My two gradeschool kids still get a birthday card from their greatuncle (must be in his 80s) that unfailingly includes a two-dollar bill and a one-dollar bill. They spend them all the time and haven’t gotten any strange reactions yet. I guess the only one that was memorable was at a Mexican grocery where the cashier said “Oh, these are good luck! You sure you want to spend them?”
When I manned a till in a college job in the 90s, we’d see 2s maybe once or twice a month, so they definitely were on the rarer side (our cash throughput was about $800-$1200/day). We’d get plenty of Susie Bs, though, (wait, they may have been Sackies at the time – I forget; ETA: no that was introduced in 2000) as the CTA el station gave out change in those. I think I’ve seen a few Kennedy half dollars, and maybe even an Eisenhower dollar.
That interviewer was spectacularly bad. He just assumes Woz is printing out these sheets of $2 bills and doesn’t ask him to clarify. Woz, like a good troll, never said that he prints them, just produces the pads.
That’s what I really enjoyed about the interview. The guy just absolutely dropped the ball on the followup questions and Woz knew it and kept screwing with them. The line I recall was something like “I had these professionally printed…” and of course he did. We all have our cash professionally printed. By the Treasury Department!
The exact same thing happened to me recently. I had the same $2 bill in my wallet for years, and then it just wasn’t there anymore. I went to the bank and got a new one that same day.
I used to go to the Bristol Renaissance Faire north of Chicago, and one year I went several times in costume with a pouch full of dollar coins (I can’t recall if they were Susan B or Sacajawea) so I could “authentically” pay in coins instead of bills.
I worked in a shop at that faire during the '90s (so, pre-Sacajawea gold dollar coins), and there was always the occasional customer who paid with dollar coins, for that more authentic touch.
I’m guessing that’s not going to be on Rotten Tomatoes…. On the other hand, show people trying to spend the $10k bill (or whichever intergovernmental one has a picture of Salmon Chase…)
A bank teller at one point told me that if they get any $1000 bills, they are supposed to take them out of circulation. I don’t even know where you would obtain a $5000 or $10000 bill; how many of those did they even print in the first place? $1000 seems like it could be somewhat more useful, especially with inflation and all, but you can’t get any at the bank (as I said, I tried) and you would not spend a valuable vintage one (and if you did it would eventually wind up shredded).
I used to regularly go to this taco joint where you could get $2 tacos if you paid with a $2 bill on a Tuesday. Now, it’s kind of an obvious promotion to run given that I live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the guy on the $2 bill is kind of a big deal, but I would imagine that taco joints in cities that don’t have the same historical background probably do the same thing.
$500 and $1000 notes were removed from circulation starting around 1969 on the notion that they were favored by illegal narcotics traffickers. I think they were 1940s “Series” but printed up until the 1960s. They are legal tender but as you note they are removed from circulation by banks should one turn up. They sell to collectors at a pretty hefty markup to face value. You might pay $600 or $700 for a $500 note in reasonable condition. Higher denomination notes would be useful, as $100 doesn’t go too far these days. I always thought $100 coins would be practical. Something worth checking under the couch cushions for!
I have a framed sheet of 16 two-dollar bills in my office. You can buy uncut sheets of money from the U. S. mint. There is a shipping/service charge in addition to the face value. For some reason, they don’t sell five-dollar bills in uncut format.
On one occasion, I took a sheet of 20 one-dollar bills and hung it in the window of our computer room on April 1st. I put a note, “Our new printer is so precise that you won’t be able to tell the difference between these bills an the ones in your wallet.”
I handled a $500 bill in 1973. I worked as a desk clerk at a Holiday Inn, and a guy who had been staying for a period of time, in town on business, paid with it. It screwed up my register at the end of shift, because we were supposed to leave a certain amount in cash, and I couldn’t when I took out the big bill.
