What's the Deal with the $2 Bill?
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Just went to the bank last week picked up three loose two dollar bills and I place the order but the bank makes you buy them and increments of 200 in the same bank makes me buy a case of dollar coins that come in 1000 per case and 50 Cent coins come in a case of 500
Slated to be Created. I have a new favorite thing to say.
I shit you not , a woman at McDonald's told me to pull forwards and wait. Shortly afterwards police ran up on me screaming with guns drawn! I paid with a 2$ bill. She said they aren't real and called them. Lmao she was probably 30!
I regularly get rolls of $2 bills because they are neat and trip people up or make them smile like the US dollar coins. I spend them like regular currency and give them to my kids in their allowances
Simon, do a show about early currency issued by banks. One in five bills was a forgery.
I had the police called on me for using counterfeit money (a $2 bill). The officer called the store manager an idiot. It was awesome.
Lucky the cop wasn't Derek Chauvin...
@@unfortdork Wouldn't have mattered. I follow Chris Rocks teachings on being respectful in my interaction with the police (and even the manager). That and along with the fact I wasn't overdosing I believe played a big part in the outcome of my situation. Both are valuable survival skills not taught to kids today.
@@andrewbillington5422 Ah yes, the "how to not get your ass whooped and arrested" bit.
@@nutbastard Don't run from the police "If the police have to get you they are bringing an A$$ kicking with them!" Classic. czcams.com/video/uj0mtxXEGE8/video.html&ab_channel=InsaneNutter
@@unfortdork As long as you don't have a lethal amount of fentanyl in your bloodstream, it wouldn't matter. He was wrongfully committed for a crime he didn't commit, because of the terroristic actions of BLM, which threatened and coerced the jury to convict an innocent man. That trial should not have happened in Hennepin County. A disgusting miscarriage of justice.
Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple, buys proof sheets of uncut $2 bills from Treasury, has them perforated & bound into books. He carries the book with him & whenever he pays for small value items he gets out the book & tears off some $2 bills. They're legal tender even with perforations. He never tires of it.
Secret Service had a chat with him in Vegas one year when he went to the Defcon hacker convention & went around buying cokes with them. Nothing they could do though, it's legal tender. Not sure if he's ever run out, I know he made at least one large bulk purchase that should have lasted a while.
That's great. Perforations on stamps are obsolete. Maybe I'll have to check eBay for one of those perforated $2 bills. It can go along with my Woz edition IIGS.
Thats absolute awesome nerdvana info. The Woz was an original.
This tickles my weird little pickle in a way I never thought I'd enjoy but...well played Woz, well played. I appreciate this kinda thing
Id do the same tbh, I spend $2 along the US Mexican border. For many Mexican vendors, I'm the first guy who bought corn or sodas off them with $2 bills
I've worked many years in retail and food service. We never gave people $2 bills with their change, but it wasn't because we didn't ever have any. My coworkers and I all thought $2 bills were good luck. We would either keep one in the register or change them out to keep ourselves. I actually have one in my wallet at all times. Interesting to hear some people consider them unlucky.
I'm curious where the tradition of keeping a $2 in your wallet "for luck" came from.
For the record, I have one in my wallet, for luck, right now.
You may get a kick out of this story:
My older sister ran out of money in her account at the school cafeteria. All the cash she had on her was her lucky $2 bill that she always kept on her. A few days later, she paid for her lunch as usual and.... she got her $2 bill back as change!
I like to think it was the same lunch server who recognized her and gave it back, but there are tons of lunch employees and thousands of kids every day. Possibly her lucky $2 bill was destined to end up with her??
.. or pure coincidence lol I think it's a cool story though
I've kept one for years, since I was in my early teens. Series 1976, Bicentennial. Placed it in my grandfather's lapel pocket at his funeral, along with 2 Sacagaweas, Just in case the boatman didn't take cash. My father was a cab driver for many years and he always got paid in 2 dollar bills when he'd take a stripper home. I suppose doubles get you more than singles??? Or they were "two-bit" strippers??? who knows.
Same here me and my father have 2 dollar bills in our wallets and I also have a 1 dollar coin
I work with tourists. When they go through the ForEx, they often get 2s, so I get a lot of them. I save them to tip other service workers with em. It's fun.
Near the end of boot camp in 1987 they paid all of us in cash - in $2 bills. The suspicion was that our spending during off base liberty was being tracked since it was unlikely others had a bunch of $2 bills to spend.
The reality is the gov probably just had a shit ton lying around and decided to dump them all on you guys
This is very different but I have a long history with drug use. About a decade ago 60mg oxycontin pills started appearing which was odd as they already came in 10, 20, 40 and 80. We were quick to suss that they were being given to pain patients suspected of selling portions of their scripts - generally simply to meet basic needs that welfare/disability has never come close to touching. Like I said, barely related but interesting the ways powers that be find to track those they want to
This was Ontario Canada by the way
US Army paid troops in $2 bills before (generally on various occasions from the 1930s to the 1960s) to illustrate to local businesses how much of the local economy was due to the soldiers they despised.
@@geodkyt Thanks. Now I have the old Warner Merrie Melodies song 21 Dollars a Day Once a Month in my head.
I once stopped at a candy store for something random. Total came to exactly $2. I happened to have a $2 bill in my wallet that'd I'd been waiting for such a moment to use. The teenage girl behind the counter had to ask her manager if it was real!
I was impressed once when my fast-food order came to $4;.50 I handed over a two and three ones. The cashier returned a half dollar change without making a big deal of it. she was a cool woman.
I really need to proof my comments more carefully. The original version of this made no sense. It gave the impression that the cashier and I were complicit in a change mistake.
Anyone else ever work places that had a single $2 bill in, or under, the cash drawer? The serial number was already written down, and if you got held up, you gave the $2 in the stack of money given to the criminal. That way, if the criminal was caught, you had proof that the money was stolen because of the serial number on the $2.
That's very clever! I'm gonna borrow that idea to pitch to my manager.
@@Lusa_Iceheart my managers hate me
@@justinshoats6989 Can you blame them?
