I got one in change at the local farmers’ market, and it’s crisp and new (series 2003). I happened to know that the lady at the stall where I got it was a Where’s George user (she got excited when I paid her with a stamped bill) so I told her I would log it the minute I got home. Unfortunately she had just gotten it today so hadn’t logged it herself. She said she gets those bills occasionally and had had a couple of them just today.
I have $2 bills from US, Canada and Singapore, but it’s ben a few years since I’ve seen one in circulation… except in Singapore they are still common enough I think.
I don’t know why they aren’t more popular. Two bucks today is worth about what one dollar was in 1985 (just a guess) so why haven’t we made the transition? Just get rid of the dollar bill altogether and use twos…hmm another thread…
We rarely saw the Canadian $2 bill in circulation in the Prairies, prior to the introduction of the loonie. People did not like using them; lots of odd explanations for the dislike. When I was working the till during summer jobs, if someone gave us a $2, it went straight to the bank in the night deposit. Then the loonie came in, and the $1 bill disappeared, so people started using the $2 - until the toonie came in a couple of years later and the Bank of Canada stopped printing the $2.
Cashiers don’t like them since they are rare enough that no drawer space is allocated. And they won’t become more popular until they are more common in cashier’s drawers. So unless there is a grassroots movement to use them, it’s a Catch-22.
I imagine the Treasury Dept loves them, tho, as the more hoarding that goes on, the more money the gummit makes from just a cheap piece of paper.
I dunno, really? This Reuters item from last year says demand for the $2 bill is more or less limited to strip clubs. So the girls probably see them a lot.
A gas station I stop in for coffee and a paper a lot has one in their register drawer. One day I asked if I could have it as change, the girl said no. It would trip the silent alarm that they are getting robbed.
I remember this being used as a plot device in a book called The Conversion of Chaplin Cohen, but it was after a major crash at a military air-base, and the locals were upset about the dangers. But the author may have just incorporated an pre-existing legend as a plot device.
I work at a bank, and I always have some ready to hand out.
Just this week, a customer came in specifically to get $100 worth. He and his wife take an RV up the coast and he likes to give $2 bills as payment at restaurants and such.
I found a few in my mom’s old papers recently. One is from 1928 but has the corner torn off for good luck which I think makes them worthless to collectors. It’s still a cool 1920s style artifact.