# The truth about the $3.00 bill
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 13, 2022, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504 "2022-09-13T16:07:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/61 "2022-09-14T16:12:47Z")
Yep. Did that in Canada 10 years ago with the penny. Useless coin. At the time it cost the mint 1.6 cents to make each penny.
Again, we’re saving money. Did the public object? Of course they did, with the same illogical emotional arguments. We went ahead and abolished the penny anyway, and life went on much as before.
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/62 "2022-09-14T16:17:15Z")
> [@Omniscient](#):
>
> $2 are not rare by any definition. They are of course the least common paper currency but they are easy to come by at any bank branch in the country and anyone with an inclination to collect one probably has a few in a drawer somewhere. As cited above there’s over a billion of them in active circulation.
I’d classify them as “rare,” because they aren’t frequently used by most U.S. consumers in cash transactions, except by probably a small minority of people who like them, or just want to be different. (People who like to regularly use dollar coins are probably in the same camp.)
My understanding is that retailers don’t particularly like two-dollar bills, because, like dollar coins, many cash registers don’t have a drawer slot for them.
There may be over a billion of them in “circulation,” but I’d question how many of them are actively and regularly circulated, versus sitting in a drawer in someone’s house, or in a vault at a bank somewhere.
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/63 "2022-09-14T16:18:02Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#):
>
> Billions of dollars in savings.
>
> Billions.
Do you have a cite for this?
---
### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/64 "2022-09-14T16:19:51Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Do you have a cite for this?
There was talk about it 10 years ago.
[https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/scrapping-the-dollar-bill-could-save-the-us-44-billion/news-story/f0b9cc10e708da3546a9977eb6255722](https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/scrapping-the-dollar-bill-could-save-the-us-44-billion/news-story/f0b9cc10e708da3546a9977eb6255722)
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/65 "2022-09-14T16:28:39Z")
Thanks.
That article notes that “it would take several years for the benefits of switching from paper bills to dollar coins to catch up with the cost of making the change.”
One question I have is whether our trend toward an increasingly cashless society would negate those long-term savings.
---
### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/66 "2022-09-14T16:30:26Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> That article notes that “it would take several years for the benefits of switching from paper bills to dollar coins to catch up with the cost of making the change.”
That’s correct. And in Canada, we’ve now had only the dollar coin for 30 years, so it was a pretty good investment to make the change.
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/67 "2022-09-14T16:55:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> I love them, we need to get rid of dollar bills.
And pennies.
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/68 "2022-09-14T17:23:39Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> I’d classify them as “rare,” because they aren’t frequently used by most U.S. consumers in cash transactions, except by probably a small minority of people who like them, or just want to be different. (People who like to regularly use dollar coins are probably in the same camp.)
As anecdotal evidence:
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> I used to take **kaylasmom** to a low-priced steakhouse in Newport Beach, where the owner insisted that all checks be rounded down to the nearest fifty cents. You could pay with dollar bills, I imagine, but you’d never get them in your change. It would always be in $2 bills. If your change came out to an odd number of dollars, you’d get a SBA coin and/or a half dollar.
> [@Morgyn](#):
>
> I liked 'em. Especially the Sackies, which were gold colored. For several years I made sure to get a good pouchful of them to spend at the RenFair.
> [@silenus](#):
>
> I get as many $2 bills as I can every time I’m at the bank and use them for tips in Vegas.
---
### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/69 "2022-09-14T17:24:32Z")
Or we could listen to the [mathematicians](https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Papers/change2.pdf) who incontrovertibly prove that to minimise cost the Euro needs a 1 1/3 E coin, Canada an 83-cent coin, and the US an 18-cent coin. Needless to say, this can be refined using more up-to-date data, applied to paper/plastic bills as well, etc.
See also [Optimal denominations for coins and currency - ScienceDirect](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0165176595006918) where powers of 3 are supposedly good, so starting from $1 you would skip $2 and go right to $3; then maybe $10 is kind of close to 9, then we could go to $25.
