# Have you ever gotten back a $2 bill, $1 coin or 50¢ coin in change?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 2, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569 "2026-06-02T19:27:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/1 "2026-06-02T19:27:57Z")
I like to get two dollar bills, dollar coins and fifty cent coins from the bank
and then spend them to see what reaction I get from the cashiers. They
will usally just treat them like any other denomination but a few have
mistaken fifty cent coins for dollar coins.
It recently occurred to me that I have never received a two dollar bill or a
fifty cent coin in change. I did get a dollar coin back on one occasion with
the cashier apologizing that he had run out of paper dollars.
I was wondering if anyone else out there has ever received a two dollar bill,
dollar coin or a fifty cent coin in change.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/2 "2026-06-02T19:38:38Z")
Not from any cashier that I recall but I’ve received dollar coins from US Postal Service vending machines. Dunno if they still do that.
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### Author:  [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/3 "2026-06-02T19:41:46Z")
If I remember correctly, when the US Post Office had vending machines, they gave dollar coins as change
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/4 "2026-06-02T19:42:00Z")
I used to get a Canadian $2 bill in change once in a blue moon (before they stopped printing them).
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/5 "2026-06-02T19:44:56Z")
In the Philadelphia area, SEPTA (the local heavy rail transit) ticket machines also gave dollar coins in change.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/6 "2026-06-02T19:45:15Z")
Lately I’ve been on a kick of getting ten-dollar bills from my bank for use when I pay cash. They’re so rare now thanks to ATMs ubiquitously dispensing twenties that you’re more likely to get two five-dollar bills back as change rather than a ten.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/7 "2026-06-02T19:45:26Z")
20+ years ago, when I used to regularly use the Chicago Transit Authority’s L trains, and the U.S. Mint was pushing the then-new Sacajawea dollar coins, the CTA’s ticket vending machines gave dollar coins as change.
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### Author:  [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/8 "2026-06-02T19:47:02Z")
I had forgotten about the stamp vending machines at the US post offices. And
yes, I did get dollar coins in change from those machines. But from a human
cashier only once have I received a dollar coin in change and never a two
dollar bill or fifty cent coin.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/9 "2026-06-02T19:59:23Z")
I’ve gotten all three in the past, including a Kennedy half dollar and an SBA dollar. I also got a 1935 buffalo nickel in change from a vending machine once.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/10 "2026-06-02T20:07:48Z")
$2 bills: When not at the (horseracing) track - maybe 10 times in the 56 years I’ve been breathing. At the track: every time.
50-cent pieces and dollar coins - I’ll probably get one or two of each per year.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/11 "2026-06-02T20:11:26Z")
My experience is similar.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/12 "2026-06-02T20:13:01Z")
Similar to above for me.
There’s a scrap metal place around here that advertises it pays in $2 bills, so you can guarantee getting some there
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### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/13 "2026-06-02T20:13:06Z")
Got a $2 note recently from a charity that was presumably trying to guilt potential donors into returning a larger donation. Um, I’ve already forgotten which one… not one of my usual ones… so it didn’t work. But now what do I do with the note? …Spend it somewhere, yeah.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/14 "2026-06-02T20:18:43Z")
$2 bills, no.
Both coins, yes. In fact, I used to ask cashiers at the commissary (usually the only place they were available) for any $1 coins they had in the till.
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/15 "2026-06-02T20:21:04Z")
I’ve gotten $2 bills as change twice that I can recall. Once at the farmers’ market, where I immediately spent it at another vendor. The other time was at a touristy gift shop in Tanzania of all places (many places in that part of the world take US Dollars, at least places that deal with lots of tourists). I also ended up spending it somewhere else on that trip.
For $1 coins, the ticket machines for Sacramento’s light rail trains used to give them as change (For all I know they still do, but they take credit cards now, too. For that matter you can pay your fare with a phone app now and just skip the ticket machine). I got some as change from the office vending machine once when I paid with a $5 bill, too.
I also got $1 coins as change when I was in Ecuador last year. They use US Dollars as their official currency, and I’ve heard they prefer the coins since they last longer than bills.
I can’t recall ever getting a 50¢ coin as change in my adult life.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/16 "2026-06-02T20:26:34Z")
Probably stretching the definition of “change”, but in Las Vegas casinos I’ve gotten bets paid with both $1 coins and 50 cent coins.
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/17 "2026-06-02T20:28:37Z")
I went to a venue where the price for two people to get in was $18. The guy was handing $2 bills out for change for a $20. Nice, crisp, new, two dollar bills that had just come from the bank.
I was in a bar and bought a beer and the bartender threw a 50 cent piece on the bar with my change. And it rang with that special sound only silver makes. Modern metal money sounds dead. I snatched it up in my hand so fast the bartender noticed, I told him, that is silver.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/18 "2026-06-02T20:39:58Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> Not from any cashier that I recall but I’ve received dollar coins from US Postal Service vending machines.
That’s literally what I came here to post. 😆
I remember getting Sacagawea dollars that way.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/19 "2026-06-02T20:46:58Z")
Anyone who grew up in the West Los Angeles area almost certainly ate at Tito’s Tacos. It was a well known tradition there back in the day to get a 50 cent coin back in your change if what you got back was more than 50 cents in coins.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-back-a-2-bill-1-coin-or-50-coin-in-change/1030569/20 "2026-06-02T20:52:22Z")
I used to get dollar coins back in change when I used to pay with cash, but I rarely do that anymore. Also I would get them from vending machines.
A few places were famous for giving change in $2 bills, but none near me.
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