Russia and American C-Note

I found this articled dated January 1996 In Russia, C is a sour note Money changing: Some Russians, who keep their life savings in U.S. $100 bills, fear that their modest nest eggs will vanish with the redesign of American currency. To reduce panic in Russia the American government took large quantities of the new redesigned $100 banknote to Russia to facilitate the exchange.

In 1996, Russia has the largest single foreign circulation of dollars -- about $15 billion to $20 billion. A U.S.-operated hot line esd taking up to 200 calls a day from Russians concerned about the new dollar.

We are now 8 weeks from issuing the new color $100 banknotes.

The decision by Russia to grant amnesty to Edward J. Snowden has been the latest in a long line of escalators in political tensions. One way to punish Russia is not to make it easy to exchange the old c-notes for the new color ones.

Technically, the old notes will still be legal tender, and there is nothing the US government can easily do about people carrying the new color c-notes into Russia on their own.

But without the US government smoothing over the process, there is likely to be mass speculation and people desperate to exchange the notes for fear that they will not be accepted. Most probably exchange houses will charge ruinous fees, and even riots are possible. There may be a push to invest in Euros instead. Clearly everyone from the grandmother who has five c-notes tucked away, to the drug lords will be affected.

A 1000 ruble note is worth about $30. Some 5000 ruble notes are printed. The ruble is much more stable than it was in 1996, but it is still not the currency of choice to shove under your mattress.