Government May Replenish Rare $2 Bills

Yahoo! ^ | Thursday, Jun 12, 2003 | JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

WASHINGTON - Like 200 bad pennies, it keeps turning up. The $2 bill, shunned by the American public for decades, could be making a comeback. After seven years, the government is thinking of printing the forgotten greenback once again.

"We do contemplate ordering more $2 notes," said Federal Reserve spokesman David Skidmore. The Fed has been talking to the makers U.S. paper money, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, about the matter.

The Federal Reserve, the supplier of cash to the nation's banks, had a huge pile of the $2 bills stashed away in its vaults back in 1996, when the last batch of the notes were printed.

Although the Fed still has a supply of the $2 notes, it's a much smaller one. No one knows exactly why, but some blame the human tendency to make a keepsake of an oddity.

"They are collected mostly," said Lyn Knight, president of Lyn Knight Currency Auctions. "People like to save $2 bills_ kind of like half dollars."

Roughly 9.5 million of the notes are currently held at the Fed's vaults, down from around 160 million in 1996, Skidmore said. (The Fed's inventory of $1 bills, by comparison, stands at 2.37 billion.)

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing may print 121.6 million new $2 bills in fiscal year 2004, which starts Oct. 1, said BEP spokeswoman Claudia Dickens. "Around July or August we will be able to confirm that number positively," she said.

When new $2 bills were last printed in 1996, some 163.6 million of the notes were made. The government stopped making the bills because there wasn't much demand for them from banks and their customers. Cash registers typically don't have bins for the $2 note.

"I think people are just saving them. The general population, when something is unusual in terms of money, they pull it and set it aside — `Gee, I haven't seen one of those,' " said David Sundman, a paper money expert and president of Littleton Coin Co. "It is just human nature."

Some people like to give them as gifts or use them at $2 betting windows at horse racetracks, a few money mavens suggested.

The $2 note can be traced back to the days of the American Revolution, when the Continental Congress issued $2 denominations in "bills of credit for the defense of America," the bureau says. Some experts say there were cases of $2 notes even earlier.

The current $2 bill, features the visage of Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president and author of the Declaration of Independence on the front. On the back of the bill, the signing of the Declaration of Independence is featured. This version of the note came about in 1976 to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial.

Around 655 million $2 notes are currently in circulation worldwide.

Even so, "people don't see many of them and aren't used to seeing them," said Doug Tillett, a spokesman at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. "You have to think back to seventh grade civics and think is this legal tender? Is there a $2 bill?"

The bureau doesn't have plans to make over the $2 bill as part of its broader, redesign effort. A new, more colorful $20 bill aimed at thwarting high-tech counterfeiters is first in line for the new look and will be put into circulation later this year. The $20 bill is the most knocked-off note in the United States.

The $2 bill could became a staple in cash registers and wallets, if the government ever were to decide to give the $1 bill — the most commonly used bill in the United States — the boot, experts said. But barring that unlikely event, the $2 bill — just like the penny — is probably going to stick around for a while, experts said.

"It is part of our history," said Sundman. "It is kind of a relic. A survivor."

[Willie Green]

Sounds good to me, especially if they discontinue the $1-bill if favor of a coin.
Pennies are a nuisance too, should discontinue them.

[KarlInOhio]

How many people at the US Mint are employed to make pennies? :-)

Seriously, dump the penny and the $1 and $2 bills. Find someone meaningful and likable for the $1 coin and while they're at it, find a red-golden alloy that doesn't tarnish for it (unlike the squawbucks which were too silvery to identify at a quick glance and they tarnished too much).

[Blood of Tyrants]

I like the $2 bill. With Thomas Jefferson on the fron and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back, it is one of the best bills we have.

I agree witht he pennies. Get rid of them and round to the nearest nickel.

[Onelifetogive]

Pennies are a nuisance too, should discontinue them.

How about eliminating pennies and nickels and replacing them with a 2 cent coin. All prices would round to the next even amount. There would still be no need for more that 4 of the smallest coins in change (same as now). The dollar coin would have a place in cash registers and the two dollar bill would have a place as well.

The government wouldn't need public support. They could just do it.

[MineralMan]

There's an old story, possibly apocryphal, that the Navy in San Diego started paying sailors in $2 bills. They did this because Navy personnel were getting a raw deal from locals there.

Once folks started seeing all those $2 bills, things started to change.

Maybe Freepers should adopt the $2 bill.

[ReaganRevolution]

My brother likes to give out $50 dollars in $2 bills for graduation gifts. He has to go to 2 or 3 banks just to get enough to make $50. I like the $2 bill too, and I'm with you dump the penny.

[Willie Green]

(unlike the squawbucks which were too silvery to identify at a quick glance and they tarnished too much).

The Susan B. Anthonys were horribly indistinguishable from quarters.