---
### Author:  [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/70 "2022-09-14T17:54:01Z")
I remember when things that cost a dollar (or more) used to cost a quarter, like the Sunday paper, so people managed just fine using coins for those types of purchases.
I blame the nonacceptance of the dollar coin on the incredibly lame public service TV spots that the Treasury tried - George Washington as pictured on the dollar bill telling us how “cool” the new coin was. They would have done better to show - in newsreel style and narration - how much it cost to gather and destroy dollar bills. (I recall reading that the average life of a dollar bill was about eighteen months.)
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/71 "2022-09-14T18:14:25Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#):
>
> I blame the nonacceptance of the dollar coin on the incredibly lame public service TV spots that the Treasury tried - George Washington as pictured on the dollar bill telling us how “cool” the new coin was.
I don’t remember those.
_Which_ new dollar coin were they promoting? (The U.S. has had several different versions.)
---
### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/72 "2022-09-14T18:15:57Z")
I’ve only received a $2 bill once in my life. I still have it. Got it in change when I bought my lunch while serving jury duty in a weird little courthouse north of McArthur Park. It had “End the Occupation” stamped on it, and I liked the sentiment, so I kept it.
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/73 "2022-09-14T18:16:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> I don’t remember those.
>
> _Which_ new dollar coin were they promoting? (The U.S. has had several different versions.)
It was back when they introduced the gold-colored Sacajawea coin, in 2000.
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/U5ABA2XQ9uU/hqdefault.jpg "United States Mint - "New Golden Dollar" [#1] (Commercial - 2000)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ABA2XQ9uU)
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NJmIgVxAmtY/hqdefault.jpg "United States Mint - "New Golden Dollar" [#2] (Commercial - 2000)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJmIgVxAmtY)
---
### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/74 "2022-09-14T18:20:47Z")
I have several 3 dollar bills in my collection. Of course they were all issued years before the government started issuing money.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/75 "2022-09-14T19:15:04Z")
Yep. Then think about Nickles.
---
### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/76 "2022-09-14T19:29:20Z")
> [@Michael\_Varn](#):
>
> Although this cannot be confirmed, it is believed that the complete design for this bill was actually completed, and it stands to reason that the U S. Mint most probably printed a small number of prototypes.
Does not stand to reason at all. The Mint does not make currency, it makes coins. If anyone printed the it would be the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/77 "2022-09-14T19:50:52Z")
In Hollywood, there was an early salad restaurant called “Two Dollar Bill’s” run by a really nice gay guy, and of course that was the joke.
But for a mere $2, you could get a filling and healthful salad.
---
### Author:  [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/78 "2022-09-14T20:25:29Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> It was back when they introduced the gold-colored Sacajawea coin, in 2000.
Thank you for posting those. Just as i remembered them.
---
### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/79 "2022-09-14T22:14:55Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> How much in circulation Are 2 dollar bills?
They’re in widespread use… in my neighborhood poker games.
For all those people out there who love them and hoard them in a sock drawer… you do know you can walk into any bank and get a handful, right? I think they’re going for about two bucks each.
.
I used to give them to my kids, who of course put them right back into circulation. Kid #2, at a minuscule age, said
> I love getting a two dollar bill. I try to find a clerk at a store who’s under twenty, and they’re not sure that it’s real.
(“Geez, kid, when I was your size, I was never that aware of people’s ages.”)
---
### Author:  [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504/80 "2022-09-14T23:58:02Z")
I don’t know about a $3 bill, but I have proof that there’s a million dollar bill.
> **[Pin by Brian Siegel on Famous People | Santa wish list, Dollar, Money poster](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/740419994969133119/)**
>
> Mar 21, 2022 - This Pin was discovered by Brian Siegel. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504.md?page=3)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-the-3-00-bill/971504.md?page=5)