@@topiasr628 it wasn't just me, they hated everyone. A week ago we all decided to leave as a group. 11 of us quit and only 2 of us left our 2 week notice
The cash drawers changed over time to only hold $20,$10,$5,$1 bile and Quarters,dimes,nickles,and pennies change pockets though you can ask almost any bank for half dollar rolls, dollar rolls,and $2 bills,$50 bills,and $100 bills
I remember when my drawer had 7 bill slots and 6 coin slots
I LOVE grabbing $2 bills from the banks, and joked once when taking out $100 "how would you like it?" and I said "$2 bills" and she promptly gave me 50 $2 bills. It was glorious. Messed with people for weeks using those bills for payment and tips.
I have done the same thing when I can get my bank to carry them.
@@stuartronald9785 one time the ATM at my bank gave me $500 in 5's because it was out of $20's... It had to dispense the money in three bundles ... Hahahaha
I try to keep $20 in a mix of $2 bills and those gold $1 coins on hand, just to enjoy the look on serving staff when I leave a tip. It's still easy to get the $2 bills, but my usual bank branches can rarely get even a single roll of Sacajawea coins the last couple of years.
@@MrFlathead45 I'm sorry but 3 bundles for 100 bills? Either 2 or 1. U probably got shorted a 5 if they all have 33 bills
@@justinshoats6989 it was two bundles of 200 and one of 100.
$2 bills aren't unlucky. $3 bills however, now those are a different story. :D
That's as gay as a 3 dollar bill 😅
So my $4 bill is fine? Thats good to know
Ok Fred drust
Funny enough in Southern USA we have a saying. " he's as queer as a 2$ bill"
My 20 dollar bill has a black woman on it definitely counterfeit
There's a bar in Wisconsin that gives change in two dollar bills and 50 cent pieces. Whenever you go any place else and pay with a two dollar bill everyone says, "Oh I see you've been to Bear Point"! Brilliant! Free business cards and worth two dollars too!
that is a neat little marketing trick, and if they're getting them from a bank it's either free for them or really low cost!
@@sgt.eclair about $2 a bill...
@@sgt.eclair Disneyland even used them for change at one time. Since they got them from the bank they were new and crisp. Kids loved them.
I had a graveyard job on the California coast one time. I was walking home one morning and stopped at a convenience store for coffee and noticed a couple cops talking to a guy about money he had tried to use.
It was a 1930-something $2 silver certificate. The clerk and the cops were convinced it was fake and the cops were about to haul the poor guy away. I asked them why they didn't just call the Secret Service and find out how wrong they were?
I then gave them a simple crash-course on how to easily determine if a bill was real. This was before magnetic strips and watermarks, but old money had ink that was unstable, so you could always rub it against a white paper towel and it would transfer a bit of green, old money had tiny red and green bits of thread in the paper and the picture engravings were always composed of tiny circles, rather than dots.
If a counterfeiter went to all the trouble of obtaining those inks, that paper and fine engraving in the plates all for a $2 bill, they would have been doing it for shits and giggles, rather than trying to get rich.
The worst of it is; that to a collector a 1930s $2 Silver certificate is worth somewhat more than two dollars.
I would’ve pulled out my wallet and gave him 2 singles for it. Problem solved officers. If it was fake it’s a $2 novelty, if real it’s worth a lot more to my coin shop
I was waiting for the part where the cops arrested you, but I'm glad it (apparently) didn't happen.
When travelling in South America in the early 1990's local money exchangers showed med how you could prove if a *US dollar bill wake fake:* There was a certain point where you could *light a match by striking* that exact place. It worked fine but only on that specific spot. It didn't work on older bills (eg. from the 1950's), only newer bills. And on nothing else.
@@larsrons7937 probably the lapel of the portrait on the bill. The in there has texture that can be felt but it wears off over time so it becomes less noticeable. I worked at a gas station for a while and can now check your bills 3 different ways in the time it takes me to take them from your hand and place them in the register, all without you noticing. The federal reserve site has instructions on detecting fake bills if you are interested. The new 100 bills were a trip when they were first introduced.
The small town where the air force used to be once had a huge "don't serve the air men!" Deal for a bit. So the base paid everyone in 2$ bills for a pay check. The local commu it saw how much of their economy depended on the air men when their businesses were flooded with $2 bills. Thy stopped the "dont serve" order quickly after that. This was in the 60s tho.
That reminds me of the scene in the movie Tank, the town's corrupt leadership was warned that the town was going to be declared off limits if their shit continued.
Back in the late 70s my ex encountered something similar when he was in the Marine Corps. They got paid by dollar coins to prove the point that the military base was contributing heavily to the local economy
Some years ago (before Canadian bills began to be made of polymer), the Montréal gay community held a campaign to show the economic impact of its members : gays would use pink highlighter pens to mark the bills before spending them.
@@simonrancourt7834 that's illegal
You can't refuse service to a group of people that's discrimination. Should have let them and sued for big money
"Few make it out into the wild." I suddenly had an image of a herd of $2 bills galloping across an open plain, with a cowboy in the background...
We have toonies in Canada now, but I remember the bills being widely used back in the 80s.
I miss those bills…. :,(
And they're calling out "pieces of eight!"
werent they called 'loony toonies' because they had a loon on them?
@@longbow6416 That's the one-dollar coin.
@@longbow6416 no we called the the 1$ coin the loonie cause of the loon, we cal the 2$ coin a two-nie lol
I went to a small convention in Colorado, and the organizer encouraged us to get some 2 dollar bills from the bank before heading out there. (I lived in California at the time) We flooded the local economy with them to demonstrate the attendees' impact on the local economy.
The US Army used to do that occasionally for the same reason.
@@geodkyt That's pretty cool, actually.
And all the dancers appreciated it
I still have a couple. Stopped using them because I got tired of waiting for teenage cashiers to ask their managers about $2 bills.
But you were providing a learning experience for them.
The SAD part of the whole thing is the number of Americans that initially think it's counterfeit because they've never seen one before...
Idk how that's sad lol it's no different then someone not knowing how the older phones work (the spinny ones) cuz they've never seen one
I frequently had the same problem with the "gold" one dollar coins. Even though it had all of the correct info on them, people thought that they were fake.
