Posted By:
JimBBill and Jay,
I have to agree with Jay. In many countries greenbacks are worth more than travellers checks on the black market, sometimes quite a bit more. The reason is that the currencies in many nations are not convertible on the open market so if wealthy people from these third world countries want to travel, they need convertable currencies. Thus they will pay a premium for them. The dollars were also used to purchase illicit items abroad as well. This was certainly the case in most Asian countries like India, Nepal, and China in the '80s and up through the mid to late'90's. It does seem like that black market is drying up these days.
JimB