When I went to my bank way back when we were in the process of adopting Little J, and told them I would need about $6000 in twenties, all "new," unmarked, and uncreased bills, they just looked at me blankly. "We can't do that," they said. This, from one of the biggest banks in the Southeast.

So I went to the smaller, local bank I use for my business. They were more cooperative when I told them we were adopting from Russia and needed new money. "We can try, sugar," they said. And they did. For months and months they kept aside the newest nicest dollars for me to use, and every time I came in I'd buy some. This is one reason why I continue to use my little, local bank for my business even though our personal accounts are in the larger bank (the larger bank did, after all, do all our notary business for us. It has been my experience that the great businesses/organizations/people rise to the top when helping you with an adoption...and the bad ones sink quickly to the bottom. I will never forget the &@!!# in the Sheriff's department who charged us $3 to notarize a letter from the Sheriff...as if it weren't already part of her job, but I digress.)

The reason people travelling to Russia need to bring new, unmarked, uncreased bills is because many of the places that exchange money will not exchange rubles for crummy looking dollars. They are worried about counterfeiting. Therefore, you have to bring the nicest, most current looking bills that you can find.

I have heard that there are people in Russia who will buy your ugly money and exchange it for nicer looking money, but frankly, why bother? Your bank should be able to get it for you (and if they don't, it's because they don't want to, not because they can't...please!), either by ordering it or by keeping an eye out for it as it goes through their hands.