Real or Fake?

I just withdrew money from my bank, mostly hundreds and went to go out to eat and come to find out the waitress said the 100 dollar bill I used to pay with was fake due to it not having a security strip. However it is an older 100 dollar bill, the 1969 series. My question is this, I have four one hundred dollar bills left and none of them have a security strip in them. Is it because they were printed in 1969 or are they fake if they dont have a security strip? Also any more suggestions as to where and/or how to figure out if it's fake would be nice.

I just bought a uv light and pen test for the money, and the pen mark is showing up a golden/yellow color. As far as the watermark on the 100 bill it isn't showing up or at least I cant find it.

The security strip was added to the $100 bill with Series 1990 and the watermark was added starting with Series 1996. No bills prior to Series 1990 have either feature.

Your bills are most likely genuine. I'm surprised that they didn't try to use a counterfeit detection pen on them. The test you did with the pen indicates they are good. Also, the paper on genuine notes has red and blue fibers embedded in the paper.

Spending older notes is becoming a problem, especially outside the US. Most merchants in Mexico will no longer accept older US large denomination notes.

Take it back to the bank where you got it. Something similiar happened to me when I was traveling in Germany. I did a currency exchange at an American Express station and the bills they gave me had been withdrawn from circulation. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until I was in Belgium and paid for dinner - talk about embarassing - the waiter came running outside to the parking lot to catch me.

Your bank has records of your withdraw and the number of hundred dollar bills given you

Take them to a coin collector or

Take them back to the bank and ask to speak to a representative about a problem you have

Only he can give you an answer as to the state of your money

weird one. im guessing real

Truly an awkward circumstance. When I worked as a cashier, we'd check the bills with a special marker that determined whether or not it was fake. If you marked it and it was yellow, it was good. If it came out black, it was a fake. I came across a few of them. I'm surprised this isn't a normal practice among other stores. If you failed to do it where I worked, and they found out it was a fake (they double-checked to see if the employees marked, and more over, to mark again to make sure) you were fired. No questions asked.

But yeah, turn it back into the bank.

It isn't fake simply because it doesn't have a security strip. They didn't even put those security strips into $100 bills until they redesigned the bill itself about 10 years ago. If the restaurant says it's fake, it must be because it failed the marker test another answerer alluded to. In either case the remedy is the same: take them back to the issuing bank.

check the watermark