Is Your $2 Bill Worth More Than You Ever Imagined?
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These days, paper currency just isn’t as popular as it used to be. More and more places are encouraging customers to pay with debit cards or other forms of electronic payment like Apple Pay. And an increasing number of special events have become entirely cashless, further removing any incentive someone might have to carry around physical bills
If you’re somebody who doesn’t use cash money all that often, there is one type of money you probably haven’t seen in a long, long time: the $2 bill. These bills are increasingly rare…so rare, in fact, that many mistakenly believe they are no longer being printed. In reality, the $2 bill is still very much alive, and certain versions are worth way more than a couple of bucks.
To understand why that is, you need to understand more about the weird history of this unusual bill and what makes certain bucks so valuable. Ready to cash in? Keep reading to discover everything you need to know!
The scariest currency ever made
Unless you’re looking at your bank account balance (it’s not just us, right?), you probably don’t think of money as being all that scary. However, the $2 bill has the unusual honor of being the scariest currency ever made. That’s not because of anything that is printed on it, though. Instead, it’s all about the strange superstitions that have always followed these bills.
The general superstition around these bills is that they are unlucky and that someone who receives one may, in fact, be jinxed. Historically, some people have gone so far as to tear up part of the $2 bills they receive as a way of warding off potential bad luck. Ironically, doing this reduces the number of bills circulating, making them even rarer to see and (to the very superstitious) even more of a surprising jinx once one shows up at the bank or in a clerk’s teller.
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Superstitions regarding the $2 bill go back over a century
You’re probably not surprised to hear about the superstitions regarding $2 bills. After all, these are the kinds of tall tales you grow up hearing around the same time people are sharing creepy tales of Bigfoot or alien abductions. However, what is likely to surprise you is the fact that superstitions regarding these bills are far older than Bigfoot and aliens and actually stretch back for over a century.
Don’t believe it? As far back as 1925, the New York Times was writing this kind of advice: “If you happen to be in a game of chance with a two-dollar bill in your wallet, you’d be perceived as attracting misfortune.” These days, the superstitions are still around, though fewer people take them very seriously. Nonetheless, this remains the most misunderstood bill for a number of surprising reasons.
How many $2 bills are still out there?
You don’t have to be an expert on the $2 bill to know that it’s relatively rare to get one. That leads to an obvious question: just how many of these bills are still floating around? Back in 2023, the Federal Reserve claimed that there were 1.6 billion $2 bills circulating, which may sound like a lot…at least, until you learn how many versions of the more common bills are still circulating.
For example, the Reserve confirmed at that time that there were 14.5 billion $1 bills and 11.2 billion $20 bills. Long story not very short, $2 bills really are still rare compared to their more common cousins. But there are still 1.6 billion bills circulating, and more are regularly being printed by the Federal Reserve as needed.
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The face of the $2 bill has changed over time
Who is on the face of the modern $2 bill? If you answered “Thomas Jefferson,” then give yourself a pat on the back (we can only assume you did well in your Government and Civics classes). To this day, this controversial president is the face of this unconventional form of currency. What most people don’t realize, though, is that he wasn’t the first famous face to grace this bill…instead, that honor belonged to one of Jefferson’s fiercest opponents.
The original face of the $2 bill was Alexander Hamilton, the man who founded the United States Treasury and later served as the titular star of a world-famous musical. He appeared on the bill when it first began circulating in 1862. Starting in 1869, the bill featured the now familiar face of Jefferson and originally even had his Monticello home on the back side before the design was changed to show the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The $2 bills secretly worth a small fortune
Now, for the big money question (quite literally): which $2 bills are worth a lot of money, and how can you tell if you have one of them? Should you have any pre-1869 bills featuring Alexander Hamilton’s face, those will obviously be valuable. And bills up to 1896 can be worth money; in fact, perfect-condition bills with blue, brown, or red seals could be worth $5,000, and even damaged versions could be worth $1,100.
Additionally, there were bills printed between 1917 and 1928 that have blue or red seals, and those can be worth anywhere from $50 to $1,000. Also, collectors will sometimes pay extra for bills whose serial numbers are special or unique in some way. For example, only one banknote out of 96 million has the serial number 12345678, making any bill ($2 or otherwise) with this number a very rare and very valuable find!