It often seems like everything in this life expires, from the food we eat to the products we purchase — hell, even our bodies expire eventually.
But one thing that does not expire is money. Our legal tender in the United States is a rare immortal find, and one that — excepting some truly severe damage — maintains its exact same base value over its entire lifespan, no matter how long that may be.
A Sheetz cashier seems to have missed that particular memo, unfortunately, and their confusion over an old bill is now immortalized for the world to witness on TikTok. A clip of their misunderstanding is once again circulating, thanks to a recent re-share, and its stirring up just as much confusion and dismay as it did the first time around.
In the video, a cashier gathers up a few requested items for our customer and videographer, who then passes over a nice, classic-looking $50 bill. The cashier immediately informs our would-be purchaser that the location “can’t take” his cash, and all because of when it was made. According to the cashier, that Sheetz location only takes cash from “1990 and on,” leaving it with a bare three and a half decades worth of money to choose from.
Our videographer is entirely correct when he informs the cashier that he’s provided her with “United States currency” and that she must accept it, but the cashier doesn’t budge. She continues to insist that a perusal of the “expiration date” will prove her right, and when a manager approaches to assist, she reinforces this same sentiment.
Seemingly concerned over the money’s validity, despite the watermark and security thread noted by the purchaser, the business ultimately informs our original poster that his money is no good there. He’s left to gather back up his “expired” cash and seek out a fresh location to spend his money, since Sheetz is apparently living out Idiocracy in real time.
U.S. paper money does not have anything resembling an expiration date, and even our oldest printed money is still considered legitimate legal tender across all 50 states. According to the U.S. Currency Education Program, “all designs of Federal Reserve notes remain legal tender, or legally valid for payments, regardless of when they were issued.” This applies to all Federal Reserve notes created from “1914 to present,” not 1990 to present.
People found themselves utterly speechless at the claim of “expired” cash, and wasted no time in voicing their bafflement. Noting that it’s quite likely “all the coins in the register are older than 1990,” people debated the enduring validity of cold, hard cash in the comments, and argued in the favor of the original poster.
It won’t affect him much, since he gathered up that ancient $50 and headed off to spend it elsewhere, but the video did serve as a nice lesson in currency and U.S. law for a number of viewers. We’ve not got a better idea of how federal currency in the States works, and a nice solid argument queued for the next time someone tries to claim our cash can expire.