I had always figured that they were only printed during the bicentennial, so there were only so many of them, but Esprix mentioned in the MPSIMS Sackie thread that they died a miserable death.
What’s the history of the two dollar bill and why isn’t it around today?
It’s a case of not seeing them around much because they aren’t popular, and they aren’t popular because you don’t see them all that often.
You can get all you want, though. Just go to the bank and they’ll trade you fifty crisp new ones for a hundred bucks. Then you can go forth and spend them, and listen to everyone say “What the hell IS this?” or, at best, “You don’t see THESE very often.”
My father likes to get $2 bills from the bank, and a couple of months back I ended up stuck with one, trying to figure out the best way to unload it. Then, the local second-run movie theater raised its price from $1.50 to $2. I took that as a sign.
Look at the change drawer in most cash registers. There is no slot for the two dollar bill. When you give a merchant a two-dollar bill, it winds up getting stuffed under the drawer. Therefore, instead of being given out by the merchant as change (and thereby recirculated), it gets deposited by the merchant along with his other receipts, and winds up right back at the bank.
Is there a slot for dollar coins in cash registers, by the way? I’m thinking that there may not be, and that this might be part of the reason Susan B. Anthony dollars never really circulateed.
I have a funny story about the unpopularity, and consequent obscurity, of the two-dollar bill. It was on a BBS much like this one, so I can’t swear on its verity.
A fella went into a taco stand with a $50 bill and a $2 bill. He tried to pay for his $1.50ish order with the fifty, to break it, and they said, “No way, it’s too big.” So he figured okay, I’ll pay with this two I’ve been saving. The clerk looked at it and frowned, and called the manager over. The manager got really angry and said the guy was trying to pass off counterfeit money. He told the guy to leave or he’d call the cops. The guy said, “Fine, call them, I’m not doing anything wrong.”
When the officer showed up, he asked who the accused was. “It’s that guy over there with the fifty and the two.” “What’s this, somebody trying to pass off a phoney $50 bill?” “No, he’s trying to pass off a phoney $2 bill.”
The cop asked for the two and looked it over. He thought it looked legit. “So how do you know this is phoney?” he asked the manager.
“It’s got to be phoney. It’s a two-dollar bill!” The cop shared a big laugh with the victim (the story’s author) over that one.
While I was in Minn. a local industry wanted to demonstrate it’s monitary effect on the local town. It once payed all it’s employees in $2 bills! The town & the entire reagon was awash in $2’s for the better part of a year, from one weeks payroll!
IN Mich. a pal became fasinated With $2 bills. His wife who worked in a bank got him 50 crisp new $2. He made them into a tablet, binding them on the short side. He delighted in paying for things by tearing off a page or two from his tablet! He also delighted in the protests he got!
spoke- “Is there a slot for dollar coins in cash registers, by the way? I’m thinking that there may not be, and that this might be part of the reason Susan B. Anthony dollars never really circulateed.”
Most cash drawers have 5 change slots in them. I always used mine to store odds and ends like paper clips, 50-cent pieces, etc. So there is room for a dollar coin, but then where would I put my rubber bands and Canadian money?
The reason that the Susan B. Anthony coin failed was that it looked and felt almost exactly like a quarter. I used to get them as change all the time.
Because:
They don’t put out.
They’ll never be Captain of the cheerleading squad or the football team.
They don’t wear the right clothes.
They smell funny.
Alcohol and calculus don’t mix. Never drink and derive.
Has psycat90 started replying to posts that no one else sees, again?
Back to U.S. $2 bills. For many years they managed to have a seedy reputation. At least in folklore, a $2 bill bought you the services of a low-rent sex worker. Also, if I remember correctly, many racetracks had $2 betting windows.
I had a friend many years ago who used to do the same thing with the $2 bills, making them into a tablet from which you could rip them off. I always thought he was original & clever, but now I know he was just ripping off Carl’s friend in Michigan.
I think I’ll pick up a bundle at the bank tomorrow just to cheese off the sidewalk vendors.
I begin every day by typing my full legal name into a search engine. I know it’s going to be a great day if it says “Sorry, no matches were returned”.
My conservative religious parents told me, in the 1950’s as I was growing up, that they were used by gamblers at the racetrack for the $2 bet and that’s why they didn’t like them. Another thing that hasn’t been mentioned here is that they were considered bad luck. How do I know? My parents again.
Now this was all just hearsay until I became a coin dealer in the 1970’s(and still am). I finally have seen literallly thousands of old two dollar bills(pre-1976 with red seals), and they quite often come with a corner or two torn off. And I now remember my mother doing that to break the spell of bad luck that a $2 bill brought. Where the bad luck idea originated, I have no idea. It must have occured between 1928(introduction of modern sized bills) and the late 40’s, when I first remember my Mom’s warning of bad luck.
I have heard that The Navy used to pay sailors in two-dollar bills. Now that sailors make more than $200/month, I guess that’s out. (And the Navy has probably forced sailors to use EFT anyway.)
How about 50-cent pieces? They used to be common, and useful back when they were worth the equivalent of $2.00 today. What happened?
In most European countries, coins worth $1.00-5.00 dollars are common. How come the most valuable coin in the U.S. is worth only $25.