2 dollar bills?

The United States two dollar bill ($2) is a current denomination of U.S. currency. Former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson is featured on the obverse of the note. The painting The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull is featured on the reverse. The design on the obverse (excluding the elements of a Federal Reserve Note) is the oldest of all current U.S. currency having been adopted in 1929; the reverse is the second oldest design having been adopted in 1976.

In spite of its relatively low value, the two dollar bill is one of the most rarely-seen denominations of U.S. currency. This is mainly due to the low production of the note; approximately 1% of all notes currently produced are $2 bills. This low production has led to an overall lack of public knowledge of the $2 bill and has also inspired urban legends about it. There are also folk beliefs centering on the $2 bill.

Throughout the $2 bill's Pre-1928 life as a large-sized note, it was issued as a United States Note, Silver Certificate, Treasury or 'Coin' Note, and a Federal Reserve Bank Note. When U.S. currency was changed to its current size, the $2 bill was issued only as a United States Note. After United States Notes were discontinued, the $2 bill later began to be issued as a Federal Reserve Note.

The perceived rarity of a $2 bill can be attributed to its low printing numbers that sharply dropped beginning in the late 1950s when the $2 bill was a United States Note and recently the sporadic printings of still relatively low numbers as a Federal Reserve Note. Lack of public knowledge of the $2 bill further contributes to its perceived rarity. This perceived rarity can lead to a greater tendency to hoard any $2 bills encountered and thus decrease their circulation.

After United States currency was changed to its current size, the two dollar bill, unlike other denominations, was only assigned to one class of currency, the United States Note. United States Notes had a legal statutory limit of $346,861,016 that could be in circulation at any one time which was not a significant amount of money at the time. The bulk of this amount was assigned to the $5 United States Note. From 1929-1957 (from Series of 1928 to Series 1953), the $2 bill on average was printed in quantities of 50 million notes per series with only several variances to this number. From 1957 onwards, $2 bill production figures steadily decreased from 18 million notes in Series 1953A to just 3.2 millions notes in its final printing, Series 1963A, which ended in 1966. By contrast, an average of 125 million per series of $5 United States Notes were printed from 1929-1957; the final Series 1963 printing of the $5 United States Note included 67.2 million notes.

When the current note was first issued in 1976, it was met with general curiosity, and was seen as a collectible, not as a piece of regularly circulating currency, which the Treasury intended it to be. The main reason it failed to circulate was that businesses never really requested them as part of their normal operations to give back out in change. This failure is linked to the gradual disappearance of the former $2 United States Notes.

Supplies of the Series 1976 $2 bill were allowed to dwindle until August 1996 when another series finally began to be printed; this series, however, was only printed for one Federal Reserve Bank. Once again, in October 2003, the $2 bill was printed initially for only one Federal Reserve Bank after supplies dwindled. A Series 2003A was also issued starting in 2006, with larger numbers & for multiple Federal Reserve Banks, due to an increase in demand for supplies of the note.

Nowadays, there is a common misconception that the $2 bill is no longer in circulation. According to the Treasury, they "receive many letters asking why the $2 bill is no longer in circulation." [1]. In response, the Treasury states: "The $2 bill remains one of our circulating currency denominations. According to B.E.P. statistics, 590,720,000 Series 1976 $2 bills were printed and as of February 28, 1999, there was $1,166,091,458 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide." However, 'in circulation' does not necessarily mean that the notes are actively circulated, only that this is the amount that hasn't been redeemed for shredding. The Treasury states that the best way for the $2 bill to circulate is if businesses use them as they would any other denomination.

The most significant evidence of the $2 bill's reawakening would be that, in 2005 alone, 61 million $2 bills were printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This is more than twice the number of $2 bills that were printed between 1990 and 2001.