$2 Bill Article in WSJ
Catbert
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One more article I wanted to share from the WSJ that is related to our hobby that was a fun read. Enjoy!
By Michael M. Phillips
It usually goes like this: Nathan Broshear orders beers and when it comes time to tip, he slides a $2 bill onto the bar.
The bartender does a double-take and says something about how he didn’t know they still printed these things. Then he folds the note carefully into his own wallet. Mr. Broshear never has to wait long for a second round.
“If you order two beers, you’re probably going to drop $2 in a tip anyway,” Mr. Broshear says. “But if you drop a $2 bill in, the person feels like they got a $5 or $10 tip. But it still only cost me two dollars.”
The country is divided into two camps when it comes to twos: Those who are barely aware $2 bills still circulate, and those who live the $2 bill lifestyle.
Mr. Broshear, firmly in the second camp, marvels at the deuce’s efficiency. “I only have to get a single bill out,” he says.
Pause.
“Why is that funny?”
The U.S. issued $2 notes from 1862 to 1966, and then resumed production around the 1976 U.S. bicentennial, putting images of Thomas Jefferson on the front and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back. Twos remain the least common currency. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve last ordered 179.2 million in 2016 and hasn’t requested any since. (For 2018, it ordered 2.2 billion $1 bills.)
The $2 bills are so rarely seen in daily commerce that some people think they’re as phony as a $3 bill.
Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak routinely buys uncut sheets of $2 bills. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing gift shop sells uncut sheets of four, eight, 16 and 32 notes at a hefty premium. Mr. Wozniak enjoys taking out a pair of scissors at store registers and cutting out the bills he needs. Sometimes he hires a printing company to perforate four-bill sheets and gum them into notepad format.
In the mid-1990s, he tore off a couple perforated $2 notes to tip a Las Vegas waitress. The tip attracted the attention of a casino security manager. “They don’t make them with perforations,” Mr. Wozniak recalls the man saying.
“They don’t?” Mr. Wozniak responded in mock surprise.
“I’m sure that he thought for an instant that he had captured Al Capone, counterfeiting $2 bills,” Mr. Wozniak wrote later about the incident.
U.S. Air Force pilots who fly the venerable U-2 spy plane always keep a $2 bill in their flight suit.Each pilot is issued a number identifying their chronological position among the 1,000 or so pilots who have flown the U-2 solo. Some pilots search until they find a $2 bill with a serial number whose final digits match their pilot number.
New pilots must provide $222 in $2 bills to fund the U-2 clubhouse at Beale Air Force Base, near Yuba City, Calif. Veteran pilots conduct periodic “conformity checks” to make sure new fliers are carrying at least one bill. The fine for a violation? $2.
“It’s sort of a calling card,” says one pilot, who goes by the call sign Nova.
Last fall, Daniel Collotte, an electrical engineer in Austin, Texas, was one of 22,000 people who bought the Olive Garden’s $100 Never Ending Pasta Pass, allowing him togorge on as much pasta he wanted during an eight-week period. Mr. Collotte ate at Olive Garden almost daily for two months.
Normally he’d tip on a credit card, but there was no charge for each never-ending meal and no basis to calculate a gratuity. So he took to leaving the server a $2 bill or two each visit.
“What’s really fun is people think they’re rare even though they’re not,” Mr. Collotte says. “So it gives them a little bit of excitement.” One day, he was surprised to see his dinner companion also drop a $2 bill on the table.
The two had something else in common, too. Both belonged to an online group whose members swap tricks for extracting maximum value from credit-card, airline and hotel frequent-user points.
A very unscientific survey suggests significant overlap between people into points and people into twos, perhaps united by the possibility of getting something for nothing—be it a hotel room, an upgrade or a $5 thank-you for a $2 tip.
“You feel like you’ve beaten the system,” says Logan Robinson, a Texas attorney who lives in the center of that Venn diagram. (“I’ve had the good fortune to take a shower on an airplane for free,” he boasts.)