@@randomguy51090 considering they have access to Google, CZcams and countless other resources to find out how those old phones worked (which we who used them did NOT have access to), they have zero excuse for being ignorant about technology that you will still on occasion see in use. I knew how to use an Edison (cylinder) record player when I was little, despite it being very old tech at the time. Same with many tools and other common objects owned by WWII-era people. They had zero tolerance for people who didn't know how to use the simple things around them, and although that was a high bar, is it really asking that much for them to be at least slightly familiar with how old phones worked? Considering you need to understand it to read (and understand) many old books, it's not a useless "skill". :P
@@chouseification you are preaching to the choir..
They don't want to hear reason...
The most tech any generation has ever seen yet they can't figure out a carburetor or a manual transmission..
Or a "spinny" phone as dingdong guy here called it.
It's a rotary dial phone.
Please....please...younger generation stick to fidget spinners and stay out of the workforce
I literally never met somebody who doesn't know about $2 bills I'm so glad I have never had the misfortune of meeting America's literate and inept.
I've only experienced $2 bills on two occasions: 1) my grandma would give them to us on our birthday, and 2) Diamonds Cabaret would distribute $2 bills to use as tips for their strippers. No word on whether these two occasions converged 🤐
Good ol’ Sauget! 💎
Go ask the bank for them they have hundreds
🤔
Plot twist: Grandma had earned them at Diamonds.
Underrated comment
I give $2 bills to my nieces and nephews. Once I had my $2 bill declined while shopping. The young cashier didn't think it was real. I laughed it off. They are fun to keep on hand.
I guess I'm just the weirdo, when i'm at the bank I like to ask for $1 coins and $2 bills, and then I like to use them at stores. It's my contribution to get these in circulation.
Someone I understand and respect, a fellow conspirator.
I used to work for 7-11. We always had a single two dollar bill in the bottom of our one's slot in the register... The serial number was recorded somewhere so that if we were robbed and a suspect was caught before he/she got rid of it somehow, we had additional evidence. I was never robbed, but I often had to deal with customers who could see the bill in the drawer when I was almost out of ones who really wanted that two dollar bill (we were of course forbidden from giving that bill out).
That's actually pretty dang clever.
Plus, on the customer side of things it would be nice for cashiers that have never seen them before to have a reminder on hand that $2 bills actually exist, so they don't hassle customers trying to use them.
I worked at a 7-11 briefly and we also had a $2 bill at the bottom of the singles slot. I was never told why though. From my perspective it was one of those "because the boss said so" things.
That is really clever!
They call that bait money
I delivered pizzas in a city whose strip club gave change in 2s, they thought guys would throw about the same amount of bills so the girls may get more tips that way. When I delivered pizzas to a group of guys and they would pay in 2s knew where they hang out. If I deliver to a girl who paid in them I knew where she worked.
My aunt (pretty sure she's not a 60 year old stripper, lol) always sends me birthday cards, even still as an adult, with a few $2 bills in them. Last time I tipped the pizza delivery guy with a couple of them, he looked at me and said "nice, you go there too!" ...had no idea what he meant until today!
It's a long shot but did this happen to be in Portland OR? Casa Diablo? If so, I had an identical experience as a pizza delivery guy.
@@nutbastard Portland, ME ironically enough
Amazing how as you get older, you think back on jokes and stories from the past. Just like there were no longer two bit ones when I was young, there have not been two dollar ones since before I was born. Way back when, if one of the girls paid with a two dollar bill, you would know her profession was not a dancer in a strip club!
so if you spent those bills you got at tips people will asume you either work or visit the same club :P :P
They used to give out 2 dollar bills as prizes with these fundraisers we did in grade school. A few years later I was in high school and wanted a drink from the corner store and I used the 2 dollar bills. They had to get the manager to make sure it was real money, that had never seen it before. I thought it was strange they never heard of a 2 dollar bill
A few years ago a little girl was given a $ 2 bill by her grandmother to buy lunch at school. The little girl was taken to the principal's office and they called the cops on her. Even the cops didn't know what it was. It is a shame that even our school teacher were too ignorant to know what a $ 2 bill was.
@@sd906238 Once it's reached that level of obscurity/ignorance I think the government has a moral obligation to either contact every TV station and ask for a PSA on the matter or take it out of circulation and officially recall any existing bill....
@@sd906238 oh my, that poor little girl (her parents and the grandparent that gave her the $2 bill). That’s just awful, like a kid would really try to use fake money. Hopefully now, they can use their phones and do a search - - that proves it’s legal currency!!
@@sd906238 They called the cops on a little girl? I call bull. Even if it was fake, blaming a little girl and calling the cops on her?
I had a young student who found out the chocolate covered pretzels someone was selling was a dollar, and made his own dollar to get one. Guess what we didn't do? Call the cops on a young child who didn't know better.
@@MargaritaOnTheRox you would be amazed at the lengths Karen's will go. I remember in 4th or 5 th grade (late elementary school years dont remember the exact grade) someone stole a DS from another student and the cops got involved for that and it was honestly traumatic for all involved. So I wouldn't be surprised cops being called in this situation. Dumb and waste of time yes. Shocking no.
The recycling center I go to pays 12 dollars a bag, so they usually payout with a ten and a two.
That's cool!
Same in Iowa!
@@knockeledup Yeah, that's where I'm at.
A bag of what?
@@stevepettersen3283 recycling
I worked at a place where, on March 31, the closing manager replaced all the bills in the cash register with $2 bills. The opening manager was really upset. She called and complained about it. He called the guy who left it and said, basically "yes, that was funny, but you better not do it again."
when i was a kid i would ask banks for all their $2 bills and they’d smile and hand me a stack. it was fun to buy stuff with em
Being a Brit, I've never seen a $2 bill. We have £2 coins though, but that's inflation for you. But not long after watching this, I started wondering how many $2 bills there are in a stack, or whatever the standard belted bundles are called. And then if I could get a stack of uncirculated notes next time I'm in the US for novelty purposes.
I still do this.
