Money madness

The process of changing U.S. dollar notes into rupiah Medan, North Sumatra, is absolutely bizarre.

I frequently travel to Medan, and over the years, I've learned that $100 notes must be in mint condition to be accepted.

When changing dollars, whether at an international bank, an Indonesian bank or a money changer, the notes are examined one by one, front and back for any so-called defects, such as a crease, writing, tears or folds. If the notes have been kept in a wallet, they will surely be rejected or, at some money changers, an appreciably lower rate of exchange will be offered.

In order to be sure of getting the standard exchange rate, brand-new notes must be acquired and they must be kept flat and in pristine condition, preferably in an envelope. Other currencies, such as Malaysian ringgit and Singapore dollars, are changed without any scrutinization, even if they are old, torn or crumpled notes.

However, this madness has developed further, and now money changers have frequent objections to serial numbers that start with a particular letter. I discovered this recently, when I had withdrawn brand-new sequential $100 dollar notes from an international bank.

I had held on to the notes for about two weeks, and when I tried to change the notes at a money changer, I was told that I would have to accept a lower exchange rate for notes with a serial number starting with CD. To make matters worse, the bank where I obtained the notes refused to replace them with $100 notes with a different serial number.

Obviously, this is some form of corruption that may be peculiar to Medan, but it is very disturbing that this "madness" is even perpetuated by international banks. I would hope this nonsense will be investigated by the appropriate government agencies and then stamped out. MARTIN Medan