JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Imagine looking through an old picture album and finding a foreign bill worth more than $1 million. A Jacksonville man believes it happened to him, but it's possible that it's actually only worth a couple of bucks.
News4Jax is not identifying the man due to the amount of money he could collect. He contacted News4Jax because he said he keeps running into dead ends.
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The man said when he was 16 years old, his mother died of cancer and his father was serving a 24-year prison sentence. He and his two younger siblings had to live with his grandmother.
It was during the same time frame that he said he began looking through an old photo album.
"As I'm flipping through it, I turned over my baby picture, and what I thought was 1 million in Turkish lira was actually 10 million," the man said. "I took it upon myself to keep it as a family treasure and (didn't) do anything with it until I could figure out what to do with it."
Now, he's in his early 20s, and he went online to research the value of the lira, discovering the bill appeared to be worth about $1.8 million.
"When I saw that dollar amount, I knew I needed to do something with it," he said. "The Bank of America and Wells Fargo said they couldn't accept it because it was a certain amount they can accept inside. That took me to the treasury downtown, and they told me I had to go all the way to Washington, D.C."
However, it's possible the bill isn't worth more than a couple of bucks. The lira seen in the photo appears it could be obsolete. Back in 2005, a new Turkish lira was introduced.
Based on the current rate, 10 million new Turkish liras are worth nearly $1.8 million. However, 10 million of the old Turkish liras are only worth $1.80.
Theoretically, if the bill were worth more than $1 million, a tax attorney said it would not be an easy process to get the money converted. The man would first have to open an account and find a bank that will exchange and place proceeds in the account.
The exchange from lira to U.S. dollars will be taxable as ordinary income, so his next step would be hiring a good certified public accountant to review income taxes and the potential ramifications of the currency exchange.
"All I want is to push forward my dreams and keep it as successful as I can," the man said.