@@brolohalflemming7042 The US has tried $1 coins too.. it failed miserably... So they're not going to try $2 coins any time soon :P
In Denmark our smallest note is equivalent to 6.75€
@@andersjjensen The golden dollar coin was super popular when I was a kid. I also saw the 1/2 dollar with JFK quite a few times. But the $2 was very rare by comparison.
...Did you have an account, or did they just give them to you?
i just recently (less than a year ago) got some $2 bills from my bank, and received FRESH (IE. never been folded), 1976 bills.......so yeah, its 100% safe to say that millions and millions of unused $2 bills are just sitting in bank vaults around the USA.......which the 70's is when, funnily enough, in my old town, where i got them, was barnum and baileys home, when they werent touring around the USA, and the town didnt like the "circus people" doing "funny buisness" around town, so the owner, in a kind of protest, paid his entire staff, in $2 bills, and flooded the town with them, which prompted a emergency meeting to deal ewith the "obvious" counterfeit ring, to which he showed up, and announced that he was responsible, that the money was real, and it was his way of letting the town know just how much it ACTUALLY relied on the "freaks" and their "funny buisness", to stay afloat....so it kind of makes sense that the banks in the area would still have THAT MANY bills from then on hand.
Somewhere in my apartment, I have a single $2 bill. I have no idea how it ended up in my possession, but I have it. I remember finding it in my wallet back in the late 80's. I thought it was so unusual that I just put it aside and kept it. That isn't the only strange bill that I found in my possession, and kept for it's sheer strangeness. I have a $10 bill, that I found in the early 90's in my wallet, where it looks like someone went to town on it with colored pencils. This bill doesn't look like some kid doodled on it. It looks like someone who knew their way around art just went to town on it. The most impressive part is the transformation of Alexander Hamilton that this person pulled off. They turned Hamilton into Ronald McDonald. And they did a damn good job. The whole bill is colored and every tiny little detail is colored in and altered in some way. They even used color shading, and other methods of altering what things were on the bill. It really is a work of art that I think was definitely done by some artist, and then somehow got passed off into the money system, to find it's way into my wallet.
People do sometimes make art and customize bills, it happens alot on $2s, but it can happen on $10s aswell
ok we need an image of this $10 bill
The $2 bill was last printed in 2019 with 1.9 billion in circulation.
Clemson University has a tradition of using $2 bills stamped with the paw. The tradition began to show Atlanta the economic impact the Clemson Fans had on game Saturdays when playing Georgia Tech. GT wanted to cancel the series in the years before they joined the ACC. The tradition continues at each bowl game trip.
$2 bills and $1 coins are fun to use to mess with younger cashiers at various places. If they look new at the job, then there is a good chance they won't have seen that currency before. They'll call over a manager who will look at it, roll their eyes, and, of course, okay it. Good, clean practical joke + a learning experience for the employee.
I keep the $2 bill that my grandfather had in his wallet when he died, in my wallet. Just waiting to die now…. Aaaany year now….
Omg me too. He used to say "a man with a dollar in his wallet is never broke, and I have two."
What year is it?
I've worked at retail places where there was an alarm on the cash drawer. There would be a clamp at the bottom of the far right cash slot (normally used for $1 bills), and a single bill inserted in the clamp acted as an insulator to keep the alarm from going off. We kept a single $2 bill in the clamp, amd were told never to give that out.
But if someone came in and demanded the cash in the drawer, we were supposed to just grab the entire stack of bills on each slot (including the $2 "alarm" bill) and had it over without a fuss. This would trigger the silent alarm.
Weird, but I often wondered how *useful* it would be, given how common the trick seemed to be.
I've never heard of this trick but it sounds rather brilliant.
I can't believe that it's been 20 years since my first trip to Scotland, but my friend and I made the trip there in August of '02.
We took a 9 day tour by bus that took a loop, and towards the end of the tour enroute to the Kelvingrove area of Glasgow the tour guide reminded occupants to exchange the GBP for $, as all passengers were Americans heading home the next day.
The tour guide then went on a rant about how all dollar bills look the same, color and size wise, and how Americans wouldn't know what to do with a $2 bill.
My friend leaned to me, took out his wallet and said "I have a $2 bill" 😉
Needless to say, he had fun with the guide as we were exiting the bus at his expense! 🤣
We used to have a $2 bill in Canada. It was perfect for going to the bar, everyone throws in $2 , you got 8 glasses of beer. Beer was .25 cents a glass in 1974 !
Now we have a $2 coin , which has been a blessing to those in the service industry - people find it easier to give away coins vs bills .
you crazy Canucks and your looney toonies.
that's a great price for beer, should bring that back again haha
@@WhuDhat Loonies and Toonies kind of grow on you. When you think that you have NO money on you , check out the change in your pocket. Those $1 + $2 coins add up fast and Voila - you have enough money for another beer. Lol 😊🇨🇦
@@MrJdebest haha I believe it, visited a friend that moved back to Canada a few years back and he gave me the rundown on the currency (plastic money is so much better than paper!) but alcohol and cigarette prices were way too high compared to the states. but the part I visited near Vancouver was so beautiful, even got to experience a bit of snow. great trip but the border crossings were hell haha
@@WhuDhat Yes, booze and cigarettes are heavily taxed to support social programs. Sometimes called Sin Taxes. Vancouver is city where you can ski the local mountains and return home and go golfing! Get lots of rain here, but it is the warmest place in Canada. Border crossing has never been the same since 9/11 😯
@@MrJdebest I thought the $2 coins were called Moonies--because the show a picture of the Queen on the obverse nd a bear on the reverse. the Queen with a bare behind.
During WWII my father worked in the shipyards in Long Beach CA. He always kept a $2 bill in his wallet. Between paydays he'd use the $2 for a few groceries, the grocer kept the bill and my Dad would bring in 2 one dollar bills next payday and retrieve his original $2 bill. He kept it in his wallet until he died. Thus the reason each of us 4 kids keep $2 in our wallets to this day. I also give them to the grandkids for christmas gifts
Around 6-7 years ago I took my kid to GameStop to get a game. He had a pile of $2 bills that grandma gave him over the past handful of years and tried to pay with those. The probably 18 year old manager would not accept them because they were “clearly fake”. I laughed my ass off at him while I busted out the visa to pay for it. Hopefully he googled that shit afterwards.
