Poll of the Day > One of the reddit subs I am a member of is turning into 'normie reddit' and its

(+) Yeah! (+)

kinda funny in a way.

The papermoney sub is one I have been a member of for a while. Now, as long as I can recall, there have been opposing factions at odds, because hardcore currency and light currency posts are present. Somebody showing off a true Confederate note from the 1800s, all the way to paper shillings and other things, foreign currency, and people asking if a certain serial number or star note are valuable.

Now, I started this hobby because of serial numbers and star notes, so I have a small soft spot for such posts, though some people will ask if a completely random serial number is valuable ex (47342739) and that can get a little annoying sometimes.

The division comes from people who want more posts about antique or historical currency, they find serial number posts bogus unless it's something huge like 00000001 or 77777777. People have complained. efforts have been made to reduce the number of these posts through moderations and stickies and side bars etc. But they still persist. I never liked this attitude because people who are starting out sometimes need a person to direct them in ways a sticky could not. I see no reason to not be nice, answer the question, and move on. or just ignore it. I would never want to be an asshole to a new collector or something curious. So, the sub kind of had two identities and sometimes they'd butt heads. I never really understood why both couldn't coexist, but that would require some people to ignore a sizeable chunk of posts on the forum, which isn't difficult but yeah.

Something happened....A few weeks or a month ago a post got reddit popular to some degree. I actually forget what the post was, but it attracted thousands of new visitors and then subs to the papermoney forum. So now, in some way, regular reddit has noticed.

And what is happening is the sub is turning out worse than any serial number thread could imo because its becoming regular, normie reddit. you have people who have just now picked up at least a small interest in currency but aren't knowledgeable. This generally isn't a bad thing(new people means you have a chance to get them seriously interested in becoming numismatists!), but what that influx entails is regular reddit.

Thousands of upvotes for a picture of "Disney Dollars" from the 1980s asking if they are real, the current most upvoted post in r/PM history about a person who confiscated a fake $100 bill from a customer, with lots of confidently incorrect information being floated about what a cashier can and can not do if they suspect or know they have fake currency, etc. That same misinformation may have been posted before the influx, but the post itself wouldn't have been as popular and the misinformation would have been easier to shoot down.

In a way it is kind of funny to see, because I never understood why the "historical/antique" currency fans had to have such disdain at times for the "serial number" fans(many of which are new collectors), so now we have something actually much worse.

anyways, before anybody mentions it I don't expect anybody to actually care about this post but here we are baby! gimme a Zang "ok" and the world'll be alright

https://www.reddit.com/r/papermoney/comments/15neaqt/anyone_know_what_this_is_worth/

nearly 9 thousand upvotes for this. two months ago it'd have 4 upvotes with at least one person laying out the truth that it is an altered novelty bill that is worth maybe one dollar more than face value.

that 2 bill is neat tho I want one

ConfusedTorchic posted...

that 2 bill is neat tho I want one

When I was a kid, a friend of mine used to exclusively buy his school lunch with $2 bills. At the time most of us had never even seen a $2 other than from him, and were kind of confused that it was real money at all.

In retrospect, now I just wonder where the hell his parents got so many $2 and why they were apparently trying to get rid of them all.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

When I was a kid, a friend of mine used to exclusively buy his school lunch with $2 bills. At the time most of us had never even seen a $2 other than from him, and were kind of confused that it was real money at all.

In retrospect, now I just wonder where the hell his parents got so many $2 and why they were apparently trying to get rid of them all.

My grandpa used to horde them thinking they were going to stop printing them and they would be worth a lot of money someday. Not sure what happened to them after he died, but someone probably just spent them after being told they were still only worth $2.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/7/8/AAQwHjAAEv-W.jpg
$1 Silver Certificates

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/7/9/AAQwHjAAEv-X.jpg
$2 United States Notes

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/0/AAQwHjAAEv-Y.jpg
$5 Silver Certificates

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/1/AAQwHjAAEv-Z.jpg
$20 Federal Reserve Note, Series 1934

I also have these notes:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/4/AAQwHjAAEv-c.jpg

The top one is apparently military scrip. Alliierte Militrbehrde was issued to Allied personnel stationed in occupied Germany.

captpackrat posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/1/AAQwHjAAEv-Z.jpg
$20 Federal Reserve Note, Series 1934

I did some checking, and $20 in 1934 would have been worth the equivalent of $460 in today's dollars. That was probably several days wages for somebody back then, and someone in my family (my great-great-grandmother, most likely) just set that bill aside and saved it for nearly 90 years.

Notes of that age and condition are worth about $100-150, so it's actually kind of a loss.

slacker03150 posted...

My grandpa used to horde them thinking they were going to stop printing them and they would be worth a lot of money someday. Not sure what happened to them after he died, but someone probably just spent them after being told they were still only worth $2.

It's possible, though I'm talking about the late 80s, and most of the money looked fairly crisp and new, so I don't think it was someone's hidden hoard or anything.

To be honest though, I'm not entirely sure why they still print them at all. You almost never see them in circulation and a lot of people at this point probably assume they're counterfeit due to lack of awareness that they exist at all, so it seems like a lot of hassle for something with minimal benefit.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

When I was a kid, a friend of mine used to exclusively buy his school lunch with $2 bills. At the time most of us had never even seen a $2 other than from him, and were kind of confused that it was real money at all.

In retrospect, now I just wonder where the hell his parents got so many $2 and why they were apparently trying to get rid of them all.

My great-grandma had a bunch. And every time I use to see her as a kid, she use to give me a $2 bill. I use to just put them in my piggy bank (made from one of those water cooler things) back home. I think its still at home. While I saved up a bunch, I never used my of it. I assume the $2 bills are still there

ParanoidObsessive posted...

It's possible, though I'm talking about the late 80s, and most of the money looked fairly crisp and new, so I don't think it was someone's hidden hoard or anything.

Honestly still sounds like my grandpa. He would go to the bank every paycheck and request iirc 20% of it in cash. He wasn't a coin or bill collector like tc. He just knew old quarters had silver in them and thought that certain denominations would end up collectable. So he had a big stockpile of $2 bills he kept crisp and in new condition, when those state quarters started he made sure all the grandkids got everyone you could get, had had a whole safe full of dollar and half dollar coins. After he died I think my aunt who works as an antique dealer went through his whole collection and found that they were basically all valued at face value.

You can get $2 bills from the bank if you want them.