Having read a recent Reuters story on the gaining popularity of the $2 bill in the US, it reminded me once again of a question I’ve always had in the back of my mind: What’s wrong with the $2 bill? Why has it been so unfairly regarded as “play money?” It strikes me that it’s a rather convenient denomination, cutting down on the thickness of one’s wallet stuffed with a ton of singles and able to pay for things in excess of $1 with one bill. Of course living in Canada we’ve always had a $2 bill so I’m probably biased, but still, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
The Susan B. Anthony dollar didn’t catch on in the US because A) It was too similar in size to a quarter and B) The US Government didn’t withdraw the paper dollar. Understandable on both counts. But the $2 bill isn’t exactly new – it’s been around as long as dirt but for whatever reason it’s gotten a bad rap to such a degree that it seems to have been pretty rare as a circulation note. I am reminded of the (possibly apocryphal) Taco Bell “phony” $2 story that’s been floating around the net for years, and even then I couldn’t believe that such a seemingly innocent bill is so rare that there are those who doesn’t even believe it exists. (I will amend that however with the corollary that there’s no accounting for some people’s ignorance)
So what gives? Why is the US $2 bill only starting to gain momentum?
It’s never really been regarded as “play money.” That’s just a longstanding joke about the idiot who gets a $2 bill and doesn’t think it’s real because he’s never seen one.
A friend of my dad’s used to get a nice thick stack of brand-new $2 bills and have them gummed along one edge by a printer he knew. Then he’d tear them off like checks to pay merchants, tip waitresses, etc. He loved their expressions as he handed the bills over.
If you already thought it was “funny money,” that method of payment would certainly raise your eyebrow…
And there was that guy in Baltimore who got arrested when he tried to use $2 bills at Best Buy:
If I carried cash with any sort of regularity, I might carry $2 bills. The problem is that vending machines, etc. only take singles and not $2 bills, so I’d still have to carry ones.
Whatever the reason for the bill’s historic unpopularity, and there are several theories, that unpopularity creates a bit of a self-perpetuating cycle - it’s not a commonly circulated denomination, so retail stores don’t usually set up a cash register slot for them, so they don’t circulate. If your average retailer gets a $2 bill, it generally gets stuck under the tray and goes straight back to the bank with the next deposit.
During the 2003-2004 academic term I lived with a college roommate who had an account at a small community bank in his hometown in rural Kentucky. He frequently would withdraw cash in only $2 denominations usually for a total of $50 at a time. He especially liked to use them at Keeneland (the local thoroughbred race track) because the minimum amount on most wagers is $2. He also enjoyed seeing people react to his spending them at restaurants and other businesses. One time, I bartered some $2 bills from him and had some fun myself.
I asked my bank if I could withdraw cash in the form of deuces but the option was not available. Other than making another transaction with my former roommate, I have no idea how to obtain a thick wad of $2 bills.
I have a couple of >50-year old $2 bills with the corners torn out of them, which (as confirmed by brianjedi’s snope’s link) was done to “purge” them of bad luck. The bills were given to me by my grandparents who told me that it was African Americans that were the most suspicious about the bad-luck properties of the bills and were responsible for the corner-tearing. Has anyone heard anything to confirm this angle to the story, or is it just the racist ramblings of white trash hillbilly folk?
There is no reason to use 2’s in the states. Cash drawers have spaces for 1, 5, 10 and 20’s. Coin spaces for all coins between the 1 cent and quarter.
As yabob said above, all other odd money gets dropped under the drawer and sent off to the bank.
If the US Mint stopped production of the 1 dollar bill, I would suspect to see the 2 bill come out of hiding and coin spaces reconfigured to handle the newly used 1 dollar coin.
Personally, I like one and two dollar coins. I use the Toonie all the time. It’s a nice coin with a nice size. I think it was very wise move of the Royal Mint to stop production of the bill when the coin was decided to replace it. In the long run the country saves money because a coin will last much longer than a bill.
That said, I’m a big fan of the US 2 dollar bill (as well as it’s Canadian counterpart). I’ve a small collection of both. I also have Canadian 1 dollar bills as well.
There are a lot of Vietnamese where I work. A few years ago I noticed that there seemed to be a custom of giving $2 bills in a red envelope for the Asian New Year. A coworker told me that receiving money ensured prosperity for the coming year; but that the money had to be spent quickly because it’s ‘bad luck’ to carry $2 bills.
Australia has $1 and $2 coins. I find them both equally useful. In fact I have a slight preference for the smaller $2 coin. It’s great for buying things like snacks or train tickets out of a machine because its relatively high value makes coin-operated machines viable without spending ten minutes rapid-feeding smaller value coins in.
Even in the old days when it was paper money, I still liked the $2. Just a useful amount. Not much costs less these days.
For weirdness, I find the US idea of a quarter odd, compared to a 20c coin. It seems to depart from the decimal system, and needs different mental arithmetic. It also departs from having similar numeric amounts in both cent and dollar denominations: have a 25c coin, then you should have a $2,50 note?