Around the bicentennial, Ted Calhoun, owner of Der Markt grocery store in Red River, N.M., decided it would attract tourists if he handed the notes out as change. The gimmick ballooned, and he says he now goes through about 4,000 new bills a month.
Tourists love them, although the bills lost their novelty for Mr. Calhoun long ago. “I guess I don’t even look at them anymore,” he says.
Not so Mr. Broshear, an Air Force officer. When he was stationed in Stuttgart, he would acquire the base bank’s entire supply.
He’d tip the barber, the bartender, the waiters and the bagger at the grocery store. Dozens of times flummoxed checkout clerks have asked him, “How much is it worth?”
“Two dollars,” Mr. Broshear responds.
Some notes would make their way back to the base bank as deposits, and the teller would save them for Mr. Broshear’s next visit. Eventually the bank would run low and Mr. Broshear’s mother would mail him a wad of twos.
In 2010, the Air Force deployed Mr. Broshear to Afghanistan. During a layover, he dropped a $2 bill at a snack shop and walked away without his change. Another airman, Matt Brown, asked about it when they reboarded the plane.
“It’s about clean living,” Mr. Broshear told him. “You pay with a two and you bounce.”
Mr. Brown, a bomber pilot, had found a kindred spirit. “I only carry 50s,” he said.
He and his crewmates often ate out between missions, and, when the bill came, he didn’t want to wait while the credit-card crowd argued over decimal points.
So he’d drop a Grant and walk away. “If I want to get out of somewhere, I’m ready to go,” says Mr. Brown, who just retired from the Air Force. “Having a 50—that’s my ejection seat. That’s my way out of there.”
The men were roommates during two combat tours of Afghanistan, and their philosophies gradually merged. Now both carry twos and 50s.
“If you’re going to carry cash, why just carry any old bill?” Mr. Broshear asks. “You’ve got to think about these things. You’ve got to be purposeful.”
Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Comments
When I used to geocache I would leave a $2 bill in trade. People loved them, especially kids.
Nice article, thanks for posting it.
I carry $50's... No $2 bills, at least not normally. I have carried them occasionally as a curiosity when I pay in cash... sure get strange looks and comments..Cheers, RickO
I used to bring $2 and half dollars to a poker game with old high school friends. They always knew if my ante was in.
Yep, I've got a $2 wallet piece.
No Way Out: Stimulus and Money Printing Are the Only Path Left
I just returned from a safari to Kenya, and they told us to bring only new colored US currency dated after 2009 with no writing or tears. I brought some $2 bills along as novelties since or store uses them in change along with$1 coins ( no $1 bills given out in the store). They looked at my $2 bills and would not take then because they were 1995 series.
My wife just got me one last week.
I still think they're nifty!
I like twos.
I saw a dealer at F.U.N. selling bundles of 100 for $217
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
i like two dollar bills. many times, people smile when you pay for something with one because they think it's rare or special.
That's a pretty good trick, since that bank sells them for $200. In fact, They'll get bricks of $2's if you want them...may take a day or two depending where you live.
I have left silver coins over the years. I need to start doing that again. It was fun.
I have been buying two dollars bricks at the bank for quite some time. I just love watching the reaction of people when you give them one
Rainbow Stars
I've spent twos from time to time.
The best reaction I have seen is not the unfamiliarity (which is common), but the realization that there is no "slot" for a $2 in the register. This means the cashier actually has to engage a few brain cells and THINK. Most put it under the tray with the $50s and $100s, but some get a brain freeze. PRICELESS.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
Tooth Fairy always leaves $2 bills for our kids
When I lived in Tucson Arizona in the early 80’s I’d use $2 bills at the race track. The minimum bet was $2.00.
Thanks for sharing !!!
I carry them and use them.
I’ve never spent a $2 bill. I’ve got every one I’ve ever received, about 50 of them so far. I’ll be 39 next month so that’s a little over 1 a year
Collector of randomness. Photographer at PCGS. Lover of Harry Potter.
Me too
I often get $2 dollar bills at the bank on request - they make for some fun spending, especially when combined with Kennedy halves!