We've all dreamed of stumbling across a big pile of money, but we recognize that it's just a fantasy. A man in Illinois refused to let go of his hopes when he came across a million-dollar bill recently. That's right, a million-dollar bill, with a picture of our 19th president, Rutherford B. Hayes, that was lying in a phone booth in East St. Louis, Illinois.
The gullible finder took the bill to a bank in downtown St. Louis, but the teller didn't quite know what to do with it and advised him to take it to the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve told him to take it to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. So he put it in the mail - a million dollars! - to the Bureau, in D.C., and awaited a reply, which finally arrived four months later. "I regret," the letter said, "that my reply is not favorable."
For the record, the most valuable bill printed in the U.S. today is the hundred. The largest ever printed by the U.S. Treasury was the $100,000 bill, last issued in 1935. The luckless fellow in Illinois had found a bill printed by a ministry in California, with a tiny religious tract on the back - too tiny for many people to even read. At least in this case, it didn't work.
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