We're in the last 10 minutes or so of testimony this week at the Oliphant Commission. Brian Mulroney is on the stand, getting a grilling about the cash he received from Karlheinz Schreiber.
We've heard a lot about how, three times, Mulroney received envelopes stuffed with 75 $1,000 bills from Schreiber.
You ever seen $1,000 bill? I don't think I ever have. In fact, I don't think Canada prints them anymore but here's the ones that are out there:
These images and more information, incidentally, are available at the Bank of Canada's Web site.
According to Wikipedia:
The printing of $1,000 bills ceased in 2000. The denomination was withdrawn on the advice of the Solicitor General and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), as it was often used for money laundering. The bills were nicknamed “pinkies” due to their colour and association with organized crime. One person could easily carry $1,000,000 in $1,000 bills. The Bank of Canada has requested that financial institutions return $1,000 bills for destruction. However, this request is not a legal requirement, and some banks will recirculate $1,000 bills if their customers ask.
The final version of the bill was released in 1992, and was reddish-purple in colour. The front featured a portrait of the Queen; the back featured a winter scene with two Pine Grosbeaks. As demand was low, the $1000 note was not produced in the 1969-79 series; the 1954 series continued to be issued instead.
Yeah. When I used to work in a grocery store in the 1980s to put myself through school. Someone paid for a $700 grocery bill with a $1000 bill — she had a really big family….it was a novelty for sure. Had to call the store manager to verify it was a real bill before we'd take it. I hear they do the same thing with $100s now…
Actually, I have seen quite a few of $1000.00 bills. In the early 1980s here in Winnipeg, I put myself through university by working 4-5 shifts a week as an auditor for 5 years in a major downtown hotel connected to the convention center. Often tour operators (i.e. from Japan) would pay their room masters with them; banquet bills for large weddings would often be settled with them; in 1987(88?) the Hell's Angels did same for a few room accounts on their way through Winnipeg, and (I absolutely kid you not) on more than one occasion we had the conveners of large political gatherings/conventions come down on the day of departure to settle up all the outstanding balances on their function bills and rm&tax group master accounts with $1000 dollar bills. For all I know, the bills we accepted to settle certain political accounts c.1983-84 could have come from ….?
Really, we never gave it much thought.