How Bill Denomination Affects Your Rate

Rate boards at Thai exchange shops sometimes list separate rows by denomination for certain currencies — "USD 100," "USD 50," "USD 20-10," and so on. Even for the same dollar, which bill you hand over changes how much baht you get back. Yen, on the other hand, is treated the same across denominations at most shops. Here's how it actually works, based on real data this site collects.

Why the rate differs by denomination

Exchange shops make their profit by selling the foreign currency they collect to banks or wholesalers. Large bills are cheaper to count and take up less space to store, and wholesalers prefer them too, so they cost the shop less to acquire. That difference shows up as a gap in the rate offered to customers. The gap is biggest for US dollars, which circulate in large volumes down to small denominations; for yen, there's almost no gap at all.

For USD

• $100 and $50 bills get the best rate. Many shops treat them the same; some drop $50 a notch (by roughly 0.1-0.3%)
• $20 and $10 bills drop by a smaller amount (roughly 0.2-0.8% below the $100 rate, though some shops go over 1%)
• The big drop comes at $5 and below, especially $1 and $2 bills, where the gap runs from around 1% up to over 10% below the $100 rate depending on the shop. Almost every shop will still take them, but they aren't the denomination to bring in bulk
• Older-design bills may get a reduced rate depending on the shop, and very old ones may be refused outright. The current standard $100 bill is the 2013-issue design with the blue security ribbon. Pre-1996 designs may be refused, and 1996-2012 designs may get a rate a few percent lower at some shops
• Torn, taped, marked, or heavily creased bills can be refused even if they're the current design

For yen

Most Bangkok exchange shops this site tracks buy 10,000-yen, 5,000-yen, and 1,000-yen notes at the same rate. At shops that do split by denomination, the line is usually drawn between "5,000 yen and up" and "1,000-yen/2,000-yen notes," with a gap of around 0.5% (roughly 100 baht on 100,000 yen). We haven't found any shop that gives a better rate for 10,000-yen notes than 5,000-yen notes.

• There's little practical benefit to matching denominations — bring whatever notes you have
• If you're carrying a lot of 1,000-yen notes, just avoid shops that give them a lower rate. Denomination-specific rows are shown per shop on Compare Bangkok rates
• Both the 2024-issue redesigned notes (including the new 10,000-yen note featuring Eiichi Shibusawa) and the older design can be exchanged. We haven't found any shop that splits rates between old and new designs or refuses the new notes
• The condition of the bill matters more than the denomination. Notes that are creased, torn, or marked can be refused

Today's best in-city rate (Max Exchange Head Office) for 10,000-yen notes is 0.2141, giving 2,141 ฿ for 10,000 JPY.

Handling the bills you bring from Japan

1. Keep the notes you plan to exchange flat and uncreased — an envelope or a bill holder works well
2. Set aside separately whatever yen you'll spend in Japan, such as at the airport on your way home
3. Don't worry about the mix of denominations — even with a lot of 1,000-yen notes, choosing a shop that doesn't discount them avoids any loss

Converting leftover baht back to yen

If you convert leftover baht back to yen, the shop's "Sell" rate applies. The spread between buy and sell rates is a loss, so keep the amount you convert back to a minimum. It's worth holding onto large-denomination baht notes (1,000-baht bills) for your next trip.

The rates and amounts in this article are calculated automatically from each exchange shop's published rates, collected by this site every 15 minutes. How the data is sourced and updated