Here are some of the replies I received when I asked: “What do you know about the two-dollar bill?
The replies are in order of frequency beginning with the
highest number of same or similar answers first and in descending order to the
least answers.
- “It’s lucky!” (Twenty-seven out of one-hundred different respondents surveyed insisted that owning a two-dollar bill brings ‘good luck’). Note: Only one respondent suggested that the “two dollar bill is unlucky.”
- “They’re rare!” (Twenty subjects indicated that the two-dollar bill is rare)
- “I got mine as a congratulatory gift (“the day of my confirmation”,
- “I use them as bookmarks!”
- “They don’t print them anymore!” (“They stopped circulation years ago!”) -- Not true.
- “The government paid some of the military in two-dollar bills up through 1965!”
- Two individuals suggested: “There is a black man on the two-dollar bill!”* -- Not true.
- Two dollar bills were used by individuals who gambled—$2 was the single bet unit at most (horse) race tracks.
- Two dollars was the ‘going rate’ for a prostitute in years gone by.
· In 2005, a man in Baltimore, Maryland, was jailed for
attempting to use $2 bills to pay a car stereo installation fee that Best Buy
originally agreed to waive in the first place.
See http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2005-03-08/news/0503080089_1_bolesta-pole-baltimore-county
In 2016, a 13-year-old girl in Texas was detained by police
at Fort Bend Independent School District's Christa McAuliffe Middle School and
prevented from eating lunch that day for attempting to use a $2 bill to pay for
chicken nuggets in the school cafeteria.
See http://reason.com/blog/2016/05/04/little-girl-detained-by-police-after-try
and https://abc13.com/news/lunchroom-lunacy-isd-cops-investigate-fake-money/1314203/
In 1989, Geneva Steel, an integrated steel mill, which
operated in Utah until November 2001, paid employee bonuses with $2 bills. As
the volume of bills flowed through town, the stunt demonstrated the plant’s
economic importance.
I commented that the two-dollar bill isn’t accepted in most
vending machines one day…
...later that day, one of my economics teachers, Marc DeCourcy, brought back evidence
of one vending machine, located in Padernales Falls State Park, Texas, which
accepts $2 bills. Thanks much 'Mr. D,' you're the best!
*My friend, Thomas helped solve the mystery of the ‘alleged’ black man on the two-dollar bill. In the article—The Truth About the Only Black Man On The Back Of The $2 Bill, the man in question is the Senator from Maryland, John Hanson, served as President of the Continental Congress during the American Revolution.
Even more interesting!
ReplyDelete