Why it's time to start paying with $2 bills

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(CNN Business) --

Inflation has made it hard to buy much with a dollar these days.

The $1 pizza disappeared.

Dollar stores are no longer dollar stores.

So wouldn't it make more sense to start paying with $2 bills?

"If you had a $2 bill, great," said Heather McCabe, a $2 writer and evangelist who runs the Two Buckaroo blog, recounting her spending with two-year-olds and other people's reactions. .

"It is a very useful thing to pay for a small amount."

However, the $2 bill is the unloved child of paper money.

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It is considered a curiosity by some and despised by others in America.

The myths surrounding the $2 bill, nicknamed "Tom" by fans because it features Thomas Jefferson's portrait on the front, are endless.

Many Americans think that $2 bills are rare, out of print, or out of circulation.

You are wrong.

$2 bills are lighter to carry in our wallets than $1 bills, cleaner and more efficient.

The Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) will print up to 204 million $2 bills this year, according to an annual order from the Federal Reserve System.

There were 1.4 billion $2 bills in circulation in 2020, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve.

But the $2 bills represent only 0.001% of the value of the $2 trillion in currency in circulation.

The BEP does not have to apply for new $2 bills each year, as it does with other bills.

This is because $2 bills are used infrequently and last longer in circulation.

The Fed orders them every few years and reduces inventory.

"A lot of Americans have pretty dubious assumptions about the $2 bill. Nothing happened with the $2 bill. It's still being made. It's in circulation," McCabe said.

"Americans misread their own currency to the extent that they don't use it."

Bad luck

The United States first issued $2 bills beginning in 1862, when the federal government began printing paper money.

Alexander Hamilton's portrait was in the two until a new series was printed in 1869 with Jefferson.

But the

was unpopular and never gained a foothold with the public.

One big reason: The $2 bill was considered bad luck.

Superstitious people would tear off the corners of the bill to "reverse the curse", rendering the bills unfit for use.

"Whoever sits at a game of chance with a two-dollar bill in his pocket is thought to be unlucky," the New York Times said in a 1925 article. "They have been avoided as unlucky."

The $2s were also known for keeping controversial company.

It was associated with gambling, where it was the standard bet at racetracks, and prostitution.

And during the 19th century, crony candidates frequently used $2 bills to bribe voters.

Someone with a $2 bill was thought to have sold a vote to a corrupt politician.

The Treasury Department during the 1900s unsuccessfully tried several times to popularize the use of the $2 bill. In 1966, it abandoned and stopped printing the bills "due to lack of public demand."

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But a decade later, as the United States neared its bicentennial, the Treasury designed a new series of $2 bills with a signature portrait of the Declaration of Independence on the reverse.

The goal was to reduce the number of $1 bills in circulation and save the Treasury money on production costs.

But the relaunch in 1976 failed.

People saw the new version as a collector's item and hoarded them instead of going out and spending them.

The Postal Service offered to stamp them only on April 13, the first day they were issued in honor of Jefferson's birthday, unintentionally adding to the idea that they were commemorative bills, a misconception that continues to this day.

"The press and public now tend to associate the $2 bill with the Susan B. Anthony dollar under the general heading of 'hoaxes,'" the New York Times said in 1981.

There's no rational reason why $2 bills shouldn't be as popular as other bills, said Paolo Pasquariello, a finance professor at the University of Michigan.

But people show a preference for multiples of 1 and 5, he said.

Another reason $2 bills never took off: Cash registers, invented in the late 1800s, were never designed with a place to store them, so cashiers didn't know where to put them.

"There was no tampering with the cash registers for $2 bills," said Heather McCabe.

"The infrastructure to pay for things hasn't changed. There hasn't been an adjustment to how people work with that bill."

If cash registers had a familiar slot for $2 bills, the bill would be more popular, he argued.

The $2 Subculture

Now, there are people who are fascinated by $2 bills. In fact, communities and subcultures have developed around them.

US Air Force pilots who fly U-2 spy planes always carry a two-dollar bill in their flight suits.

Since the 1970s, fans of the Clemson University Tigers football team have paid and tipped with $2 bills — "Tiger Twos" — at restaurants, bars, shops and hotels in other cities.

The tradition began as a way to show Georgia Tech in Atlanta that it would be in the city's interest to schedule games against Clemson.

"There's a degree of popularity to them. There's a sense of excitement," said Jesse Kraft, curator of the American Numismatic Society.

"But as far as getting them back into circulation, that's the key that's missing."

Kraft is a proponent of adopting $2 bills more widely.

Clemson supporters mark their "Tiger Two" with orange paws from a stamp pad and spend them to give businesses on the road an idea of ​​their economic impact.

He points out that it's about half as expensive for the Treasury to print a $2 bill as higher denominations, which come with more expensive security features on paper.

It is also more efficient to print $2 bills than $1 bills because the Treasury can print twice as many for the same amount of money and it requires less storage.

John Bennardo, who made a 2015 movie about $2 bills called "The Two Dollar Bill Documentary," has made it his mission "to educate people and enlighten them and start using $2 bills in their lives."

In short, he concludes, $2 bills are underrated in America and a way for strangers to meet and engage.

"You will be remembered if you wear a $2 bill," Bennardo said.

"It has this ability to connect people in a way that other bills don't. It opens up a dialogue between you and the cashier."

"It's a practical bill with inflation. But it's also a social currency."

CNN's Harry Enten contributed to this article.

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