The elusive $5,000 note

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A friend recently reminded me about a song that was done long ago by General Trees which begged, bawled and demanded that the Government produce a $50 bill. At the time the request was logical. We had a $10, $20 and $100 bills in circulation, so why not? The song all but threatened roadblocks and tyre burning if we as a people didn't get this bill we so desperately needed to bridge the gap between the paper $20 and the then, very valuable, big $100 bill. Whether by coincidence or because of the peer pressure induced by Trees' song, $50 paper money bearing the image of our national hero, Sam Sharpe, came into being. We didn't care how it came to be, we just eagerly sought out our Sam Sharpe notes, admired its colourfulness and skipped merrily along to the beat our own drums.

Fast forward to today and as I'm writing this I look at a lowly $50 bill, all crumpled and crinkly in my purse, its only company, at this time, being an equally shoddy $100 and I have to buss out a big dutty laugh. Firstly, about my financial situation and secondly, because I now just feel stupid for joining in on the campaign clamouring for a $50 bill back then. Life is something else, isn't it? Since Trees' song came and went, there has been the introduction and acceptance of the Nanny ($500 note) and the Manley ($1,000 note) into the banking system of our island. Memory fails so I can't remember anybody in the music industry requesting them, but they somehow arrived and blended in seamlessly. I sometimes wonder if the dead heroes joke amongst each other about their ratings based on the value of the currency bearing their likeness. Poor Sam Sharpe, suppose to shame, from something... to nothing. Aww well, a so it go. If our late greats do card each other in the after life, then The Honourable Hugh Shearer fist supposed to get thump off plenty! He is now the real big man about town in terms of currency.Jamaica has now been blessed (or cursed) with the introduction of a $5,000 note. I definitely know that nobody, music fraternity or otherwise, requested this one, so its arrival was not greeted with as much fanfare as the $50. Big denomination bills are a sign that a country's economy is not doing so well so I was kind of nervous when I read the headline. Surprisingly, I have discovered that Jamaicans aren't really embracing this note at all. Note even the banks seem to carry it as they continue to deal mainly in Manleys, no matter how many the transaction requires. I have to date never held one in my hand so I sought the highly informed and intelligent views of my drinking buddies on what they thought about the 'new' bill. One fellow vodka drinker pointed out that people are afraid of them. "Imagine you go give away one mistakenly for a Nanny or worse, go lose one?" The bartender she chimes in "and the conductor dem no want to take it." My friend Toney looks up from his Blackberry to input "they're out there, but fi tell you the truth, I'm not really into them because they are very delicate. If you ever tear the little transparent part in the middle a done it done and me is a man dat jus tek money and push it down in my pocket without a care in the world". The ever classic Viagra, him slurrily bawl out, "my pay dun small already, mi nuh want no Shearer! Give me the small bills so mi can continue to fool myself that me get nuff money. Plus if them pay me with a Shearer, me would owe me boss a Manley!" Needless to say we all laughed at ourselves and went back to drinking. Have a great weekend everyone and if you have any $5,000 stored at home... share some with me. Thanks in advance.