# $2 bill-good luck or bad luck? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334 "2011-03-20T05:29:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/21 "2011-03-20T16:30:18Z")
Or is theres a dispute about the change you receive. But I gave you a 2! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/22 "2011-03-20T16:32:18Z")
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#): > > Travel tip: > > If you go to Vietnam take a bunch of $2 bills with you to use at tips. There they are considered to be very lucky. I actually saw a young waitress in the airport that had one folded and stuffing in the ID tag she wore around her neck. I have no idea why they consider them good luck. If someone knows, chime in. I used to work in Orange County, which has a large Vietnamese community. $2 bills in red envelopes were passed around on Chinese New Year. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/23 "2011-03-20T18:14:18Z")
When I was a kid my Dad gave me one and said it was good luck so I tucked it in my wallet and have kept it ever since, transferring it from wallet to wallet. When I was a kid I believed it was lucky and was fascinated by how Jefferson’s (?) leg looks like it is twisted in the art on the back. Now I keep it because it reminds me of my Dad who passed away several years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/24 "2011-03-20T19:30:32Z")
> [@the lone cashew](#): > > I have not seen a 2 dollar bill in years, don’t consider them either good luck or bad. Haven’t seen a 2 dollar bill in quite a few years. However, that’s probably because 1 and 2 dollar bills are no longer produced up here.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/25 "2011-03-20T20:04:43Z")
American currency is very widely used in Cambodia; I had several $2 bills I used as tips. The recipients were delighted. When I ran out of the $2 bills I offered to buy them back at $3 apiece, but had no takers. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/26 "2011-03-21T02:58:12Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Fair enough! But I beg of you, after you’ve used them for your superstitious purposes, please, please _ **use** _ them! Get a coffee at Starbucks…play the exacta…tip the waiter with them! Only by inundating merchants with the Two can we force them to create a new section in the tray in cash registers. Until then, the Two will remain a second-class bill. > > The Pro-Two Movement (PTM) is only starting, but “good-luck” and “bad-luck” games will certainly interfere with it’s growing momentum if we lose sight of our greater goal. I don’t know if you’re male or female but love knows no bounds. 😉 During most of last year I would get about $40 in 2s every few weeks and pay for single drinks at restaurants with them or use them as tips if it were given the okay by the waiter/tress. And remember, exellent ice breakers. 😉 Now that I have a full time job and actual spending money, I need to start doing this again. I have been pro two for a while now, just never had the extra money to be getting twos from my bank. ---
**Author:** ![FrancisCastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b4bc9f/32.png) [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/27 "2011-03-21T03:16:05Z")
There’s a bar/restaurant in my town that gives you $2 bills as change when you pay for drinks at the bar. I always assumed they did that so you would tip the bartender more. When I got married, our best man gave us an envelope with 28 - $2 bills in it (we were married on the 28th). It was a pretty cool gift and I kept it the whole time we were married. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/28 "2011-03-21T03:42:43Z")
My parents were collecting two dollar bills for some reason when my youngest sister died of cancer - they didn’t consider them good luck after that. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/29 "2011-03-22T14:25:16Z")
It’s money. How can money be bad luck? In fact, I have a $2 bill right here… OW! Damn paper cuts. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/30 "2011-03-23T14:06:04Z")
If I’m playing the luck game, I usually count all unusual bills/change as good luck. That way I’m wanting to look for them. I throw 50s in there, since they seem to be falling out of use. The only 50s I’ve gotten come from the bank, and those don’t count anymore than finding a machine that always gives change in dollar coins if possible counts. (In college, I had pretty much all the dollar coins that were ever put into the vending machines due to this: the most it ever had was eight.) ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/31 "2011-03-23T14:37:43Z")
I agree that it’s a generational thing. I was told that they were considered good luck, but wasn’t there a saying – lucky as a $2 bill – meaning unlucky – that dates back a lot further? In 1976 my class took a trip to DC. One place we visited was the Department of Printing and Engraving. Guess what they were printing that day? ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334/32 "2011-03-23T15:48:07Z")
Back in the day, friends and I would takes stacks of them to strip clubs any time one of us had a bachelor party. I would definitely put them in the “good luck” column. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-bill-good-luck-or-bad-luck/575334.md?page=1)