Zillion-Dollar Bill: Difference between revisions

== Literature ==

* In ''The [[Lord of the Rings]],'' Frodo's mithril coat is said to be more valuable than "the whole Shire and everything in it." Probably because the only mine in the world where mithril can be found has a bit of a balrog problem, is also infested with goblins, and has a giant octopus monster outside the gates.

* The low-budget version appears in Upton Sinclair's ''The Jungle''. In 1920s Chicago, an unemployed stockyard worker is given a hundred-dollar bill by a rich drunk. (This is about as much money as the hero could make in a year.) But he has no other money with him, and he'll freeze to death if he tries to walk home. In desperation, he goes into a bar to stay warm until the banks open in the morning. They won't let him stay without buying something, so he uses the bill to buy a 5-cent beer. The bartender gives him 95 cents in change, and everyone else enjoys a big laugh when he tries to convince them that he's been cheated.

* In Terry Pratchett's proto-[[Discworld]] book ''Strata'', money is defined as ''time'' - each bill is worth extra years of life. The biggest bill is the Methuselah (named after the longest-lived Biblical personality) which few people have ever seen. The book also features a bottomless purse, which continually spits out bills which are not technically counterfeit, but which have serial numbers that haven't been used yet.