America is not only the largest economy in the world, in fact the American economy is so large, that it is greater than the third through tenth largest country economies combined; America also has been around as a stable country since its revolutionary war against Great Britain, commenced in 1776. Just as English is the international language of business, the American currency is the de facto default currency in numerous countries throughout the world, and not really by accident, rather, for the most part, this is by deliberate design by many other countries which align their currencies with the American dollar, even utilize it in international monetary transactions, as well as utilizing American dollars as a additional source of currency accepted within their country. That the American dollar is so universal in usage and value throughout the world, shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, for not only are most countries' economies a very small fraction of the American global empire, many also have a past history of an unstable currency, or unstable government, or basically recognize the prudent value of conducting business in dollars, which are perceived as stable in value, as opposed to their own currency.
This then leads to the rather amazing fact, which doesn't just seem possible, but as reported by thebalance.com, "…75 percent of $100 bills" are actually held outside of the United States. Surprisingly, not only do foreign countries have $100 bills, they typically use them as a store of value, as well as an easy and liquid way to conduct business, both legal and illicit. Still, it is amazing, that somehow in aggregate there are significantly more $100 bills outside of America, than within America, especially considering how large the American economy really is, and how there are plenty of transactions in America which also range from legal to illicit.
The above seems to imply, that Americans have many other viable options to conduct business, that typically doesn't even involve paper-bill cash, such as debit cards, credit cards, checks, crypto currency, and so on and so forth, whereas these other countries, that are far smaller in size, without ubiquitous banks or an established and stable banking system, find that the better way to take care of business, personal or otherwise, is to use what is universally considered to be of real value, American dollars, and while $100 doesn't have the value that it once did in America, the cost of living in so many other nations is significantly lower, so that $100 or even $20 have real value, and are sort of in an ironic way, considered to take the place of hard currency such as gold and silver, and are thereby treated as the equivalency of thathard currency, for the trade in these foreign lands, are not the bits and bytes of modern computers, but real physical $100 bills transferring from one hand to another.
All of this leads to the rather reasonable conclusion that having $5,000 in the bank, bearing no interest or perhaps a very minute amount, as compared to the actual $5,000 in cash, that the man that actually has the cash, is richer than the man that has the money in the bank, for that cash, is real, tangible, and fungible, whereas money in the bank, is subject to seizure, can be frozen, can magically disappear, or be re-pegged to a new discounted value, so incredibly, as dumb as it might sound, having real cash in your hands has a value beyond the actual denomination of its apparent worth. We know that there is truth in this, for that is exactly how physical $100 bills are treated in many a country, throughout the world.