Wow. I've never had anyone call them fake. Although I haven't used one recently.
Lmao when I was working on my uncle's restaurant for a few years a person paid with a 2 dollar bill I knew exactly what it was and I grabbed two dollars from my tip to change for that bill have it with me since and a gold coin not going to use them because rarity and luck
@@yoholup19 They aren't *that* rare, most banks have em in stock
@@testname4464 even then considering how they aren't really in circulation
@@yoholup19 your local banks likely have an abundance of these $2 bills and gold quarters, brand new, every year around the winter holidays.
I remember I used my last 2$ bill on a cheese danish at a gas station like 14 years ago. Haven't seen one since.
On a semi-related note, I remember I would pay with dollar coins at bake sales and would get weird enjoyment from them thinking it was foreign currency, deny it, then apologise when I ask them to search them up.
@@Jezus42
Literally never heard them referred to as that before. Are you sure that they're "usually" called that, and not just called that where you come from?
In Canada, we have 1$ and 2$ coins.
Our smallest bank note is the 5$ bill.
@@Jezus42 I call them "dollar coins" because the more recent gold-colored ones do not have a picture of Susan B. Anthony on them.
On a side note, back in 1979, I was working in an amusement park selling souvenir containers of Hawaiian Punch from a cart for 75 cents apiece. A customer mistakenly gave me a dollar coin (in fact, a Susan B.) and two quarters, thinking she had given me 75 cents. I immediately recognized that one of the coins was not the same size as the others, checked them quickly and called her back to the cart. I pointed out the mistake, and told her that for $1.50, she gets two containers. (Yes, I would have gladly given her 75 cents change, but I was a salesman, after all.)
A buddy of mine has a few thousand dollars worth of them
@@paranoiawilldestroyya3238 : that was a very nice way to let the customer know about the overpayment. 👍👍👏👏🙂❣️
Has anyone ever tried paying for something with a $2 bill and a $1 coin?
There are vending machines (a Pepsi machine and a snack machine) in my apartment building that accepts BOTH $1 coins AND $2 bills!
It's easier than using a three dollar bill, lol.
I just did it today. My order was $8.40 so I paid with $2 and 7 $1 coins.
I was known to a couple of friends who worked at a movie theater as someone fond of using odd combos of currency, but the extent of my habit wasn't always apparent. One of them challenged me when I was buying a ticket that cost $7.50 at the time. Even he wasn't prepared for payment with two 2s, three dollar coins, and a half dollar all at once. The person behind me in line was nearly hysterical.
I've always liked the two dollar bill.
The bank next door to my shop, where we do our banking, knows to look out for them and when I bring our daily deposit in, the tellers will sell any twos they have to me.
I usually get 2 or 3 per week.
I like to use them as part of a tip at a restaurant.
Clemson University Football fans have a tradition of when they play in a bowl game to pay for things with $2 bills stamped with their orange tiger paw logo. It was started in the 70's to show host cities how much of an economic impact this (then small) university has.
I was relatively surprised this wasn't mentioned. Maybe it's not as well know as I thought, but this is the only significant/intentional use of the bill I was aware of. I remember being handed a stack of $2 Clemson bills when I was a bartender in Boston to settle a +$200 tab. Strange, but left a memory.
2 things
1. The back artwork of the $2 is amazing
2.I was working a cash register and someone came and paid with all $2 bills. The bill was $80. I never saw so many $2's at the same time before. When I asked the guy about using all his $2's he said he has a bunch more at home.
The $1 food stamp had a cropped version of the same image used on the back of the$2 bill! Source: Worked at a supermarket in the 1980s.
@@jamesslick4790 cool knowledge. Thanks I love to learn. Appreciated.
Back in the '90s, my best friend's dad was the money manager at the greyhound racing track my town used to have. He would give us $2 bills all the time. Then, when I was a cashier at the local Goodwill in the 2010's, I would sometimes get a $2 bill from a customer. That happened maybe 3 or 4 times in the 7 years I worked there.
My dad collected thousands of dollars in $2 bills which he kept in a safety deposit box.
He also used to ask store clerks if they had any $2 bills that he would then "buy" from the clerk.
i do the same, its just a neat thing to collect. along with Kennedy's, Susan B.'s, and Eisenhower dollars.
@@longbow6416 ya he collected the SusanB Anthony coins too
My Dad tipped at restaurants with $2 bills.
When the $2 bill came out in 1976, first-day issue bills had the current stamp stamped and cancelled on it. The stamp was a 13¢ stamp with the Liberty Bell on it. As I think about it, that was probably the most appropriate commemoration.
Actually, $2 are common depending where you live. Over the last few years I've noticed a lot of times I received cash back from a machine...public transport, parking garages, etc...I've gotten $2 bills. Twice the dollar amount able to make change...fewer trips required to refill the machine's cash supply. I'd bet it probably costs less to operate a machine that also gives back $2 instead of strictly $1 or $5's.
The $2 could one day take the place of a $1. The dollar could be more trouble than it's "worth" one day...like pennies have become.
When the push for the $1 coin was going on, I thought the $1 paper bill would be slowly phased out and the $2 bill would have "replace" it. You can't really buy much for $1 now anyways.
Still use dollar coins. The only way it would be mainstream is if they cancelled the $1 bill.
But many places I go don’t even allow cash. Probably because it keeps the employees from stealing
@@jphilb It also eases accounting greatly and decrease the likelihood of robbery. That being said, don't you have laws surrounding "acceptance of legal tender"?
@@andersjjensen Yes we do. And I don't know why these legal tender laws are not enforced.
@@jphilb For about the last 20 years, I have only used cash/coins for vending machines. Now even laundromat washers and dryers have card readers. If this keeps up, the government is gonna have to have a program to give card readers to bums because the concept of "spare change" is becoming obselete! LOL.
The two-dollar thing seemed very odd to me as a NZer - our two dollar *coin* is one of the *most-used* denominations in our currency!
