Poll of the Day > If you want to be quirky and spend $2 bills to confuse people...

(+) Yeah! (+)

go to hell.

No, seriously.

Cashiers should know two dollar bills are legal tender still produced to this day(series 2017A, the most recent series, has two dollar bills), and aren't rare at all other than the fact they make much less of them than any other denomination. You can get them from banks, sometimes in brand new straps, etc.

So, cashiers should know. But I always groan when somebody says "I carry and spend $2 bills to see the cashier's reaction!" because its like somebody shouting to the world "look at me! I'm quirky!"

As a currency guy, I like $2 bills. I have a brand new strap of $2 star notes a friend of mine got from a bank and let me buy for face value. I have a bunch of other two dollar bills. I would never consider spending them at stores "just to confuse people"

One guy online even said "I paid with some $2s once...it took about ten minutes for the cashier to call the manager over for them to take them"

Certainly, unless that was the only money you had, you have better things to do with your time? Because fuck, I wouldn't waste my time for the lolz.

So in short: stop trying to be steve wozniak junior with the twos. It confuses people and isn't that interesting.

I'm going to start doing that because of this topic.

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How often do you hear people say they have a $2 bill for a reaction? This has literally never come up in my life.

On reddit, half the time a post about $2s comes up in a place like mildly interesting somebody will mention it.

Oh and I had a co-worker who set his drawer up with $2s and half dollars just to confuse people.

While people need to be less confused, because its still legal tender, I was never a fan of the whole thing.

Yeah those are people I don't want to interact with.

Sarcasthma posted...

I'm going to start doing that because of this topic.

Same.

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When I was a kid in the 80s, I knew someone whose dad gave him $2 bills to buy school lunch with, because he figured he was less likely to lose one $2 bill than he was to lose two $1 bills.
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I once got a $2 bill, spent it in the same general area, got another bill a few days later. The second time I got it, I noticed it had the same grease smudge on one corner, so I made note of the number and spent it again, locally but another store. The same bill came back my way a week or so later. So I hung on to it for a few weeks before spending it on the other side of LA County.

I never saw that $2 bill again.

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Sarcasthma posted...

I'm going to start doing that because of this topic.

it would probably be a bit confusing if you went to a store in japan and tried to pay with american money

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How rare are they? I've seen a only a couple of them in nearly 35 years.

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Confusing for Sarc, maybe. I'm sure, by now, the friendlier folks there would recognize the currency and tell foreigners where to make proper exchanges, and others would tell said foreigners to get out.

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argonautweakend posted...

But I always groan when somebody says "I carry and spend $2 bills to see the cashier's reaction!"

oh man, I hate when that happens! it happens so often.

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I could have seen that sentiment just once in my life, rather than multiple, and I would still groan.

GGuirao13 posted...

How rare are they? I've seen a only a couple of them in nearly 35 years.

They aren't really rare in the sense you can go into your bank and get them. They just arent circulated as much as other denominations, but in general a $2 bill is worth just two bucks.

I got a couple as change at McDonalds once. The guy asked me if I minded and I said I didnt. I still have one in my coins and little stuff collection.

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argonautweakend posted...

I could have seen that sentiment just once in my life, rather than multiple, and I would still groan.

They aren't really rare in the sense you can go into your bank and get them. They just arent circulated as much as other denominations, but in general a $2 bill is worth just two bucks.

So, can I be quirky by asking the cashier for a two-dollar bill as change?

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$2 bills were cool in the 80's. Can't say I've seen many since then.

If anything, I think the $1 coins are more quirky. They seemed to last about 5 years or so. Some vending machines would take them, but they never caught on.

There was this customer who came into the grocery store for years and only paid with $2 bills and gold/silver dollar coins.

He was a pretty normal guy when you talked to him.

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Only seen 2 dollar bills at my place once so far. Was annoying since the scale isn't set up for 2's so I had to put in a minor amount of extra effort on the deposit because someone thought they were being funny using 3 2 dollar bills instead of normal money.

A local strip club here gives you $2 bills instead of $1 bills to throw at the strippers

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Talk about 2-bit entertainment.

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I forgot which coin/value it was. Mighta been the older half dollar coins or dollar coins. I only recall them being unique for being slightly larger, thicker, and heavier than most coins. My mother deposited a bunch of coins once and supposedly one of the bankers mistaken the roll for quarters.

If/when certain coins or bills are removed from circulation (i.e. getting rid of the penny), I do wonder how much of the a headache it might be when various consumers are slowly bringing em in /spending em.

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It's a dick move in general since a lot of registers have a slot for each denomination, but there's nothing for $2 bills.

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Why do they keep making them is what I want to know

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When I worked in a grocery store there was a regular who always went through the same cashier's line (if she was present, he had his backup choices if she wasn't too), always payed completely in $2 bills, and never failed to ask her "You ever seen one of these before?" while slowly handing each bill over individually with his greasy hands. One time one of the other cashiers asked him where he got all those $2 bills from and his response was "Got 'em betting down at the horse tracks!" This was in Santa Clara, California and as far as I'm aware there are no horse tracks to bet on 'round those parts. I haven't actually looked into it and that's wildly out of my scene, so I could easily be wrong idk.

JigsawTDC posted...

When I worked in a grocery store there was a regular who always went through the same cashier's line (if she was present, he had his backup choices if she wasn't too), always payed completely in $2 bills, and never failed to ask her "You ever seen one of these before?" while slowly handing each bill over individually with his greasy hands. One time one of the other cashiers asked him where he got all those $2 bills from and his response was "Got 'em betting down at the horse tracks!" This was in Santa Clara, California and as far as I'm aware there are no horse tracks to bet on 'round those parts. I haven't actually looked into it and that's wildly out of my scene, so I could easily be wrong idk.

I audibly laughed at this story. Thanks for that!

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I have never seen someone in line pay in $2 bills to be quirky, from my experience it seems like paying in cash is becoming a thing of the past in any place that takes debit or credit cards.

Zeus posted...

It's a dick move in general since a lot of registers have a slot for each denomination, but there's nothing for $2 bills.

Yeah but that slot at the far left is often an "everything goes" slot

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Zeus posted...

It's a dick move in general since a lot of registers have a slot for each denomination, but there's nothing for $2 bills.

Imagine not being able to keep a till organized that doesn't have enough slots lmfao

also maybe there are random Canadians piping in on Reddit or something. Since our $2 bills have been gone for a long time.

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Sarcasthma posted...

I'm going to start doing that because of this topic.

Should be extra confusing in Japan.

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Sarcasthma posted...

I'm going to start doing that because of this topic.

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