I have no problems with the Sacagawea dollar, despite the lunatic rantings for or against political correctness. IMHO, it is a good-looking coin, somewhat reminiscent of the Buffalo nickel and Indian-head penny. I also find them very convenient to carry in my pocket with other change, and use them for small purchases or leaving tips. Whenever I'm at the bank, I try to remember to pick up a roll or two.

[KarlInOhio]

The $2 is a nice looking bill, right up there with the back of the $10 before the recent redesign. Now the $10 looks like a generic souless governement building.

[harrym]

I also had heard this story about the military paying troops off in $2 denominations to show the local businesses how much financial impact they had. Maybe we should start giving tax refunds in $2 bills to show who is really helping the economy and where its being spent.

[newgeezer]

I also find them very convenient to carry in my pocket with other change ... Whenever I'm at the bank, I try to remember to pick up a roll or two.

So, Willie, is that a roll of Sacagaweas in your pocket, or...? ;OD

[Lee Heggy]

I think the back of the two dollar bill is one of the nicest looking pieces of currency we have. I think a two cent coin would be worth a try. Nickles are a bother along with pennies.
Love those 2$.

[Willie Green]

So, Willie, is that a roll of Sacagaweas in your pocket, or...? ;OD

LOL!

No, there are 25 in a roll, and I only carry maybe 3~4 in my pocket at a time.
But they sure are less bulky than carrying 12~16 more quarters!

[4mycountry]

Pennies are a nuisance, but you really can't dump them.

Think about it: You go and buy a candy bar and it costs 13 cents. You give the guy a dime and two two-cent pieces. Well, you need one-cent in change. If there's no penny, how do you do that?

[The Great RJ]

One problem is the many semi literate help that have enough trouble making change with our present currency. I can't imagine these people trying to make change for a $2 bill.

However, I think a $3 bill might be in order and would suggest that Rep. Barney Franks portrait adorn it.

[The KG9 Kid]

I'm still holding out for:

1. A $5 coin. Before switching over to the Euro standard, Holland had a 5 Guilder coin that was a pleasure to use. Four of these in your pocket in addition to paper money was enough to get you through the whole day. Now, Europe has a coin that's worth three dollars or so (2.5 Eu face value) and it just isn't the same. America's $5 coin should be sized mid-way between the nickel and quarter, be twice as thick as a nickel, and finished in a better faux golden color than the miserable Squawbuck $1 coin.

2. I think that the reverse face of the $1 or $2 bill should have the Bill Of Rights listed on the back.

3. Getting rid of the penny and round up to the nearest tenth of a dollar. You can get rid of the $1 note if you want, but be prepared to get a lot of change back. One problem that Europeans have is gathering an avalanche of change in their pockets at the end of the day. The Euro coin worth 2.5 and the Dutch 5-Guilder was designed to help erase this, and the US better think of something similar if we eliminate the penny and $1 bill. That's why I hope for a $5 coin and not some half-fast measure like a $2 coin.

[steve-b]

How about Bill Clinton for the (phony as a...) $3 bill?

[eno_]

People rejected the Sacagawea dollar, and rightly so, because it replaces the Father of our Nation with some Indian chick.

I think a better protest would have been to throw them through the windows of government buildings. Occationally the government needs to be bitchslapped.

[Chewbacca]

While you may like the new dollar coins (aka Brass Bucks), are you willing to spend them in vending machines?

I don't know anyone who trusts the machines to actually register the coins as a dollar. They are still about the size of a quarter.

Quarters are more useful to me. I use them for the laundromat, vending machines, video arcades, slot machines, and candy purchases.

Don't dump the penny. If anything, at least put them into shotgun shells and shoot them at your enemies.
The old pre 1982 pennies are solid copper and worth the most scrap value of any coin currently minted and in circulation.

The newer post 1982 pennies are zinc and toxic if swallowed by children or fired into the gut of your enemies.

[KnutCase]

I have a large supply of the $2 bill from 1976 issue, purchased at the bank, all consecutively numbered. They have been in my safe deposit box for the past 27 years. Being consecutively numbered they will have a much greater value for my grandchildren when they graduate from high school 15 years from now as I have informed my son that these become their graduation presents. Hope I have guessed correctly.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I think the Euros got it about right.

They have 500 and 200 Euro notes, which would be nice for a guy who wants to carry 10,000 to a gun show without a giant lump.

Then there are the expected 100, 50, 20, 10, and 5 Euro notes. They also have 1 and 2 Euro coins that are very handy in daily life.

For change, they have 0.50, 0.20, 0.10, 0.05 and 0.01 coins. The 1 and 5 cent coins are stupid (and are the only copper colored ones, so you know what not to pick up when dropped.)

The system was clearly designed to be economically efficient with modern economic values.

If it were up to me, I would coin nothing less than what a minimum wage worker (~$6/hr) earns in a minute. That woud be a dime. (Take a walk, and find a penny on the sidewalk every six seconds, and you're earning minimum wage!)

Include a 50 cent piece, a $1 coin, and a $2 coin, you you are about where our system was 50 years ago.