It just seems utterly bizarre how it could end up being so unusual in the States!
In Canada, the 'twoonie' is very common.
Funnily enough, here in NZ, we have done away with both $1 and $2 notes and replaced them with coins as the coins are more durable. Australia has done the same.
We have also done away with 1c, 2c and 5c coins as being impractical due to a combination of rising costs and prevalence of electronic transactions.
(Personally, I am not a fan of that choice as it penalises anyone who pays cash and also helps retailers "tip the scales" in rounding.
Simon, you forgot about -
bronze 2 Cent (1864-1872)
silver 3 Cent (ver. 1 - 1851-1853) , (ver. 2 - 1854-1858) , (ver. 3 - 1859-1873)
nickel 3 Cent (1865-1889) - issued due to the hoarding of the silver counterparts by the public
These bills are pretty popular to give to kids in red envelopes during Lunar New Years. I have a stack of these things because of that over the years.
It’s common in the US for ATMs in strip clubs to only dispense two dollar bills, instead of ones so that customers are spending more money.
Due to inflation, they'll probably change to only dispense five dollar bills soon.
@@jonnunn4196 $2 should be the lowest note cause of inflation. You cant even get a soda for a dollar, it doesn't buy much of anything.
In my highschool economics class my econ teacher had a lesson over legal US tender. She had everything in her lesson plan except the $2. I came next day with one after she called me a liar about them existing
I would order some batches of $2 bills at the bank back in the 2000's and spend them but, I would also hand them out to customers when I worked at Petsmart. I would change in a bunch of $2 bills to the register and then hand them out as normal change. I did this for over a week. Customers thought it was super lucky but many noticed they were brand new and sometimes they would get a couple of them back. I acted casually and usually said "I think we are changing out to dollar coins and then we will have $2 bills rather than $1 bills". A couple people lost their minds at the thought. Occasionally they would think it was fake and I would give them regular ones but almost everyone was wither curious or excited. I probably put over $5000 worth of $2 bills out there.
A neighbor of mine gives out $2 bills on Halloween. Pretty cool.
Yikes! That can get pretty pricey. I'll stick with giving out candy (always the good stuff).
@@nowthatsjustducky honestly same here 😂. I just thought it'd be cool to mention my neighbors generosity given the video is about $2 bills.
My dad fought in The Great War and said: "Us Dough-boys were paid $18/month" in $2 bills. They got a bad reputation because that was the going rate for many gambling transactions during and after the war. They were a popular wager at the track and the soldier and his months pay could be wiped out in nine or fewer races. He never said he had any bias against them because he never gambled. I guess that anecdote really dates me. Doesn't it?
Other wise known as "chippy money".
I was once a used by a Walmart cashier that it was trying to use fake money when I used a half dollar to pay. It was a huge thing that required a manager to come over and explain that it was worth 50 cents. I remember thinking, “ it’s a good thing I also didn’t use a $2 bill or I might have ended up in cuffs.”
I have known $2 bills existed since I was a kid, though I didn't really see any for a long time before I got my current job at a grocery store. It's pretty rare, but I have had customers pay with $2 bills. However, the tills in the registers don't have space for them, so I wind up having to shove them in the bottom of the cash drawer where we usually hide the $50 or $100 bills.
Even more weird than this, my aunt apparently had a cashier somewhere refuse to accept a 50-cent coin because they'd never seen one before.
I think this is the reason why $2 bills are rare in circulation, lack of a slot in the cash drawer.
@@paranoiawilldestroyya3238 It's actually likely the other way around. They're not produced heavily, therefore they are not common enough to make a slot for.
I used to have that happen, I'd usually just swap it with two singles from my own wallet. The managers didn't care, so long as the amount in the drawer was the same.
Always fun to use the 50 cent piece as a rifle target, see how accurate I am with such a small object.
in middle school I would sell 50 cent coins for a dollar. A thing is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
It’s insane to think that in an age where most answers are a simple web search away, people still call the cops for mundane things such as this 😂
Also I used to do the cash ordering for a bank, I had to order hundreds of dollars in $2’s around the holidays for everyone who gives them out in Christmas cards
Another cashier here, and we get $2 bills fairly often, though I have had to explain $2 bills and some $1 and half dollar coins to cashiers who are young or haven't work cash before. You can straight up buy $2 bills directly from the U.S. Mint, even in uncut sheets.
I use to use $2 bills and dollar and half dollar coins for tooth fairy money for my kid. Occasionally we'll also get buffalo nickels, plenty of wheat pennies and Indian head pennies, Mercury dimes, and foreign coins (Canada, Bermuda, China, Thailand, England just off the top of my head). People here don't like getting the $2 bills in their change - too many think it's counterfeit!
There is a story about Steve Wasniak and how he did that. And gpt the sheet perforated and made into a book. And he would go around and rip em out to use for small purchases.
Really like how you went the extra mile and explained all that other stuff at the end of the video, as a coin collector that's nice info to have :)
I used to get gifts wrapped in full sheets of 2 dollar bills. It was awesome because the gift wrap was worth more than the gift usually.
When my brother found out you could still get 2 dollar bills at the bank, he would pay his rent all in $2s.
I would love to be the person that recieved them, I don't spend them tho I keep them
His landlord let's him pay cash?!?!?
I remember you could get $2 bills as change if you bought books of stamps from the machine inside the post office
Seeing a $2 bill in the till of a convenience store, in fact at multiple stores of this chain, I asked if I could buy it from them. They told me no, because the $2 bill was used on the top of the stack to show the stack on which it laid was in fact a part of their alarm system, if they pulled that stack out of the till slot during a holdup it would trigger the alarm.
It could be worse. Some collectors have the old $500 and $1,000 bills. They are legal currency but you better go to the bank and not the local coffee shop.
I remember seeing the $500 bill once a loooong time ago…
They are also worth more than face value to a collector. They were discontinued to prevent easily smuggling large amounts of cash into or out of the country. Also, they weren't really necessary.
In addition to the 500 and 1000 there
$5,000 and $10,000 dollar bills. These are still legal tender. The largest bill printed was the $100,000 dollar gold certificate. However it was not for general circulation. It was how Federal Reserve Banks settled up with each other pre electronic funds transfer.
