Sorry. What I meant to say was the “last time the smallest unit of currency was discontinued”. Perhaps I should have said it was the only time a smallest unit of currency was discontinued (not counting the various mill coins produced by some states). Three dollar coins are interesting but irrelevant to the point I was making.
Actually, I meant cashier, not teller, so I did mean you.
And perhaps I’m wrong. But as far as I can tell, most places have their cashiers toss large bills under the cash drawer where they’re out of sight and thus never get returned as change.
I like the half dollar coins. They’re distinctly different in size to other coins unlike The Susan B Anthony ones.
The Sacagewa gold dollar coins are good that they stand out from quarters but it’s too weird to see it among dimes, nickles and quarters.
If they want to continue making dollar coins they need to stick with silver and pick better pictures.
I’ve personally done it tens of thousands of times and I would wager most tellers/cashiers do. There is no slot for $50/100’s, so you get rid of them ASAP because
- It is easy to forget a big bill underneath your drawer
- You get to keep more of your 20’s and 10’s to make more change without calling a manager.
It’s a good idea to say “Is a 50 okay?”
OK, I finally got some more info about this. The bills are being marked by a strip club in Portland. Here’s a newspaper article about it: Blood Money
Plus it lets us talk about our loonie-toonie fiscal policies!
The Bureau of Engraving & Printing printed a large run of $2 bills in 1976 and smaller quantity runs in 1995 and 2003. So, the last printing was 9 years ago. Still printing? I say there is a good chance that another series will printed in the future.
I am a devoted fan of the $2 Bill. One of my favorite Presidents, Thomas Jefferson, is on the obverse side and the signing of the Declaration of Independence is on the reverse side. I like people’s surprised reaction when I pay transactions with $2 bills. There are still plenty of 1976 2 bills in circulation (that I get from the bank) since the infrequent use of these bills reduces wear and tear. Surprisingly, most self check out machines at grocery stores accept the 2 bills.
Occasionally, I order a stack of $2 bills from the bank. They usually don’t have much on hand, so bills arrive several business days after I place my order. I try to do my part to increase circulation.
I would think the government likes to print twos. Often waitresses tell me that every “odd” bill or coin they get (2’s, Susan B. Anthony dollars, etc.) go into a piggy bank for a younger relative. So many are not redeemed at all compared to other denominations. That’s a huge profit for the printer, much like the way the Post Office likes stamp collectors better than stamp users.
Two two-dollar-bill related anecdotes, since everybody else seems to be sharing them:
When I was a cashier, I would either switch out the two-dollar-bills for regular dollars from my pocket or give them out as change as soon as possible. There was no slot for them and they were a pain to count at the end of the night. We had one regular customer who would pay his entire order with two dollar bills, Sacagaweas and Susan B Anthonys every time, and he was simultaneously amusing and irritating.
I once found an envelope with $40 worth of two dollar bills on the sidewalk, and my drug dealer thought they were the coolest thing ever. He offered to give me a slight profit in regular dollars if I could come up with any more.
It seems to me that the smart thing for cashiers to do, in the current environment, is to put received $2 bills on top of their $1s. There will usually only be one or two $2 bills there at a time, and typically they can be handed right back out. $2s are actually more useful than $1s, when change is given in the fewest pieces. In other words, it is likely that the very next customer the cashier has to give any $1s to, would be receiving more than one $1, in the absence of $2s.
I’ve heard that zombies are paid in 2’s.
Jesuschrist, can anyone here ever resist pulling out the moronic “zombie” meme when a dormant thread is deliberately revived with a relevant post? I don’t care, and it doesn’t matter, if previous posters to this thread are or aren’t here. I wanted to make a comment on the subject, so I found the most appropriate existing thread. That’s vastly better than starting a new one which would ‘require’ a bunch of the points or comments already made to be repeated.
I salute your undying efforts to improve and disseminate cash-handling techniques.
I swear to god, I did not realize that pun was there until I started typing it out.
Actually, 25 cent bills exist. They haven’t been made in over a hundred years, but if you can find one, it’s still good. US money never expires.
I’m sure if you had noticed the thread was a zombie, you would have made mention of it. Apparently, you didn’t. Somebody had to.
Bumped.
And here we are…
Your prayer to the zombie gods has been answered… at least in Canada.
Okay: In the UK, the smallest note is a £5. £1 has been a coin since 1983 and people said much the same at the time. In practice, though, few people ever have 10 £1 coins in a pocket.
Of course, the fact that Europeans have moved away from cash in droves helps, but even in the 80s and 90s, those people who used cash would rarely have more than four or five £1 coins at a time. Why would you?
Paradoxically, the USA is a very conservative country. Right or wrong, they cling on to what they know: Paper money, imperial measurements, enormous military. I shouldn’t mention healthcare, immigration and the shameful treatment of minorities.
For most of the pandemic, our local coffee shop had difficulty making small change - never any pennies, and often low on nickels and dimes. Now all of a sudden nearly every purchase ends up with me getting at least two brand new 2022 US pennies.
In Japan, the smallest note is 1000 yen, about $10.
On $2 bills:
A local restaurant provides $2 bills when making change. I received one of these when dining there once, and sometime later in a coffee shop I tried to pay for my coffee with it. The young cashier was really suspicious. He didn’t want to come right out and accuse me of passing a fake bill, but he’d never seen or heard of one before and had a hard time accepting that it was real.
On $1 coins:
Some years ago the US Mint implemented a program to try to get $1 coins into common circulation. They offered a deal where you could order unlimited quantities of $1 coins online using a credit card and have then shipped, free of charge, to your home. Enterprising individuals used reward credit cards to purchase tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of $1 coins; when the coins arrived, these individuals would immediately take them to their bank and deposit them into their accounts, which they would then use to pay the resulting credit card bill. The end result:
- The US Mint was out for the credit card transaction fee on each of these purchases.
- The enterprising individuals racked up huge credit card rewards - cash back, FF miles, hotel points, whatever their rewards card was providing them.
- The banks sent the unpopular coins back to the mint, meaning they never ended up in circulation.