countering money laundering for the period until 2023, not only the authenticity of the bill, but also its history is checked.
The purpose of such checks is to make sure that this banknote has not been involved in any suspicious transactions, such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, etc.
Banknotes with punctures, strange spots or tears are the most common.
Banks are obliged to send such bills to the correspondent bank, which is its foreign partner and helps in the sale of currency.
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