I pay with $2 bills all the time (8-9 times a year). I've never had it questioned
I live in Virginia. The Monticello gift shop gives the $2 bill for change. There have been several cases where the police get called because the cashier AND the manager of said establishment think it fake. 🤦♂️
Your best-written video in a while, nice one.
This is the first time I have ever caught you guys in an error, although my particular experience with $2bills is deliberate and somewhat unique. When I go to the bank, I always ask for $2 bills; in part, because using them as tips makes me a more memorial patron without spending excess amounts. Since I've been doing this for years, I know for a fact that I've had printings as late as 2020, so 2012 is definitely not the most recent run. I can't say for certain, but I think I've had some from every even year for the past decade, so maybe they print $2's on even years? And yes, I've had some cashiers refuse to accept them; and I've had others claim them (from the manager) so they can give them as holiday gifts to grandkids.
The current series is 2017A. But a series not only crosses a year boundary in production (it's when they started), but also there is a delay before distributing to banks (December 2019 is when that series was first distributed; and the earlier 2013 series had taken until sometime in 2014 to be distributed.)
@@jonnunn4196 Ghe US Treasury reduces the number of $2 bill printed each year, but continues to produce pennies--which cost more to make than the face value. I would like to see $1 bills and pennies dropped, replaced by dollar cins and $2s.
So you could tip them witha 5$ bill and they would never remember you. But when you tip them with a 2$ bill you get a small conversation from that, and the next time they remember you and immediately give you the best service. Nice.
@@larsrons7937 You've got the idea. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but never am I in a worse position, as a returning patron, than if I had just used 2 $1 bills instead.
@@greggi47 it does cost a little more than the face value of a penny to mint it and the same is true with a nickel but it costs a lot less than the face value of a dime and a quarter to Mint them so the costs across all common use coinage work out in the government's favor. The reason they don't get rid of pennies is because rounding to the nearest five cents may not seem like a lot to you in your daily life but it quickly adds up to some very serious money.
Just clicked on the video but I’ll chime in before watching:
Canada used to have $2 bills! 😊
Yep. Now it's a $2 coin.
The most common times I have seen $2 bills is at festivals and specal event. Promoters supply their venders with $2 bills to give out as change. Store owners in the area get flooded with $2 bills for a few weeks. The assumption is that all these $2 bills are extra income the festival created for the local economy. The locals remembering this are are more likely to let that event hapen again the next year.
The second most common time you see them is second amendment rallies. Pro second amendment people go to their local banks an get large amounts of $2 bills to take to whatever town a rally is happening. They then spend them around town. The point is the same. They want the locals to see them as an economic boom for the community.
$2 bills here in Ecuador are like gold! They are considered good luck, and are sold for about $6 online. We routinely give them out here, to the sheer delight of the recipient. Nothing makes a taxi driver more happy!
You can still get $2 bills at the gift shop at Monticello Thomas Jefferson's home. The only other time I've seen one was when the cashier at Taco Bell asked me if I wanted it as change. I said Hell yes. I'm still looking for the $3 Obama bill and the $ 0.50 Joe Biden bill.
Yes, I've been looking for those too. And also the Obama and Brandon "zero cents" coin.
I once worked with someone who came into possession of a recently printed $2 bill, and being a know it all was showing it to everyone in the office and claiming it was something new. Sadly, I was the only one who knew otherwise and informed him that I had one from 1963 and another from 1976. He called me a liar and management wasn't too happy that I was calling the kid out on it. Needless to say, they were barely 2 inches tall when I showed up the next day with the $2 bills.
Well _technically_ a newly printed $2 bill would be "something new."
@@jb888888888 You missed the point. When I said I had $2 bills from 1963 and 1976 he called me a liar because he was so sure that they did not exist back then. You are almost as obnoxious as him.
You CAN pay with $2 bills. Some people collect them and keep them, some people collect them but use them if they're in a tight spot. If you want to sell currency for profit, look for discontinued coins or super repeaters/rare number bills. I sold a 111112 bill for a little less than $7000 last year. Reckon that worth more than a $2 bill
Oddly enough. The Japanese ¥2000 banknote has a similar fate to the $2 bill.
¥2000 banknotes have a low circulation within Japan. The overall public opinion on the banknote is negative, with the view of them being one of an inconvenience. As very few shop cash registers have a slot for the notes and the majority of vending machines & ATMS not accepting the notes.
I've had a handful of the ¥2000 notes throughout the years. I have kept a few, as a collectable keepsake. Though, the few that have I have used, the cashier has always been very surprised at seeing the ¥2000 banknote.
The design of the banknote is also very beautiful. With the front side of the note depicting the 'Shureimon'. A 16th century main gate at Shuri Castle in Okinawa. Whilst the reverse side of the note depicts a scene from the 11th Century Japanese literature classic, 'The Tale of Genji'.
Hm, the only problem I ever had was that there’s usually no slot for $2 bills in the cash toll, and everyone seems to put them in a different spot. I honestly had more issues with dollar aNd half dollar coins when I worked retail, though. Size always threw me off.
I remember hearing as a kid they were worth more.
In the early 2000s I had a temp job working for a telesales company that took orders for many As Seen On TV products.
One was five $2 bills and a cardboard display stand for $20 plus s&h
They are worth more. They're worth exactly twice as much as one dollar bills.
There's a Thousand Dollar bill that usually would sell to a collector for more than face value.
Every so often I see ads in newspaper Sunday supplement magazines offering "rare, mint condition $2 bills" for sale--usually at a Special Rate of only--anywhere from $3 to $5. People must fall for that, or the ads would disappear.
When I went to boot camp in 86, I used to ask for my pay chit in as many $2 bills as they could. I loved spending them at the food court on base and watch the kids at the register try to figure out where in the til it was supposed to go..
Two dollar bills were common in Canada, except in Alberta. They were convenient. Now $2 is a coin. They're still convenient.
Ah, yes... The Canadian "Twonie" (sorry if I butchered the spelling, I've only heard it pronounced and can't recall seeing it spelled).
@@Sembazuru We spell it "toonie". After the "loonie" $1 coin.
My dad has a neat thing every year he gives me as many $2 as my age! It's getting harder to spend around $100 in $2 bills! LOL
Good video 👍
I have one in my wallet. My father in law and other extended family members have this thing over the two dollar bills and always have some, they use them for tips all the time. There are people out there who really don't believe they're real. When my wife and I got married her uncle brought a couple hundred of them and they showered us with them during a dance at the reception. We did get an odd look from the teller when we went to deposit them...
I once bought a tv from Wal-Mart with 300 $1 coins, the look of astonishment on the cashiers face was priceless
My brother was doing some work on my car, needed a new alternator, shook out my coin jar and paid in one dollar coins. My brother got great entertainment watching them count it and watching them try to find somewhere to put it as their little till at the parts shop couldn't hold it all.
Canada stopped making $2 bill couple of decade ago, it is time for US make the change. I love and use our $2 coin a lot.
Why? There is zero actual need to change it out. And just because another country did it is no reason why we should follow.
@@nowthatsjustducky Canada did it in 1996 to reduce cost. Even though it cost more to produce the coin, coins stays in circulation for a long time. Bills has to be replaced very often and also cost a lot to put counterfeit measures. Cost is also the reason Canada ditched Penney. Canadian use toonies more that they ever did $2 bill.
I’ve always loved $2 bills, probably because they are so unusual and rarely seen in circulation. As you mentioned, and what the general public doesn’t understand, they are not rare and you can pick them up at most commercial banks. I always carry a few twos with me, often to use for tips for food deliveries, etc. I’ve found that people will remember you if you tip them in twos. And one final point, I’ve never had anyone get suspicious about the validity of the notes or refuse them.
7:46 Simon's dry, deadpan delivery of jokes is why I love watching these videos 🤣🤣🤣
He has a very pleasant voice, I just wish that he’d speak louder, as I have trouble hearing him. (Also he talks rather fast, which also is hard to follow). Yes, I use closed captioning but due to his accent..... some words aren’t even close to a real word.
@@slcRN1971 You get used to the accent over time. Some accents are definitely harder than others.
A weirdly related story: I lived Maine, USA for about 10 years....worked for a wonderful company called L.L. Bean in their enormous flagship retail store... at one point I ran banks of cash register operators. One very busy day, I jumped in on an extra register to help out, and tried to give a lady customer change, which included a $2 bill...she responded like I was handing her a poisonous snake! I apologized, gave her singles instead, and noticed the 12 (female) members of my team laughing! When I asked them why, they explained: there was only one "gentleman's club" in all of the state....about 20 minutes away. Everything their was priced in $2 increments, so your change was also always in $2 bills. It was (probably rightly) assumed that any such bill you ever encountered had at some point been tucked a young lady's sweaty g-string....
I know at least one that never was... In fact, I think it is still sitting in the framed display with the prize ribbon and pictures with them on their horses from their little win (don't remember if it was 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) in the local 1976 4th of July Kiddies' Parade. I think that was the year the $2 bill had the big rerelease; so this likely was (and still is) a totally uncirculated bill; so never got used for anything fun.
Give it a sniff to find out!!
Ha! I love using the $2. Have to go to the bank to get them. Especially fun using them when my kids were young enough to need a babysitter and I'd throw a couple in with their payments. They stand out.
Edit: I really like them when I buy something that costs $1.99, or for tipping servers now.
Another fan of the $2 bill is Steve Wozniak. He used to buy sheets, have them perforated, and would then fold the sheet up and carry it on him. For small purchases he'd pull it out, unfold it, and then tear bills off the sheet, making a big dramatic scene out of the act. Other times he'd have a stack of them joined at one end with adhesive like a notepad and again, would tear bills of one at a time.
Last I heard he'd had more than one run in with the Secret Service and the police over these antics.
I used to do that notepad trick years ago here in Oz. I'd get a bunch of new sequential $50 notes and glue them into a notepad form. Tear one off as needed, great fun and never a problem.
My grandfather who is 98 has an old 10,000$ dollar bill.He got the bill from his dad on his wedding day.My grandfather kept the bill his whole life not wanting to part ways with it as long as he remained married to my grandmother.They are both alive and the bill remain in his possession.Though when he does eventually croak I am getting it and plan on doing the same.Keeping it.I have no clue what's it's worth and really don't want to know because I don't want to be tempted to sell it.These old bills all have stories.
I've had a few over the years, no one cared when I used them to buy stuff. Though it bothered me a bit as I was wanting to hold on to at least one, but there were more important things at the time
I summised Americans have trouble counting by 2's. Here in Canada the twonie has been used for decades, never questioned.
When I was a kid, there was a gas station that would give $2 bills as an easter egg hunt prize if you for eggs with numbers corresponding to that business. I still have a couple left. I used a couple a few months ago to tip a pizza delivery because I didn't have any other cash on hand.
Back in 2001, I got three consecutive 2-dollar bills from a cab driver in Maine as change (Crisp, fresh from the bank, serial numbers on the bills only differed in the final digit) I considered keeping them as a rarity, but I was also working a late shift and REALLY needed a coffee. So it got passed on to a Starbucks in Portland ME.
Never forget what Simon did
What did he do?
I forgot...
I love my $2 bills!
They are surprisingly convenient
my friend had a shoebox filled with nothing but 2 dollar bills and we thought it was the most valuable collection ever.
I love the cup you’re using. Where can I find one?
Thanks to Clemson University, I've never really felt that $2 bills were all that rare. In an effort to show the economic effect of its fans to convince more schools to want to play them in sports, Clemson made agreements with local banks to give out large numbers of $2 bills stamped with tiger paws, which the fans were supposed to take with them to spend at away games. In addition, Clemson still gives out a stamped $2 bill to every graduate as well during the graduation ceremony. Due to this, the town has, if not a surplus of the bills, at least enough to let everyone who lives there see them and experience dealing with them. Whats weird is that despite this, I've still also grown up with the belief that they're lucky, and keep both my graduation $2 bill and one from the 70s given to me by my grandmother for luck.